Between Economic Interests and Political Constraints
The Federal Republic of Germany and the People's Republic of China during the Early Cold War
Abstract
This article deals with the relations between the Federal Republic of Germany and the People’s Republic of China during the early Cold War decades. The traditional historiographical paradigm of the East-West confrontation assumes that any form of cooperation was impossible between the two countries. However, a shift of focus from the political sphere to the economic one reveals how pattern of conduct predating 1949, as well as purely economic reasons, brought actors from both sides to agree on a set of rules for bilateral exchange, and to improve the trade performance despite the highs and lows of the political climate and the bloc allegiance of both countries.
Submitted: April 3, 2017 | Accepted: May 27, 2017 | Published May 3, 2018 | Language: en
Keywords East-West Trade • Ost-Ausschuss der Deutschen Wirtschaft • COCOM • China National Import & Export Corporation • China National Import & Export Corporation • Federal Republic of Germany • Cold War • People’s Republic of China • German business • Chinese Committee for the Promotion of Internation
Copyright © 2018 Giovanni Bernardini. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-220-8/004