Kissinger: On China

I have recently completed the book that I have been reading for the last couple months: Henry Kissinger's book On China. Of all of the books that I have read on China and Chinese politics, this one is probably one of the best and certainly unique. The book starts with a couple chapters framing the history of Chinese politics and political culture through the imperial times and into the 20th century. This part is not to bad, but it was nothing that I did not already know... The most interesting contribution Kissinger gives in this section is comparing Chinese strategy in foreign policy to the game of Wei Qi... (I think we call the game go-- it is similar to Risk and involves encirclement of the enemy and massive strategy) He continues this metaphor throughout the remainder of the book and uses it to explain Chinese reaction to such things as American involvement in Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam...
The best parts of the book are when Kissinger quotes the various leaders and characters from both sides of the US-China dialogues that he has been directly involved in over the past several decades... This is where I learned a lot and where I will be drawing much of my information if I use this information in forthcoming papers...
The chapter Tienanmen, is my favorite chapter in the book... I have read extensively about the build-up to and the actual events in the Spring and early Summer of 1989... (If you are interested, but do not want to spend a lot of time, Check out the PBS Frontline documentary: Tank Man) Instead, Kissinger goes into detail about the problems and debates within the US about how to handle the issue... Here he explains how the first Bush Administration had to walk the thin line between Realism and Idealism... On the one hand, he (Bush) knew that a harsh reaction would not be beneficial to either China or America in the medium to long term, but he was forced by an angry public to do something....
Above all. this book gives an excellent portrayal of Sino-American relations since the 1970's... this 550 page work helped me to better understand this complex relationship between our two countries... Furthermore, it served to solidify my passion for this field and inspire more active research (I am in the beginning stages of 2 major essays that I will be working on throughout the year and eventually attempt to get published upon returning to the states)