Book Review: Far East: Policies toward China
| Date | 01 September 1966 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206602100334 |
| Published date | 01 September 1966 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BOOK
REVIEWS
397
some
diligent
student
to
make
its history
vocal.
Mr.
Wickberg
has
reconstructed
a society of
considerable
plausibility
in
portraying
the
overseas
Chinese
as
almost
perversely
self-sufficient,
resistant
to
social
and
religious ingestion
even if some
integration
accedes
through
mixed
marriages,
mercenary-the
domination
of
the
local
economy
being
the
natural corollary-arid
finally,
as
a
man
of
divided
allegiance,
align-
ing
himself
to
his
adopted
country
only
where
it
serves
his
material
interests,
and always
seeking
the
long-term
protection
of
the
country
of his
origin.
In
his
multifarious
manifestation,
the
Fukienese
settler
who
went
to
the
Philippines was
essentially
the
same
social
creature
as
the
one
who
went to
Penang,
Singapore,
and
Burma.
This
study
is
a
contribution
invaluable
to the
knowledge
of
the
overseas
Chinese
in
general,
and
in
particular,
to
the
Fukienese
who
settled
in
the
Philippines
in
the
second
half
of
the
nineteenth
century
University
of
Hong
Kong
W
E.
CHEONG
PoLIcIEs
TOWARD
CHINA.
Views
from
Six
Continents.
Edited
by
A.
M.
Halpern.
1965.
(New
York:
Toronto:
McGraw
Hill.
xiv
528pp.
$11.75)
When
China
exploded
its
first
atomic
bomb
on
October
16,
1964,
the
foolishness
of
U.S.
policy
toward
the
Peking
r~gime
at
long
last
became
apparent
to
all.
Even
those in
the
West
who
had
that
oversimplified
view
of
China
as
a
nation
enslaved
by
a
handful
of
evil
Communist
tyrants
realized
that
here
was
a
power
that
demanded recognition.
Policies Toward
China
is
an
invaluable
guidebook
to
the
constantly
changing
global
attitudes
toward
the
only
nuclear
power
that
is
having
great
difficulty
gaining
entry
to
global
councils.
In
the
section
on
France
and
China,
Premier
Georges
Pompidou
predicted,
a
few
weeks
after
the
original
Chinese
nuclear
test,
that
soon
even
the
United
States
would
not
be
able
to
deny
Peking
recognition. But
perhaps
he
was
premature,
for
relations
between
the
United
States
and
China
now
depend
largely
on
the
situation
in
Vietnam.
For
France,
the
problem
was
much
easier.
Having
extricated
them-
selves-in
a most
inglorious
fashion,
incidentally-from
their
colonial
involvements
in
Indo-china
in
1954,
the
French
finally
recognized China
more
than
two
and
a
half
years
ago.
And
they
did so
despite
murmur-
ing
in
the
former
French
colonies
in
Africa
that
the
Chinese
were
seek-
ing
to
subvert
the
young
governments
on
the
continent.
French-speaking
leaders
in
Africa
have
accused
the
Chinese
of
training
Negro
guerrillas
in
civil
warfare
and
assassination
techmques.
Chinese
penetration
in
Africa
is
not
to
the
taste
of
the
French
government.
But
President
Charles
de
Gaulle
no
doubt contends
that
it
is
wiser
to
understand
and
come
to
grips
with
an
ideological
adversary
at
close
quarters
than
to
give
him
the
opportunity
to
make
mischief
as
a
shunned political
outcast
living behind
artificial
barriers.
For
this
is
how
the
American
community-with
the
exception
of
Cuba-is
treating
China.
In
direct
contrast,
for
example,
is
Burmese
policy
toward
China.
The Burmese
are pragmatists.
They
have
come
to
terms
with the
fact
of
China.
General
Ne
Win
and
his
predecessors have assumed
that
the
easiest way to
prevent
Chinese
military
intervention
in
their
land
is
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