Books in Brief

The China Danger, by Richard L. Walker (American Bar Association, $1.00). That split (schism, rift, conflict) between Moscow and Peking has been the subject of all sorts of analysis and speculation. Walker, certainly one of the most astute and solid of our specialists on China, explores the old areas with new insight and uncovers some new materials that have been missed before. For instance, he notes that the great debate about who is doing more to bury the imperialists has served to restore some attraction to Communist doctrine. This is true, he says, because the tirades from both sides are delivered in ideological terms and because Western judgments about the split usually talk in terms of which Communist power is “right” rather than in terms of which “is more divorced from the real world in its ideological commitment.” Walker’s volume ranges over the entire aspect of Chinese Communist political activity. It is easily the best-written, most logical, and most persuasive work available on the subject. It is short, inexpensive, and completely up-to-date.

w. D. JACOBS

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The China Danger, by Richard L. Walker (American Bar Association, $1.00). That split (schism, rift, conflict) between Moscow and Peking has been the subject of all sorts of analysis and speculation. Walker, certainly one of the most astute and solid of our specialists on China, explores the old areas with new insight and uncovers some new materials that have been missed before. For instance, he notes that the great debate about who is doing more to bury the imperialists has served to restore some attraction to Communist doctrine. This is true, he says, because the tirades from both sides are delivered in ideological terms and because Western judgments about the split usually talk in terms of which Communist power is “right” rather than in terms of which “is more divorced from the real world in its ideological commitment.” Walker’s volume ranges over the entire aspect of Chinese Communist political activity. It is easily the best-written, most logical, and most persuasive work available on the subject. It is short, inexpensive, and completely up-to-date.

w. D. JACOBS