Foreign Diplomacy of China in the Beiyang Period: A Fudan Historical Studies Special Issue

Author: Jin Guangyao, Wang Jianlang, Editors
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-08-01
Features: The 26 papers in this collection reflect the new insights of the participating scholars on Chinese diplomacy during the Beiyang period. Examining the diplomacy of the Beiyang era within the broader historical context of modern Chinese diplomacy, revealing its true nature, and providing objective evaluations are key characteristics of the conference papers. For example, some scholars studied China's decision to participate in the Second World War, affirming the active role played by the Beijing government. Others discussed China's relationship with the Versailles-Washington System, emphasizing the Beijing government's efforts to promote internationalization and enhance China's global standing. Another feature of the conference papers is that they do not limit the discussion of Beiyang-era Chinese diplomacy to the government and its foreign relations, but instead broaden the perspective to explore diplomacy and related issues in a wider context. National diplomacy, the relationship between public opinion and diplomacy, and the interaction between domestic factional politics and diplomacy are topics that have received relatively little attention in previous research. Several papers at this conference delve into these subjects in greater depth. Another feature of the conference papers is the use of primary archival materials for case studies. These case studies enrich and deepen our understanding of Chinese diplomacy during the Beiyang period. The aforementioned characteristics clearly demonstrate the new trends in the study of Beiyang-era Chinese diplomacy within the historical field.