The Future of U.S.-China Relations; The Implications of United States-China Military Co-operation; Asia and U.S. Foreign Policy; China, the Soviet Union, and the West

These four volumes address the crucial question of what U.S. policy toward China should be in the context of the growing challenge of Soviet expansionism. From a policy perspective the two most interesting essays in these collections are Robert Scalapino's plea, in the Starr volume, for the United States to maintain an "equilibrium" between the Soviet Union and China, and Banning Garrett's argument, in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee workshop, that the United States should aim at consolidating a strategy of two-front deterrence of the Soviet Union. Both are thoughtful and well-argued expositions of conflicting views on a subject vital for the future. (The Senate workshop report also contains a lively discussion of the question of U.S. arms sales to China.) Less satisfactory are the volumes edited by Hsiung and Chai and by Stuart and Tow. Stuart and Tow have included 21 short papers in some 300 pages; the results are thin despite the high caliber of some of the contributors.