War in Modern China: A Military History

This book offers comprehensive coverage of China’s military history from the Qing dynasty (1644-1912) to present.

China has become one of the great world powers of the twenty-first century. As a result, Chinese leaders and observers outside of China alike seek to explain China’s strategic thought and action. In doing so, they routinely refer to China’s military history. This volume examines this history, beginning with the Qing dynasty’s era of imperial expansion and subsequent decline, continuing with the wars against foreign aggression and internal uprisings of the nineteenth century, the revolutionary overthrow of the Qing in 1911 and seemingly constant wars of the first half of the twentieth century, and concluding with the Chinese Communist Party’s use of military power from 1950 to present.

This history is generally presented as a narrative of imperial greatness followed by a century of national humiliation followed by a recovery of national wealth and power under Communist Party leadership. While acknowledging this narrative, Harold Tanner digs deeper to reveal a fundamental continuity of interests underlying Chinese strategic thinking from the Qing to the present while also showing how the theory and practice of war in China changed over time as Chinese political and military leaders wrestled with tremendous challenges, drawing on foreign sources as well as their own cultural heritage to seek new solutions.

Both engaging and timely, War in Modern China: A Military History is essential reading for students, scholars, and enthusiasts of Chinese and global military history.

Harold M. Tanner is Professor of History at the University of North Texas. He is the author of Where Chiang Kai-shek Lost China: The Liao-Shen Campaign, 1948 (2015) and other books and articles on modern Chinese history and Chinese military history.