New Scholarship and Directions in the Study of the Diplomatic History of the People's Republic of China

Abstract

The study of the People's Republic of China's (PRC) diplomatic history has developed significantly in China in the last twenty years. This essay offers a review of the state of the field. After a historical overview, it focuses on introducing new sources, main research topics, and representative works of Chinese scholars. It concludes with a brief observation of prospects and problems. Before the 1980s, there was only one relatively comprehensive text on the diplomatic history of the PRC. With the publication of documents of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the late 1980s, the study of the CCP's foreign relations received greater attention. In October 1986, scholars from both China and the United States met for the first time in Beijing to discuss Sino-American relations from 1945 to 1955. Not only did they discuss U.S. relations with Chinese Nationalists and Communists during the War of Resistance against Japan, they also explored such sensitive topics such as Sino-American relations in the early days of the PRC, the Korean War, and the Taiwan Strait Crisis of 1954. During this period, substantial progress in the study of Sino-American relations could also be found in the works of Zi Zhongyun and Yuan Ming who were among the first group of Chinese scholars to return to China after briefly visiting and training in foreign countries.