from the West, but from inside China, as the regime's leaders
reassessed their external
asserted
their
sovereignty,
relations, planned the recovery of lost national territory
and fought among themselves over the gigantic problems of
economic development that confronted them. Given such
actors, such legacies and the murderous nature of Chinese
politics, it would have required no great discernment to
predict a rough ride. And so it proved.
But at this point the focus narrows and the story takes a
more personal turn.