Negotiating Cooperation: The United States and China, 1969-1989

Ross combines thorough research into both Chinese and American materials with a useful theoretical perspective to yield the definitive guide to the ups and downs of China-US ties. He correctly views each side's waxing and waning influence as a function of situational strategic advantage--first in the US-Chinese-Soviet "strategic triangle" and, later, bilaterally--and shows how changes in global politics affect mutual perceptions of interest and thus drive changes in policy. Lucid, well-researched (although Ross's frequent use of Chinese "scholarly" sources--which are often little more than official documents under the imprimatur of the Beijing bishopric--has its periodic down-side), and convincingly argued, this is the essential title on the topic.