This book...is essential reading for all students of the Cold War. The deeper questions it raises about the relationship between domestic politics, national interests, ideology, and foreign policy have long provided grist for debates about American foreign policy, but the foreign policies of the Soviet Union and China have not yet received similarly sophisticated treatment from historians. The attempt to do so in this book by writing this history from a Chinese perspective is perhaps its greatest contribution.... This new volume by Zhihua Shen and Yafeng Xia is an amazing achievement in the field of Cold War studies. There is nothing else that matches its breadth, coverage, international scope, and detail in one volume.... Producing this volume is a monumental achievement; scholars will read, agree or disagree, and appreciate it for years to come.... The book is simply too rich to review in depth.... This book is essential reading for anyone interested in Sino-Russian relations, past, present or future.

H-Diplo

[This book] makes for a fascinating read and raises our knowledge of the fraught relationship to a higher level. . . .[The authors] provide greater background information to many of the key decisions and challenge received Western wisdom.

East-West Review

The authors effectively combine their vast knowledge of Sino-Soviet and Sino-American relations, and remind readers of the significant role played by China in the most important strategic realignments of the past sixty-five years.

Austin Jersild, Old Dominion University

Nobody knows more about the Sino-Soviet alliance than Shen and Xia. While their conclusions are controversial and will be much discussed, the book takes our knowledge of this crucial period in international affairs to a whole new level.

Odd Arne Westad, Harvard University

A stunning and meticulously researched book by two of China's most preeminent historians. A detailed and powerful exposition of the rise and demise of the Sino–Soviet friendship that reshapes our understanding of the internal dynamics of the ill-fated alliance. A poignant tale of political drama with worrying lessons for the future of relations between Beijing and Moscow.

Sergey Radchenko, Cardiff University

China’s most distinguished Cold War historian, working together with a first-class scholar teaching in the United States, have written an authoritative, enlightening, and very readable book on the rise and beginning of the collapse of the Sino–Soviet alliance from the mid-1940s to the late 1950s. With the support of critical and exhaustive use of Chinese, Russian documents and sources in other languages, Shen and Xia combine convincing interpretations with detailed and informative storytelling, coming up with a grand narrative that no one has produced on the subject in any language. Thus the volume is likely to become the ‘must read’ on one of the most important chapters of global Cold War history now and in the decades to come.

Jian Chen, New York University/NYU-Shanghai