© Columbia University Press
China, Cambodia, and the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence
December, 2009
Cloth, 344 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-231-14386-8
$50.00
/ £34.50
"A well documented and clearly presented work . . . Recommended." — Choice
"Is Chinese foreign policy really based on 'principle'? Not always, but most often. This is Sophie Richardson's conclusion from a careful analysis of China's application of the 'five principles of peaceful coexistence' to one small developing country. Based entirely on Chinese archival and interview sources, it is also our first serious look in a long time at Sino-Cambodian relations." — Lowell Dittmer, University of California, Berkeley
"Sophie Richardson argues persuasively that the five principles of peaceful coexistence, mapped out by the Chinese Communist leadership before 1949, have served as the bases of the PRC's foreign policy ever since. Using China's relations with Cambodia as a case study and drawing on hundreds of interviews, along with her immersion in previously inaccessible Chinese archives, Richardson demystifies much of what otherwise might seem enigmatic in China's foreign policy and practice since the 1950s. As a bonus, her elegant, pathbreaking analysis is a pleasure to read." — David Chandler, Monash University
"This is the book we have been waiting for. China's close association with the murderous Khmer Rouge regime has been one of the abiding mysteries of post-Vietnam Asia. Sophie Richardson's impressive research and penetrating analysis not only give us some answers but also, by situating Cambodia in the broader context of Chinese foreign policy goals, make a valuable contribution to the literature." — Nayan Chanda, author of Bound Together: How Traders, Preachers, Adventurers, and Warriors Shaped Globalization