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The Opportunity Costs of Mao's Foreign Policy Choices

Chen Jian's history of Mao's foreign-policy decision-making during the Cold War is an important contribution to our understanding. Chen provides an insightful, richly nuanced and well-documented analysis of how and why Mao made the choices he did. In this regard, Chen's book is unsurpassed. What Chen Jian does not offer, though, is an analysis of the options Mao faced at various points and of the costs to China of Mao's decisions. Numerous frank and critical analyses have been published about missteps and miscalculations by the US and other nations, but the long-closed nature of China's decision-making processes and then the gradual opening up of its documentary resources have led scholars to forgo critical analysis in favour of understanding how China's leaders viewed the world. Recent scholarship, including most prominently Chen Jian's and Zhai Qiang's,' has now essentially accomplished this. It is now time for a critical assessment of Mao's foreign policies.