The Compensations of Plunder: How China Lost its Treasures By Justin Jacobs. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2020) 352 pp. $82.50 (cloth), $30.00 (paper)

Abstract

Although the author rightly notes the risk of the “over-estimation of the CYP’s role” (16) in this effort to make it visible, one does get the sense that he holds the underlying assumption that the CYP’s ideology was viable in and of itself. Also, he espouses the notion that the CYP ideology always corresponded to the actions of its leaders—“the CYP founders practiced what they believed” (16)—but this has never been the case in politics anywhere. Overall, a detailed and systematic critique of the CYP’s shortcomings and the tensions between ideology and practice is wanting. To stay on the topic of the relation between ideas and actions, a more methodical analysis of the “unmaking” of the “radical right” referred to in the title, would have also been valuable. The book treats the “decline” of the CYP rather abruptly and haphazardly, and suggests that external factors were the main reason: the CYP “lost its revolutionary momentum” when the Second Sino-Japanese War erupted in 1937. It had no “resilience” and its military actions were “not sustainable in an adverse environment.” Ideologically, “ultranationalism” suddenly lost its appeal when China became an ally of the USA and UK against Japan in the 1940s (176). Furthermore, the CYP suffered from “a lack of solid military power and consistent financial sources” (207). Some of these factors, however, were presumably longer-term issues and deserve more attention, whereas other factors have been left out. Lastly, only one sentence refers to the CYP’s later history in Taiwan (256). Regarding structure, many of the figures, movements, and ideas make a sudden entry, so the narrative thread can be hard to follow for those who are not already familiar with this period. The sections and chapters sometimes appear disconnected, while chapters also overlap at times, perhaps because some of the latter were published earlier as articles. A few mistakes will unavoidably slip into every book, but this book could have done with more editing as there are countless pinyin errors and typos throughout the book. Although the chronology at the start is extremely useful, a brief list of the main actors with a short biography and affiliation would have helped to provide an overview of the various groups and the interactions between them.