The Cold War's Odd Couple: The Unintended Partnership between the Republic of China and the UK, 1950-1958 (Library of International Relations)

The relationship between the US and the People's Republic of China was the defining factor in the Cold War in Asia--the potentially explosive conflict which, as seen in the Korean War, brought the world to the brink of nuclear disaster. The PRC had not become "Titoist" as some hoped and remained firmly within the Soviet international orbit. But how did Great Britain and the Republic of China fit into this potentially lethal global jigsaw? Steve Tsang has illuminated the history of a seemingly obscure corner of international relations and politics but which was, to contemporaries, at the heart of global survival.