Overview

The real and potential power of China, the world’s most populous nation, has long been seen as a threat by its smaller neighbors and global powers alike. The Fear of Chinese Power provides a history of this perceived threat from the 1880s to the present day, and offers rich historical context to an enduring and current concern. Focusing on the United States, but also exploring perceptions from Britain, Germany, the Soviet Union and Japan, this book asks why these fears exist and shows how they have played out on both a strategic, diplomatic level, and in the public sphere. Taking a chronological approach, the chapters explore themes such as western opposition to Chinese immigration, international views of China’s new republic, hopes of friendship during the rule of Chiang Kai-Shek, the Korean and Cold Wars, Communist China’s economic growth, the Chinese in popular culture and China as a modern global power. Taking economic, military and cultural vantage points into account, The Fear of Chinese Power explains why a powerful China has been a mainstay of the western imagination since the 19th century, and reveals a history which has shaped international perceptions of China to the present day.

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9781350233959

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Reviews

A stimulating, wide-ranging, and frequently provocative overview of foreign images and perceptions of China and the Chinese at both elite and popular levels. Crean deftly highlights how often, in multiple cultural, ideological, economic, and strategic contexts, pervasive suspicions, fears, and apprehensions have driven outside thinking on China and its people * Priscilla Roberts, Associate Professor of History, University of St. Joseph, Macau * This thoughtful and engaging volume says as much about China as it does about those who fear it. Crean’s masterful book offers an important message about the global future, and should be required reading in policymaking circles and beyond * Mitchell Lerner, Professor of History, Ohio State University, US *

Author Information

Jeffrey Crean is a Professor of History at Tyler Junior College, USA, where he teaches courses in America, European, and World History. His work has appeared in the edited volumes Peace, War, and Partnership: Congress and the Military since World War II and The Vietnam War in Popular Culture: The Influence of America’s Most Controversial War on Everyday Life. He has published articles in the Journal of American-East Asian Relations, Diplomacy & Statecraft, and War and Society. The Fear of Chinese Power is his first book.

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