In this sweeping and insightful history, Henry Kissinger turns for the first time at book-length to a country he has known intimately for decades, and whose modern relations with the West he helped shape. Drawing on historical records as well as his conversations with Chinese leaders over the past forty years, Kissinger examines how China has approached diplomacy, strategy, and negotiation throughout its history, and reflects on the consequences for the global balance of power in the 21st century.
Since no other country can claim a more powerful link to its ancient past and classical principles, any attempt to understand China's future world role must begin with an appreciation of its long history. For centuries, China rarely encountered other societies of comparable size and sophistication; it was the "Middle Kingdom," treating the peoples on its periphery as vassal states. At the same time, Chinese statesmen-facing threats of invasion from without, and the contests of competing factions within-developed a canon of strategic thought that prized the virtues of subtlety, patience, and indirection over feats of martial prowess.
In On China, Kissinger examines key episodes in Chinese foreign policy from the classical era to the present day, with a particular emphasis on the decades since the rise of Mao Zedong. He illuminates the inner workings of Chinese diplomacy during such pivotal events as the initial encounters between China and modern European powers, the formation and breakdown of the Sino-Soviet alliance, the Korean War, Richard Nixon's historic trip to Beijing, and three crises in the Taiwan Straits. Drawing on his extensive personal experience with four generation of Chinese leaders, he brings to life towering figures such as Mao, Zhou Enlai, and Deng Xiaoping, revealing how their different visions have shaped China's modern destiny.
With his singular vantage on U.S.-China relations, Kissinger traces the evolution of this fraught but crucial relationship over the past 60 years, following its dramatic course from estrangement to strategic partnership to economic interdependence, and toward an uncertain future. With a final chapter on the emerging superpower's 21st-century world role, On China provides an intimate historical perspective on Chinese foreign affairs from one of the premier statesmen of the 20th century.

《大外交》是美国前国务卿基辛格先生最新也是最重要的一部著作。作者凭其致力于外交事务的亲身体验，以其丰富的历史知识、智慧和幽默的文笔，展示了自黎塞留以来特别是二战后几十年世界外交政治的诸多重大事件，以其独到见解分析了世界各国外交风格的差异，重点提示了美国外交风格的差异，重点提示了美国外交政策的思想实质。同时，体现了那些对现代世界格局的形成起到举足轻重的作用的各国领袖，罗斯社斯大林，丘吉尔、戴高乐、尼克松、毛泽东、周恩来、里根、戈尔巴乔夫等政治家的风采。

基辛格以一位资深外交家和思想家的独特视角，分析和梳理了中国自鸦片战争以来的外交传统，从围棋文化与孙子兵法中探寻中国人的战略思维模式，特别是试图揭示新中国成立以来，中国外交战略的制定和决策机制，以及对“ 一边倒”的外交政策、抗美援朝、中美建交、三次台海危机等等重大外交事件来龙去脉的深度解读。作为历史的亲历者，基辛格博士还在书中记录了自己与毛泽东、邓小平等几代中国领导人的交往。