Book Reviews : China and the Cold War: A Study in International Politics. By MICHAEL LINDSAY (Lord Lindsay of Birker). (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press. 1955. Pp. xv, 286. $3.75.)

• Published date: 01 March 1956
• DOI: 10.1177/106591295600900124
• Date: 01 March 1956
• Author: Thurston Griggs
• Subject Matter: Articles

187
Peking. The main problems related to the Chinese Eastern Railway and
Outer Mongolia. The negotiations &dquo;resembled a shadow play much of the
time&dquo;; but they did lead to the Sino-Soviet Treaty of 1924, by which
Moscow won &dquo;de jure recognition from Peking without giving in return
anything of strategic importance.&dquo;
Negotiations between Soviet representatives and Sun Yat-sen were of a
more indirect and indeed often clandestine nature. Lenin chided Sun for
his &dquo;inimitable -
one might say -
virginal naivet6,&dquo; and he made other
far from flattering remarks about the Chinese revolutionary, whom he prob-
ably did not regard as a revolutionary at all; but the Bolshevik leader was
quite willing to woo Dr. Sun, especially in view of his well-known theory
of the desirability of supporting &dquo;bourgeois&dquo; revolutions in Asia. On this
point he engaged in lengthy debate with M. N. Roy and certain Bolshevik
spokesmen. Mr. Whiting recognizes the significance of this famous debate,
but he does not relate it to China as specifically as he could have done, and
he does not even refer to Roy’s version of the debate, as given in Roy’s
memoirs.
Sun’s interest in the Russian Revolution, his failure to receive a favor,
able response to his appeals to the Western powers, the growing demoraliza-
tion and ineffectiveness of the Kuomintang, and the Soviet offer of assist-
ance, all prompted him to turn to the Soviet Union for the help which he
badly needed. &dquo;The Soviets did not need to smash their way into the
Chinese revolution; they received specific invitation to participate by no less
a figure than Sun himself.&dquo; But even after the arrival of Borodin, the First
Congress of the Kuomintang, and the formation of the &dquo;First United
Front,&dquo; the Soviet leaders were still unable &dquo;to agree on what to do with
their newly won position in the Chinese revolution.&dquo;
Mr. Whiting ends his admirable study on the threshold of &dquo;the...