Brothers in Arms

When the Khmer Rouge came to power in Cambodia in 1975, they inherited a war-ravaged and internationally isolated country. Pol Pot's government espoused the rhetoric of self-reliance, but Democratic Kampuchea was utterly dependent on Chinese foreign aid and technical assistance to survive. Yet in a markedly asymmetrical relationship between a modernizing, nuclear power and a virtually premodern state, China was largely unable to use its power to influence Cambodian politics or policy. In Brothers in Arms, Andrew Mertha traces this surprising lack of influence to variations between the Chinese and Cambodian institutions that administered military aid, technology transfer, and international trade. Today, China's extensive engagement with the developing world suggests an inexorably rising China in the process of securing a degree of economic and political dominance that was unthinkable even a decade ago. Yet, China's experience with its first-ever client state suggests that the effectiveness of Chinese foreign aid, and influence that comes with it, is only as good as the institutions that manage the relationship.By focusing on the links between China and Democratic Kampuchea, Mertha peers into the "black box" of Chinese foreign aid to illustrate how domestic institutional fragmentation limits Beijing's ability to influence the countries that accept its assistance.

“"The story that Mertha tells is fascinating in its detail and surprising in much of what that detail reveals. Perhaps most importantly is the extent to which China's lack of leverage over the CPK regime was a persistent theme of the relationship . . . This is an important book, full of important factual information and thoughtful judgments."-Milton Osborne,Contemporary Southeast Asia(August 2014)”

"The story that Mertha tells is fascinating in its detail and surprising in much of what that detail reveals. Perhaps most importantly is the extent to which China's lack of leverage over the CPK regime was a persistent theme of the relationship ... This is an important book, full of important factual information and thoughtful judgments."-Milton Osborne,Contemporary Southeast Asia(August 2014) "Andrew Mertha's superb book is 35 years overdue. While it has long been appreciated that it was support from China that enabled the Communist Party of Kampuchea, aka the Khmer Rouge, to seize power in 1975 and to brutalize Cambodia until it was ousted by Vietnam in 1979, this is the first detailed study of how Beijing disbursed its aid and of the clash of bureaucratic cultures which ensued... Brothers in Arms is a masterful account of China's failed policy of support for Democratic Kampuchea, required reading for anyone who wishes to understand either Beijing's role in Southeast Asia during the 1970s or the decisive influence of bureaucratic politics.-Ian Storey, New Mandala (October 13, 2014) "Andrew Mertha has shed some very much needed light on the relationship between the People's Republic of Chine (PRC) and Democratic Kampuchea (DK) between 1975 and 1979 in Brothers in Arms. Remarkably, that light might extend to our understanding of current-day behaviour with client states as China scrambles for resources in Africa, Latin America, and beyond."-Sophal Ear, Asian Affairs (2014) "[Brothers in Arms]not only provides historical insight into the bureaucratic structure of China's aid to its client state, i.e. Democratic Kampuchea (DK) between 1975 and 1979, but also explicates the casual effect of the fragmented Chinese and DK bureaucratic institutions, the variation of which determines the degree of China's ability to assert influence over DK... This book is the first to provide such insightful detail on China's aid to the DK between 1979 and 1978... [and] is certainly a major breakthrough in the history of China's aid to the DK... This book is a useful resource for students of China's foreign aid policy."-Kosal Path,Southeast Asian Studies(April 2015) "In essence,Brothers in Armsis a study of Leninist systems and how a larger, nuclear power like China failed to keep its client state in a position of inferiority. Historians studying dimplomacy, Cold War, and Southeast Asia history will appreciate Mertha's attention to detail and evidence base. The author's writing style means even readers unfamiliar with the topic will understand Mertha's discussions of the DK's political apparatus. Undoubtedly the author has produced a foundational book on the relationship between China and Democratic Kampuchea."-Robert Thompson,H-Net(March 2015) "As Andrew Mertha demonstrates in Brothers in Arms... bureaucratic interactions are crucial to the success or failure of individual projects and the overall influence that China derives from its [foreign] aid. He does so through a skillful analysis of China's relations with one of its key Cold War 'client states'-Pol Pot's Democratic Kampuchea...This excellent book merits careful reading."-John D. Ciorciari,The China Journal(July 2015) "A marvelous book. Brothers in Arms explores the vexed relationship between China and the Khmer Rouge regime between 1975 and 1979, when China, for better or worse, was Cambodia's most generous friend. Andrew Mertha talked to dozens of Cambodians and Chinese who worked together in the Khmer Rouge era. He has buttressed this research with forays into unexploited archival collections. The outcome-a judicious, vividly written analysis of the Sino-Khmer encounter-is deft, path-breaking, and persuasive."-David Chandler, Monash University, author of A History of Cambodia "Nobody gets into the plumbing of policy implementation like Andrew Mertha. Here, he probes the bureaucracies of China and Democratic Kampuchea to understand their aid relationship and how the DK was sometimes able to parry Chinese pressures but got pulled into the Chinese orbit at other times. Bureaucratic politics has long been understood to be critical in domestic policy; now Mertha extends this approach into foreign policy. All those examining China's burgeoning relations with Latin America, Africa, and other places will want to absorb the lessons of this book."-Joseph Fewsmith, Boston University

Andrew Mertha is Associate Professor of Government at Cornell University. He is the author of Brothers in Arms: Chinese Aid to the Khmer Rouge, 1975-1979, China's Water Warriors: Citizen Action and Policy Change, and The Politics of Piracy: Intellectual Property in Contemporary China, all from Cornell.

When the Khmer Rouge came to power in Cambodia in 1975, they inherited a war-ravaged and internationally isolated country. Pol Pot's government espoused the rhetoric of self-reliance, but Democratic Kampuchea was utterly dependent on Chinese foreign aid and technical assistance to survive. Yet in a markedly asymmetrical relationship between a modernizing, nuclear power and a virtually premodern state, China was largely unable to use its power to influence Cambodian politics or policy. In Brothers in Arms, Andrew Mertha traces this surprising lack of influence to variations between the Chinese and Cambodian institutions that administered military aid, technology transfer, and international trade. Today, China's extensive engagement with the developing world suggests an inexorably rising China in the process of securing a degree of economic and political dominance that was unthinkable even a decade ago. Yet, China's experience with its first-ever client state suggests that the effectiveness of Chinese foreign aid, and influence that comes with it, is only as good as the institutions that manage the relationship. By focusing on the links between China and Democratic Kampuchea, Mertha peers into the "black box" of Chinese foreign aid to illustrate how domestic institutional fragmentation limits Beijing's ability to influence the countries that accept its assistance.

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