America's Response to China
Book

America's Response to China

A History of Sino-American Relations

Warren I. Cohen
Columbia UP, 2000
Buy book or audiobook

Read or listen offline

Amazon Kindle
áudio gerado automaticamente
  • 0.5×
  • 0.75×
  • 1×
  • 1.25×
  • 1.5×
  • 1.75×
1×
áudio gerado automaticamente

Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • For Beginners
  • Eloquent

Recommendation

Foreign relations historian Warren I. Cohen does a masterly job of condensing more than 200 years of Sino-American history (up to the Clinton administration, so not including today’s complex fiscal ties) into a brief, readable book. For the most part, his approach is factual and reportorial – Cohen avoids grand sweeps of theory and interpretation. However, to the untrained eye, this book may seem quite confusing: Cohen uses the Wade-Giles system of romanizing Chinese characters, rather than the more familiar pinyin system, and his organization of historic material is only very roughly chronological. Readers will nonetheless acquire a strong sense of the important themes, the major evolutionary stages and the prominent figures involved in the development of Sino-U.S. relations. getAbstract recommends this retrospective account to anyone with a professional, non-academic interest in the history of America’s relationship with China.

Summary

Paying Tribute

Even before Britain’s North American colonies gained their independence, America was a good market for Chinese furniture, porcelain, wallpaper and other products. The Boston Tea Party unfolded when patriots dumped tons of tea from Amoy, China, into the waters of Boston Harbor. After U.S. independence, American ships began to ply the trade routes to China. At the time, the Chinese were unabashed about their superiority as the Middle Kingdom – the center of the world – and viewed all other nations as inferior and barbaric. When the U.S. began trading with China, the ancient, submissive “tribute system” still prevailed, meaning that ambassadors from “tributaries,” that is, nations in direct contact with China, had to kowtow ceremonially before the Emperor. This system reminded visiting nations who was boss. The foreigners acquiesced in their own humiliation.

At that time, the Chinese and American governments displayed no interest in building diplomatic relations, and traders dictated the Sino-American relationship. In 1821, the Chinese accused an American sailor of killing a Chinese woman who was struck dead by some material flung from a ship. Whether the...

About the Author

Warren I. Cohen is an historian of America’s foreign relations. He specializes in U.S. relations with East Asia.

Comment on this summary or Iniciar a Discussão

More on this topic

Learners who read this summary also read

9
Book
On China
8
Book
The China Challenge
9
Book
One Billion Customers
5
Book
What America Owes the World
9
Book
Empire of Debt
7
Book
China Counting

    Related Channels

    Negócios
    Negócios na Ásia
    História
    Gestão Corporativa