Shen Zhihua (; born April 1950 in Beijing) is a professor of history at East China Normal University and adjunct professor at Peking University and Renmin University of China. Shen is an expert in the history of the Soviet Union, Sino-Soviet relations, and the Cold War. He is director of the Center for Oriental History Studies of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and honorary researcher at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. In 2011 Shen was public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C.
Shen grew up in Beijing, where his father was the penal system in China's second highest-ranking official. His father has first joined Mao Zedong at Yan'an during the Chinese Civil War Shen was a Navy pilot before he was accused of murder and jailed. He was released after his accuser, a jailhouse informant, recanted. In the early 1980s, when Shen was a graduate student in world history at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, he was sent to jail again and forced to abandon his studies in a politically inspired incident. Shen went into private business, but eventually returned to Beijing, where he set up a private research organization, Zhongguo Shixuehui Dongfang Lishi Yanjiu Zhongxin (Center for Oriental History Studies, Chinese Historical Association), in 1993. This organization has been extremely productive, helping to publish more than 80 books and monographs and hosting many conferences and scholarly activities, especially in Soviet history and Sino-Soviet relations.
Shen and Li Danhui, his wife, are known for their generosity to Chinese and foreign scholars, and Shen spent his own money to finance research visits to Moscow for research groups to collect photocopies of archival materials. His wife's father was a close friend of Xi Zhongxun. Shen has published more than 60 articles and eight monographs, edited five books, and was the chief editor of pioneering documentary collections on Soviet foreign policy and the Korean War.
Andrew Nathan of Columbia University said Shen is "highly regarded" in China for "nuanced histories of key episodes in the Cold War," which form "a solid contribution to the field of Cold War international history" and that his work belongs to "a wave of independent Chinese scholarship that demystifies China's role in the conflict by showing the country to be a self-interested state like any other." In March 2017, Shen gave a lecture suggesting that China's strategic interests are more aligned with South Korea than North Korea.
Publications
- ãÂÂæÂ°ç»ÂæµÂæÂ¿çÂÂä¸ÂèÂÂèÂÂÃ¥ÂÂä¸Â社ä¼ÂÃ¥ÂÂéÂÂè·¯ã (New Economy Policy and the Russian Socialising of Agriculture) 1994. Published in China.
- ãÂÂæÂÂé²ÂæÂÂäºÂæÂÂç§Âã (The Revealing of the Secret of the Korean War) 1995. Published in Hong Kong.
- ãÂÂæ¯Âæ³½ä¸ÂãÂÂæÂ¯å¤§æÂÂä¸Â驿ÂÂã (Mao Zedong, Stalin, and the Korean War) 1998. Published in Hong Kong.
- ãÂÂä¸ÂèÂÂÃ¥ÂÂçÂÂä¸ÂæÂÂé²ÂæÂÂäºÂç Âç©¶ã (Research on the Alliance of China and the USSR and the Korean War) 1999. Published in Hong Kong.
- ãÂÂä¸ÂèÂÂÃ¥ÂÂçÂÂçÂÂç»ÂæµÂèÂÂæÂ¯ï¼Â1948-1953ã (The Economic Background of the China-USSR Alliance) 2000. Published in Hong Kong.
- ãÂÂæÂ¯å¤§æÂÂä¸ÂéÂÂæÂÂâÂÂâÂÂèÂÂÃ¥ÂÂå²çªÂçÂÂèµ·å åÂÂÃ¥Â
¶ç»ÂæÂÂã (Stalin and Tito: The Beginning and the End of the Conflict Between the USSR and Yugoslavia) 2002.
- ãÂÂèÂÂèÂÂä¸Âå®¶å¨ä¸Âå½ï¼Â1948-1960ï¼Âã (Russian Experts in China 1948âÂÂ1960) 2003. Published in China.
- ãÂÂæ¯Âæ³½ä¸ÂãÂÂæÂ¯å¤§æÂÂä¸ÂæÂÂé²ÂæÂÂäºÂã (Mao Zedong, Stalin, and the Korean War) 2003. Published in China.
- ãÂÂæÂÂèÂÂèÂÂ鏿ÂÂ: å¾ÂçÂ¥èÂÂÃ¥ÂÂÃ¥ÂÂæÂÂè°å°åÂÂå³派éÂÂÃ¥ÂÂ, 1956-1957ã 2008.
- With Danhui Li: After Leaning to One Side: China and Its Allies in the Cold War 2011. Stanford University Press .
- Mao, Stalin and the Korean War: Trilateral Communist Relations in the 1950s. Milton Park, Abingdon; New York: Routledge, Cold War History Series, 2012.
- ãÂÂæÂ å¥ÂçÂÂéÂÂæÂ©ï¼Âå·æÂÂä¸Âä¸ÂèÂÂÃ¥ÂÂçÂÂçÂÂå½è¿Âï¼Â1945ï¼Â1959ï¼ÂãÂÂ(A Forced Choice: The Cold War and the Fate of the Sino-Soviet Alliance 1945-1959) Beijing: Social Sciences Academic Press, 2013.
- ãÂÂæÂÂÃ¥ÂÂçÂÂ"天æÂÂ"ï¼Âæ¯Âæ³½ä¸ÂãÂÂéÂÂæÂ¥æÂÂä¸Âä¸ÂæÂÂÃ¥Â
³ç³»ï¼Â1945âÂÂ1976ï¼ÂãÂÂHong Kong: Chinese University Press, 2017.
- A Misunderstood Friendshipï¼ÂMao Zedong, Kim Il-sung, and SinoâÂÂNorth Korean Relations, 1949âÂÂ1976, 2018, Columbia University Press,
- ãÂÂç¶Âæ¿Â漩渦: è§Âå¯Âå·æÂ°ç¼çÂÂçÂÂæÂ°è¦Âè§Âã (Economic Vortexï¼ÂA New Prospective to Observe the Cold War) Hong Kong: Chung Hwa Book Company, 2022.
References
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