Rein In at the Brink of the Precipice: American Policy Toward Taiwan and U.S.-PRC Relations

Rein In at the Brink of the Precipice: American Policy Toward Taiwan and U.S.-PRC Relations. By Alan D. Romberg. Washington, D.C.: The Henry L. Stimson Center, 2003. 245 pages. $20.00. Reviewed by Dr. Andrew Scobell, Associate Research Professor, Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College.

Concern in the United States over the Taiwan Strait flashpoint may have cooled for the moment, but the flow of books on the topic has not. This is a good thing, because the subject is not one that lends itself to a simplistic understanding. Sound scholarship and analysis are needed on this complex issue. Unfortunately, many of those who write about the topic simply serve to confound or obfuscate, especially for readers who do not bring any expertise or experience to the table. Fortunately, the book under review is one of several recent volumes that is written by an expert and succeeds in illuminating the issue.

The title of the volume comes from the warning China issued via a third party in late 1950 that the United States should "rein in at the brink of the precipice" before China took matters into its own hands. Of course, the warning was not taken seriously,...