In its reconstruction of evolving US positions on key issues in the relationship with China, this text explains the change in American-Chinese relations after 1949 from hostility to rapprochement, and to the full normalization of ties in 1979.

`Rosemary Foot's sophisticated and impressively documented reflection on the practice of power and depiction of US relations with China since 1949 is to be ranked as a reading "must" in the abundant but oft-fragmentary historiography of the subject. The author has accomplished a rare scholarly feat in view of the complexity and extent of the research material, that of tackling all aspects of the difficult Sino-American relationship. The result is an illuminating study which both synthesizes and enlarges previous treatments, a forceful illustration of America's world leadership during half a century ... One of the great merits of the book is that it helps to better understand the subtleties of triangular diplomacy between Washington, Beijing and Moscow.' Professor Serge Ricard, University of Provence `This solidly researched and scholarly well-crafted book succeeds in making a significant contribution to the already well-ploughed field of Chinese-American relations. The Practice of Power offers a compellingly cohesive analysis, one that significantly broadens the narrow Realist perspective.' Matthias Maass, Free University, Berlin, Pacific Review, Vol. 10, No. 1, 1997 `Foot attains a high level of authority through her use of an extraordinary array of U.S. documentary and published and unpublished sources.' Gordon H. Chang, Diplomatic History, Vol. 21, No. 2, Spring 1997 `A closely researched and written study which can be read by selected chapters separately or as a whole...Her forecast follows logically from her very sophisticated and finely nuanced analysis. This is a valuable addition to the small but growing number of studies that offer multifaceted understanding of a highly complex and cotroversial relationship' The China Quaterly