Abstract
The 1977 edition of the Xiandai Hanyu Cidian (Modern Chinese Dictionary) defined the Cold War as ‘an international war made without using weapons, especially, provocation, destruction and other activities to increase international tension done against the Socialist States by the Imperialist Group led by the United States of America after World War II’. However, in the 2002 edition of the dictionary, the definition was changed to ‘international hostilities excluding war’.The phrase indicating that US imperialism provoked the Cold War had disappeared.
In China it has recently become possible to study international relations during the Cold War era based on the principles of ‘shishi qiushi’ (seeking truth from facts).
The reason why Cold War studies were vigorously pursued in the United States is not only because the United States itself was directly involved in the Cold War, but also because US diplomatic documents have long been made available to the public. In China, the documents of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have been disclosed to the public since January 2004, and this has enabled scholars to peruse the pre-1955 records. In addition to this, the disclosure of Russian archival documents has stimulated and supported the progress of Cold War studies in China.Utilizing these documents, Professor Shen Jihua (Huadong Shifan University), Professor Niu Dayong (Peking University) and other scholars of Cold War history are energetically proceeding with studies of this period. Many books on the Cold War have now been published in China, including Lengzhan yu Zhongguo (The Cold War and China) edited by Professor Zhang Baijia and Professor Niu Jun.
