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BEYOND TIANANMEN: The Politics of U.S.-China Relations, 1989-2000. By Robert L. Suettinger. Washington (DC): The Brookings Institution Press. 2003. xii, 556pp. US$39.95, cloth. ISBN 0-8157-8206-3.
This study will become a classic assessment of the delicate decade in Sino-American relations. With the perspective of a government insider (Suettinger worked in the CIA and National security Council during this period), the author weaves a careful chronological narrative of a complicated period and draws out many previously unknown events. The writing style is straightforward but lively, unencumbered by jargon or ideological perspective, and the text provides a compelling play-by-play analysis of the main actors and events. The concluding chapter offers some summary judgments, but the value of this book lies in its historical detail.
Not unsurprisingly given the author's own involvement, the analytical emphasis is on the policy process and decision making in the United States government. It is probably unsurpassed in what it contributes empirically to the historical record. Along the way, the reader is exposed to the intricacies of the US reaction to the 1989 Tiananmen "massacre"; the battle over human rights...