Few Americans know as much about China, past or present, as Professor Fairbank of Harvard, whose competence rests on practical experience in that country as well as on intensive research. In this latest volume of Sumner Welles' "American Foreign Policy Library" the author sets the stage for the drama in China today and introduces us to its principal actors. He dwells on the desirability of letting the Chinese work out their own destiny without making their country an arena for contending outside interests.