ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book suggests that policies on a wide array of domestic and international matters were formulated on the basis of a particular assessment of the "overall international situation." It shows that policy debates have been resolved in ways that correspond to the order of priorities. The book also shows that Peking has lost a degree of independence in the military area and that nuclear weapons and advances in conventional warfare will compel China to surrender some measure of sovereignty in order to attain greater international stability and hence greater Chinese security. It illustrates both the variety and the changing efficacy of tactics adopted in the 1970s. Tactics that had served the "gang of four" and other defenders of the Cultural Revolution well in the late sixties proved rather ineffective in the changed circumstances of the seventies.
