China's Foreign Aid. by John Franklin Copper; China's African Revolution.

by Alan
Hutchinson
Review by: Roy F. Grow
The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 37, No. 1 (Nov., 1977), pp. 130-131
Published by: Association for Asian Studies
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130 JOURNAL OF ASIAN STUDIES

(I findthelast-listeddifficult to accept).Bloom's frameworks,strategies,and rationale behind

great leap in speculating about the pre- China's foreign-aidprograms,withthe hope of
dominanceof "low social principledness"in the sheddingmore lighton the foreignpolicypro-
PRC seems specious, given his argumentthat cess itself.
conflictin whichvalues are centralleads to high The logic of this foreign-aidprogram,states
social principledness.Indeed, one could argue John Copper in China's ForeignAid, derives
thatthedisaffection of educatedyouthsafterthe equally fromthe historicalprecedentof the old
GPCR mightbe explained in termsof moral tributemissions,certain"Maoist" perspectives
conflictbetweeninternaljudgmentand external concerningthenatureof theinternational arena,
norms. and the necessityto use the tools at hand in or-
As a whole,thisbook representsan endeavor der to influencea potentiallybelligerentworld
that falls short of expectations.The editors order.Subventionsto foreigngovernmentsand
promiseus a book thatwill offersome exciting radical political groups have become-some-
theoreticalpropositionslinked to substantively what surprisingly, given the slender economic
rich essays. The shortage of space here pre- base that must support such strategies-in-
cludes mydiscussingall thearticles.Most of the strumentsfor meetingthese general needs. In
bettercontributions (e.g., Munro's) fituneasily spite of the economic constraints,the aid pro-
intothe theoreticalframework of thebook; oth- gramshave become an importanttool in China's
ers, tryingto conformto the framework, seem international repertoire.Copper has outlineda
shallow.In short,the book seems a hastilypre- hierarchyof more specificgoals thatthese poli-
pared appetizerwithoutprospectof an edifying cies have attemptedto influence;these include
meal. the maintenanceof secure borderareas,the de-
velopmentof traderelationsto further econom-
DAVID M. RADDOCK
ic growth,and attemptsto change patternsof
University ofTexasat Dallas
internationalrecognition.To the degree that
foreignaid and tradecan affectthesegoals,Cop-
per concludes,theyhave become Chinesediplo-
China's Foreign Aid. BY JOHN FRANKLIN
macy tools more importantthan,say, military
COPPER. Lexington,Mass.: D. C. Heath,
capability,geographicposition, or ideological
I976. xiii, I97 pp. Bibliography,Index.
consistency.
$I7.50
Copper describesa numberof categoriesin
Chinese foreign assistance-including direct
China's AfricanRevolution. BY ALAN HUTCH-
subventions,loans, militaryassistance,cultural
INSON. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press,
cooperation,membershipin politicalorganiza-
I976. xiii, 3I3 pp. Bibliography,Index.
tions,and the like. The bulk of the textis de-
$ I 4.9 5
voted to an historicaloverviewof China's for-
The studyof China's foreignpolicy remains eign aid to Communist-blocnations,non-Com-
relativelyundeveloped. Althoughthe ground- munistAsian states,Middle Easternareas, and
workforthisfieldwas well laid bysuchpioneers Africancountries.The analysisproceeds coun-
as Allen Whitingand Tang Tsou, the "nextgen- tryby country,listingthe aid received in each
eration"of scholarshiphas yetto matchthe rig- of the variouscategories,and outliningthe ma-
or and energythat characterizesthe study of jor projects that have been developed in the
China's domestic politics. There are signs of host societyas a result.
change,however.A numberof younganalysts As valuableas thehistoricalnarrative and data
have enrichedthe fieldconsiderablyduringthe mightbe for studentsof foreignpolicy, Cop-
past several years, and researchhas begun to per's book has some serious shortcomings.
move beyondsimpledescriptiveefforts. Recent There is littleattemptto integratethe observ-
studies of China's foreignpolicy have focused able characteristics of the foreign-aidprograms
on more specifictopics-e.g., the role of bud- he describeswiththeprocessesof foreignpolicy
getaryprocesses and resource allocation,con- developmentand implementation. Throughout
flictwithinthe foreignministry, economic and this book there is an implicitassumptionthat
militaryactivity, and even interestgroup analy- Chinese foreignpolicyhas been chartedalmost
ses. The two books under review fitinto this exclusivelyby Mao Tse-tung(or his writings),
more topicalmold and attemptanalysesof the and thereis littlefeel forthe tensionsand con-

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BOOK REVIEWS 131

flictsthat have made foreignpolicy a political portantbeing the relevanceof China's growing
process. Copper does attemptseveral specula- competitionwith the Soviet Union to the pat-
tiveobservationsin his conclusion,focusingpri- ternof Chinese contactswiththe Africanstates.
marilyon Sino-Soviet competition,the devel- He describesthe mannerin whichspecificChi-
opment of a Chinese Communistworld view, nese policies changed as this competitionbe-
and the effectsof economicgrowthon the pat- came more acute, finallyculminatingin such
ternof foreignaid. But giventhe relativelyfew wrenchingeventsas the overthrowof Nkrumah
pages devoted to these observations,the book (whilehe was on a visitto Peking)and the sud-
remainsessentiallya compilationof dates and den Chinese recognitionof the importanceof
figures. the I968 Czechoslovakiancrisis.
Alan Hutchinson'sChina's AfricanRevolution Similarly,Hutchinsonattemptsto relate the
presentsa more complex and subtleanalysisof role of China'sinternalpoliticsto patternsof in-
the same topic.Directinghis attentionsolelyto ternationalactivity;he points to the growing
therelationshipsbetweenthePeople's Republic dialogue on a number of domestic issues in
ofChinaand theemergingAfricanstates,Hutch- China during the mid-I95os, the heated dis-
insonhas produceda studythatis bothinterest- cussions over Khrushcheviandetente,and the
ing and innovative.The book is perhapsmore consequencesfortheforeignpolicyarenaof the
remarkablesince it is the firsteffortof a man upheavals of the Cultural Revolution period.
who had previouslyworked only as a journal- His mostimportant observationin thisregardis
ist for a numberof Africannewspapers;while thatcertaincategoriesof Chinese aid and trade
thebook suffers froma journalistictendencyto- directed toward Africa were perhaps not so
wardglib observationand overgeneralization, it much a functionof Africandemands as they
is nonethelessa seminal work on the subject. were the result of China's domestic needs.
The study has special value to students of While this point is not fullydemonstrated,it
China's foreignpolicy not only because it pro- nonethelesssuggestsimportantinsightsintothe
vides data concerningthe relationshipbetween relationshipbetweendomesticand international
China and Africa,but also because it is written politics.
froman Africanist'spoint of view. As such, it There are a number of problems with this
presentsa provocativeaccountof the impacton book. The researchwas drawnprimarilyfrom
domesticAfricansituationsof Chinese aid and Africansources,and severalchapterscryout for
tradepolicies. the inclusion of comparable Chinese docu-
Hutchinson divides his account into two ments.In severalinstances,thereis a tendency
broad sections. Part One offersa generally to be loose withdates in orderto demonstratea
chronologicalnarrativeof Chinese aid policies point,suchas therecordingof the"deathof Sta-
towardAfricangovernmentsand radicalpoliti- lin in I954." But suchshortcomings seem minor
cal movements fromthe earlyI950S through when compared with the book's contribution.
the mid-I97os. He moves rapidlyfroma dis- For those interestedin China's policies toward
cussionof the firstChinese contacts(whichoc- Africa,and theimpactof thesepolicieson polit-
curred in the face of growing African dis- ical movementsin targetsocieties,Hutchinson's
illusionmentwith Soviet-stylepolitical move- book is an importantadditionto the field.The
ments),to such eventsas Chou En-lai'sfamous subtleargumentitpresentsmakesit muchmore
tourand the sometimesdisruptivepolicies that thana simplejournalisticaccount.
followed.In a sense, PartTwo retellsthe same RoY F. GROW
story,but froma more topicalpointof view. In BrandeisUniversity
this section, Hutchinson analyzes the con-
sequences for Africanpolitical movementsof
Leadership and Values: The Organization of
Chinesepersonalstyles,of theimpactof specific
Large-Scale Taiwanese Enterprises. BY
typesof aid and advice,and of the ties thathave
ROBERT H. SILIN. Cambridge: Harvatd
developed between China and various African
UniversityPress, I976. XVii, 226 pp. Ap-
liberationmovements;thereis a chapterthatfo-
pendixes, Bibliography,Glossary, Index.
cuses exclusivelyon the special relationship
$I5.00
withTanzania.
Hutchinson weaves several broad themes Anthropologicalresearchhas traditionally fo-
throughbothsectionsof the book, themostim- cused on fieldstudies of small,preliteratecul-

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