Book Review: Communist China 1955–1959
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206301800119 |
| Published date | 01 March 1963 |
| Author | Frederick Nossal |
| Date | 01 March 1963 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
106
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
The
book,
then,
is
a
human
document,
a
piece
of
honest
observation
written
carefully
and
at
times
movingly.
Nossal
is
a
journalist
trained
to
see
and
to
report
what
lies in
full
view.
He
is
not
one
of
your
new
breed of
experts
who
deal
in
deterrents,
first
strikes
and
preemptive
warfare
with the
steely
composure
of
a
computation machine.
So
far
as
he
has
a
political
message
it
is
a
simple
and,
I
think,
a
sound
one.
Look
upon
China,
he
says,
as
one
of
the
poor
nations
of
the
world
that
dearly
need
our
help.
Try
continuously
and
magnanimously
to
break
down
the
isolation
that
now
separates
her
from
the
outside world
and
that
poisons
the
well
springs
of
her
national
life.
University
of
Toronto
CLAUDE
BISSELL
COMMUNIST
CINMA
1955-1959.
Policy
Documents
with
Analysis.
With
a
foreword
by
Robert
R.
Bowie
and
John
K.
Fairbank.
(Cambridge.
Harvard
University Press.
Toronto:
S.
J.
Reginald
Saunders.
xi,
609pp.
$12.00)
For
the
student
of
Chinese
Communist
affairs
there
can
be
nothing
more
valuable
than
this
official
summary
of
Peking's
fortunes
compiled
at
Harvard
University.
It
is
one
of
the
myths
of
modern
times
that
news
from
Communist China
is
unavailable.
Quite
to
the contrary,
it
is
all
there
if
one
takes
the
trouble
to
dig
through
the
reams
of
propaganda
published
in Peking.
Most
Communist
propaganda
is
worthless,
meaningless
nonsense.
But every
so
often
a
valuable
and
highly
illuminating
document
is
put out
by
Peking,
and
the
most
fascinating
of
these have
been
gathered
by
Harvard
University
under
the
Joint
Auspices
of
the
Center
of
International
Affairs
and
the
East
Asian
Research
Center.
In
their
foreword,
Robert
R.
Bowie,
director
of
the
International
Affairs
Center,
and
John
K.
Fairbank,
director
of
the
East
Asian
Re-
search Center,
explain
that
their
purpose
was
to
present
a
documented
and
interpretive
record
of
Chinese
domestic
policy
during
the
period
from
1955
to
1959.
It
is
a
pity
that
the
editor-author,
a
visiting
Fellow
of
the
Center
for
international
Affairs
at
Harvard,
must
remain
un-
named
"for
various
and
necessary
reasons," according to
the
foreword.
Forty-eight
documents
have
been
selected,
covering
a
time
of
intense
revolutionary
change
in
China.
Apart
from
a
somewhat
comical touch
at
the
beginning
of
the
thick
volume-assuring
the
reader
that
neither
the
Rockefeller
nor
the Ford
foundations
which aided
publication
of
the
book
approved
"any
of
the statements
made
or
views
expressed"-
this
is
one of
the
most
serious
and worthwhile
efforts to
explain
Com-
munist
China
to the
general
student
of
international
affairs.
It
is
to
be
hoped
that
similar
works
on
Chinese
Communist documents
will
be
published
by
Harvard
University
for
the
period
from
1960
onward.
The documents
cover
a
great
variety
of
subjects,
from
the
initial
at-
tempt
to
introduce
birth
control
by
the
Chinese
Communist
Party
in
1957
to
the
shocking
revelations
of
1959
when
Peking admitted
that
its
statis-
tical
work had failed
utterly
to
give
a
true
picture
of
production, both
on
the land
and
in
the
factories.
Document
41,
for
example,
is
the
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