RUSSIA IN CHINA
Conant, Melvin A. Jr.
Russia in China CHINA AND THE SOVIET UNION, by Aitchen K. Wu. John Day. 434 pp. $6. Reviewed by Melvin A. Concint, Jr. IN THIS book, Dr. Aitchen K. Wu, for many years a Kuomintang official,...
...In view of Dr...
...Wu regards Sino-Russian relations as basically amicable through the years, citing the absence of a formal war as indicative of this...
...Wu's book is useful insofar as it presents a concise outline of Russo-Chinese relations...
...On almost every occasion, it has been Russia impinging on China's interests, or Russia assisting China against some other power, for Russian purposes...
...He has not minimized the problems which have risen over Mongolia and Sinkiang, but he has treated those problems almost entirely as "private" affairs, rarely in a total, world diplomatic setting...
...The absence of war may mean no basic clash of interests—but it may also mean that the clash of interests has not been serious enough to warrant war—or what may be most important, that the Russians have achieved their goals without having to resort to war...
...Wu chose to write a traditional diplomatic summary of Sino-Russian relations, consisting mainly of a recital of treaties and negotiations, with little significant interpretation...
...Wu's long association with the Chinese Government, specializing in foreign relations, his study could have been more valuable...
...This is unfortunate, for such a summary has long been available elsewhere, and what might have been a unique contribution to international studies, based on his experiences, remains a work of limited value...
...That Russian efforts often seemed to help China out of a difficulty should not obscure the reasons why Russia acted as she did...
...The "defensive" nature of Chinese relations with Russia is a key aspect of recent history and one which is not pointed out by Dr...
...Wu does not intentionally extract it from the evidence he presents...
...Wu's theme that the absence of war in the past is not only indicative of the character of past relations but indicative of the nature of future ones may be valid, but in the absence of any full treatment of this point, a reader is excused from accepting his view...
...But a reader must look elsewhere for a cold interpretive history of those relations which will provide him with a more useful base for considering the future...
...While this point emerges by itself from his chronological history, Dr...
...Aitchen K. Wu, for many years a Kuomintang official, presents a history of Sino-Russian and Sino-Soviet relations from earliest times to the present...
...Had he done so, his analysis of Russia and China would have been less sentimental...
...In view of the wide international activities of the Russian empire, and now the Soviet one, an attempt to treat relations between China and Russia as occurring almost in a vacuum is unrealistic and may well lead to false interpretations of the degree to which those relations have been amicable...
Vol. 15 • February 1951 • No. 2
