TNAG-2701-FCO40-3907-Memoirs-of-Sir-Percy-Cradock--diplomat-and-sinologist-1993 — Page 24

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.