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About Face: A History of America's Curious Relationship with China, from Nixon to Clinton

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I spend a large percentage of my time reading about and studying China, but I rarely find a book that captivates me like this one did. James Mann is very knowledgeable and insightful about U.S. - China relations. Since he used information newly available (at the time of the book's publication, in 1998) under the Freedom of Information act, his detailed research goes well beyond what you will find in the news and most books.

The best part about this book, however, is simply how well written it is. It is completely scholarly, yet it reads like a story. It's rare that I say this about a nonfiction book, but I couldn't put "About Face" down.

this worthy book, all the more fetching to me as a sinologist and former resident of beijing, reflects the very problem it identifies: that china has managed to exempt itself from consistent scrutiny by the united states in the promise of delivering a profitable and strategic relationship. although much of the world was apparently ignorant of the cultural revolution's carnage as it went on (1966-76), henry kissinger's comments about its irrelevance to the 'realpolitik' of diplomacy are chilling. in a world that is still sorting out who knew what and when about hitler's death camps and still shudders at his photographs with prominent personalities, the real shock for me is simply accepting america's historic breakthrough with china without being shocked by the image of president nixon in the company of chairman mao. it was not until the international media found itself deep in the wound of the tian-an men massacre that the doubting thomases were convinced of china's dark capabilities. in this book and through no fault of its own, china is a scrim, lacking the same depth of narrative which is offered on the american stage. i would hope that either mr. mann, a keen observer, indeed, or another, undertakes an exercise which relates diplomatic masque to the folks on the ground in china. i hate to dwell on the past; but, that's what history is all about.

The United States relationship with Communist China has been an exceedingly curious thing over the years. From the time of the Chinese Communist revolution when the Nationalist Chinese were driven from the mainland to modern day Taiwan until Richard Nixon's visit in the early 70's we refused to recognize them as a country. We ignored the vast bulk of the country and recognized only the Nationalists in Taiwan as the legitimate Chinese government because although the Nationalists were not democratic they at least were not communist.

Not only did we not recognize them we fought them in Korea and it is thought that we killed over 1,000,000 of their soldiers. The fighting there was so bitter that it appeared at times our own troops might be completely wiped out and killing of the wounded and prisoners was taking place on both sides at times. Then in Vietnam the Chinese backed the Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge elements as well as the Laotian communist insurgents. In short they were on the other side in conflicts that killed over 80,000 of our soldiers and in which we killed millions of communist soldiers, civilians, etc. They were one of the great powers involved in causing the conflicts because it was the communists who invaded in both conflicts not the other way around. In the 1960's the Chinese hordes were seen as a great threat to western civilization it was they after all who drove McArther back to the demarcation line in Korea (suffering staggering losses including the son of chairman Mao). They were second only to the Soviet Union on the list of threats to the U.S. and this was only exacerbated when they exploded their first nuclear weapon.

Isn't it strange that although the government today is the same government that existed back then only with different faces and that we are now such good allies when in some respects little has changed? Why this sudden about face with a country that had been our enemy prior to the Nixon mission and who has failed to change significantly from what they were before. For all the economic reforms taking place in today's China the government more closely resembles Fascism than Communism and neither of them are particularly compatible with western democracy. Why do we cut them so much slack and why he change? That's what the book is about.

Consecutive administrations since the Nixon mission reestablished relations with the mainland have consistently sought to curry favor with the communist administration in Beijing. Initially it made sense in the respect that it drove a wedge of sorts between the "communist giants" and weakened their united front. With the decline of the Soviets and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the subsequent disintegration of the USSR that followed that rationale no longer held up. Yet to this very day we continue to treat our relationship with Communist China as a "special friend" situation politically.

We do this despite the fact that they have been directly implicated in practicing espionage against our military industrial complex, computer industry, and nuclear development agencies (in the 1990's). We do this despite the fact that they are thought to be spending $80 billion annually on armaments when they claim $20 billion and the major expressed military objective is to counter the hegemony of the US. We do this despite a steady track record of doing and saying very unfriendly things most recently the incident with the ramming of our spy plane and then holding our personnel for a period of time. We do this despite the fact that our concepts of human rights are directly opposed to one another and incompatible (we believe in the rights of human beings to choose their own destiny, political and religious freedoms etc. Their definition of human rights and freedom is quite literally free housing, medical, etc all provided and controlled by the government). China is one of the countries systematically undermining the western concept of the value of human life because they consider human being expendable and always have (hence the human waves sent against our overwhelming firepower in Korea that still knocked us back at a terrible price).

The book looks at these questions and is somewhat critical of U.S. policy to some extent because we have helped a potentially hostile country survive with a repressive military regime in place that is not reluctant about slaughtering it's own citizenry in their hundreds if not thousands (Tianamen Square). Saving face in Asia is more important element than it is in west but are we being disingenuous in taking the insults and transgressions of the Chinese Communist government lightly and will it come back to haunt us later in the century?

In short there are disturbing aspects to the relationship and to some extent it appears we are in bed with the devil on this one at this time.

I have no idea why I bought this book, not being a scholar of U.S. - China relations, but I found it interesting. However, I probably missed a lot not being an expert. What I found interesting, as a layman, was the degree to which one side tries to trump the other, as in a finely nuanced chess game. I found the book well-written and compelling as it described the relationship from the Nixon initiative up through the Clinton administration. It gives me a better foundation to understand the unique relationship between the two countries. I would imagine scholars will find it even more valuable.

This is highly detailed and well written book covering the intricacy of U.S. policy towards China.

If you want to know what is wrong with American policy towards China, there is no better place to start than James Mann's superb "About Face: A History of America's Curious Relationship with China, From Nixon to Clinton."

As a skilled journalist, Mann writes clearly and to the point. But this book is more than a journalistic tour de force. Mann has been following the China story since he was posted by the Los Angeles Times to Beijing in 1984 and his experience has produced a depth of knowledge unmatched by any academic China watcher I have read. That knowledge not only shines through in the main text but it is testified to in a notes section full of sources and corroborating detail.

What I particularly like about this book is its uncommon commonsense. Mann refuses to be swept off his feet by the "romance of China" -- a romance that repeatedly over the last century has discombobulated the thinking of American policy-makers, business executive, scholars and journalists. Stolidly eyeing the authoritarian reality behind all the fine words and sumptuous banquets that Beijing bestows on influential visitors, Mann constantly reminds us how sorry has been China's record on human rights in recent decades -- and how cravenly Washington has sought to sweep that record under the carpet.

This book is important too for its worldly wisdom in repeatedly showing the ease with which the Chinese system can manipulate America's money-driven and short-sighted political system. None of this is particularly surprising to those of us who have been watching U.S.-Japan relations in recent decades -- but it is rare for China experts (and still rarer for Japan experts) to highlight how the East runs rings around our Western democratic institutions.

Essentially this book is characterized throughout by a show-me attitude to the American intellectual community's vapid determinism on East Asia. As Mann repeatedly points out, China is far from being "bound" to converge towards Western values. Quite the reverse, thanks to the comprehensive mismanagement of American trade policy in the last fifteen years, China is now in a stronger position than ever to flaunt its rejection of those values.

First published in 1998, this book has already been around for a while. Don't be put off. "About Face" has no sell-by date. It is a modern classic.

-- Eamonn Fingleton, author of "In Praise of Hard Industries: Why Manufacturing, Not the Information Economy, Is the Key to Future Prosperity ."

About Face puts into perspective much of what I have experienced first-hand living in Taiwan and China for the past 20 years. Although no administration comes out with its reputation intact, clearly China, not afraid to use brinkmanship, has been more effective in bending US policy to its advantage. Mr. Mann's objective reporting show that China has come to understand the workings of America's political system, while the US remains ineffective in dealing with China's rulers who continue to mock American ideals of human rights and democracy while at the same time convincing the US to assist in modernizing its armed forces and investing billions of dollars in its economy. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to make sense out of US-China relations since Henry Kissinger or concerned about the developing US-China relations. This book will give a better foundation for understanding upcoming WTO and Taiwan arms sales issues, as well as China's bid to host the 2008 Summer Olympics.

James H. Mann is perhaps the only author can who can put Dr. Henry Kissinger on a defensive line when he discusses about the U.S. relationship with China from Nixon to Clinton. A must read book in order to understand about the current crisis between the U.S. and China today.

Very informative. Makes you wish it was a novel, and not the way our government has handled the relations with China all these years. This is a must read for anyone interested in geo-political events. Easy to read, scary to think about. Gives insight into the mess we find ourselves in now, Aug 99, with China.

Mann's book looks at the key players in US China policy, especially the motives behind their efforts to implement their strategic visions. Many of them come off looking pretty self-serving, with many deeply involoved in formulating their own China policy regardless of what their presidents or the country wanted.

The structure of the book focuses on the back and forth, love and hate, approach to China that has characterized US policy for 20 years. Behind this contradiction lies competing visions of where China is going, which Mann describes well.