The Reluctant Dragon
Subtitle: Crisis Cycles in Chinese Foreign Economic Policy (Studies of the East Asian Institute)
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Published: June 2002
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 368
ISBN-13: 9780295981215
Subjects: Central government policies; International economics; International relations; 20th century; Political Science; Business / Economics / Finance; Politics/International Relations; China; International - Economics; Public Policy - Economic Policy; 1976-; Business cycles; Economic policy; Foreign economic relations
Description: "The story of China's on-again, off-again trade efforts provides an important window on the cyclical struggle for power between Mao Zedong's ideologically driven allies and more pragmatic leaders such as Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping, whose approach eventually prevailed.

Reardon relies on primary sources, including Chinese Communist Party histories and other restricted-circulation materials that have recently come to light, to show that China's apparently sudden turn outward in 1978 was actually an extension of previous experiments hobbled by bureaucratic infighting and conflict among rival elites. He describes in unprecedented detail the seemingly contradictory strategies used by Mao and other leaders to assert China's absolute self-sufficiency while also striving to modernize the economy and achieve maximum prosperity as rapidly as possible.

These latter goals required engagement with global economic forces - even capitalist nations - but were necessary to enhance national security in a hostile geopolitical environment and to assure continued domestic stability."--BOOK JACKET.