Book Review: China’s Asymmetric Statecraft: Alignments, Competitors, and Regional Diplomacy
| Published date | 01 March 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/00207020231180113 |
| Author | Brantly Womack |
| Date | 01 March 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
Book Reviews
Yuxing Huang,
China’s Asymmetric Statecraft: Alignments, Competitors, and Regional Diplomacy.
Vancouver: UBC Press, 2023. 274 pp. USD 83.00 (cloth)
ISBN: 978-0-7748-6811-2
Reviewed by: Brantly Womack, (brantly@gmail.com), University of Virginia, Charlottesville,
Virginia, USA
DOI: 10.1177/00207020231180113
Situated amidst a complex international neighborhood, China’s regional relationships are
asymmetric, notwithstanding the country’s relations with the Soviet Union and with Japan
before 1945. International Relations theories, with their concentration on the statecraft of
Western great powers, historically have paid little attention to such dynamics. However,
based on exhaustive research in various national archives, Yuxing Huang analyzes and
explains China’s regional statecraft in three important arenas of the Cold War era.
Huang argues that China’s regional statecraft depends on the nature and number of
its global competitors. Facing one competitor, China’s regional politics are more
uniform, while with multiple competitors, China is more diverse and selective in its
relationships. Uniformity has the advantage of consistency when facing a single oppo-
nent, while using selective policies can target the interstices of multiple rivals. His
cases—East Asia (1955–1965), South Asia (1955–1963), and Indochina (1962–
1975)—include examples of China’s diplomacy toward both aligned and non-aligned
neighbors, comprising both uniform and selective policies of accommodation, coer-
cion, and status quo maintenance. Huang demonstrates a broad command of
Western and Chinese IR theory and scholarship, and an even more impressive depth
of research into Chinese and Western diplomatic archives.
Huang’s analysis of China’s East Asian diplomacy concentrates on Taiwan and
Japan. He argues that from 1955 to 1958, China pursued a uniform strategy of accom-
modation. For example, in May 1956, Zhou Enlai proposed that Chiang Kai-shek
could keep his armed forces if he agreed to unification.
1
However, with the
1. Yuxing Huang, China’s Asymmetric Statecraft: Alignments, Competitors, and Regional Diplomacy
(Vancouver: UBC Press, 2023), 65.
International Journal
2023, Vol. 78(1-2) 280–289
© The Author(s) 2023
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