Chinese defence policy

WHY does China get such a good press in the West? Compared to the Soviet Union, as well as to other authoritarian states, China deserves a much rougher ride. Like the Soviet Union, China is run by a harsh communist system. China's leaders have executed a far greater number of political opponents than has the Soviet Union in the past twenty years. The famines of the post-Great Leap Forward debacle, and the great purges of the Cultural Revolution, are now known to have claimed more victims than any similar events in Soviet history. Yet Western China-watchers have by and large glossed over these nasty events, all too often glibly accepting the official Chinese explanations about the 'necessities of the revolution'. However, in recent years the scales have begun to fall from Western eyes. China is beginning to get a 'bad press' on some issues, and the study of China seems to have entered a new phase. The problems for the present and future are twofold. First, in many areas the cold light of criticism of China still remains too dim. This is especially true in the study of domestic politics. Second, there is a danger of 'over-learning' the lessons of history-of losing a sense of balance in studying China.' The trick seems to be to remain positive about the study of China, while unambiguously pointing to its negative aspects. Western images of China of course have not always been positive. Even a gentle reading of John K. Fairbank's lively memoirs of the recent generational changes in China studies makes this plain.2 The period after the Second World War and the McCarthy scares are obviously the most painful memories for those who fear that anything but a positive view of China will descend into scaremongering irrationalities. We are rightly cautioned to beware of the McCarthy approach, but perhaps the Sinologists and their students who suffered in this dark time are overly obsessed. More likely, they are too pessimistic in trusting the extent to which times have changed, and academics and journalists have matured. The fears of McCarthyite negativism on China are important, but they should not prevent any justified critical comment about contemporary China. There are indeed growing signs that the study of China, as with that of the Soviet Union a decade ago, is coming of age. Unfortunately for academics, some of the best signs of this new maturity are to be found with journalists and not scholars. The penetrating analyses by