The People's Republic of China and the Law of Treaties

From 1949 until the end of the 1960s China concluded nearly 2,000 treaties or agreements with more than seventy states. By the beginning of the 1970s a number of these states accused Communist China of treaty violations, and Communist China charged the United States, the Soviet Union and other powers with breaking international agreements. Accusations of this nature cannot be evaluated without first determining whether or not both sides subscribe to the same law of treaties. This book offers an analysis of the theory and practice of treaty law followed by Communist China during the 1950s and 1960s. Mr. Chiu seeks neither to condemn nor to defend the position of Communist China with regard to the various problems of the law of treaties. His purpose, rather, is to generate an understanding of the subject by comparing Communist Chinas doctrines with those of the Soviet Union, the Western nations, and the provisions of the 1969 Vienna Convention of the Law of Treaties. At the time of the writing of this book Mr. Chiu was Professor of International Law at National Chengchi University in Taipei.