China’s Cold War Science Diplomacy offers compelling corrections to two persistent stereotypes about the early People’s Republic of China (PRC, 1949–1976): first, that the PRC was almost entirely isolated from the international community, particularly in matters related to the exchange of scientific and technological information; and second, that the Mao Zedong years were little more than an aberration in China’s historical development, one that was quickly counteracted by Deng Xiaoping’s Reform and Opening beginning in 1978. Marshaling a wide array of sources from China, the United States, and the United Kingdom, Gordon Barrett effectively refutes these assumptions, describing instead how PRC scientists were able to maintain international ties and intellectual engagement throughout the Cold War period. While these relationships necessarily reflected the shifting political and ideological goals of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), they nevertheless reveal how PRC scientists pursued personal, professional, and scholarly exchanges as part of a wider platform intended to showcase “New China” through international science diplomacy.
