Foreign Historiography of China’s Foreign Policy

Abstract

The foreign historiography of China's foreign policy is dominated by the works of American scholars. This situation did not develop immediately and can be explained by several reasons. First, the defeat of Chiang Kai-shek and the victory of the Chinese Communists were perceived by the US authorities as a “loss of China”. Responsibility for it was not least assigned to American sinologists, who often provided consulting services to the Kuomintang. In addition, Americans, including officials and scholars, had no direct contacts with Chinese citizens until the early 1970s.The first such contacts appeared in 1971–1972, including among some journalists (in the context of R. Nixon's visit to China in February 1972) and a small number of China’s scholars (for example, John Fairbank in 1972, received by Zhou Enlai). After the establishment of diplomatic relations between the United States and the People's Republic of China on January 1, 1979, American sinologists received full access to the country of study, and the quantity and quality of sinological works began to grow exponentially. The article examines the main works by the most famous experts on the foreign policy of the PRC. It can be stated that before the presidency of Donald Trump, the United States had a predominantly positive attitude towards China and its foreign policy, and only later did the point of view about the growing contradictions between Beijing and Washington prevail.

Keywords

• china
• foreign policy
• world studies
• american scientists