This is a study of Sino-American relations and the editorial policy of the China Weekly Review/China Monthly Review, published in Shanghai by John William Powell during the Chinese Civil War.

The Review was also utilized for the political indoctrination of US prisoners-of-war by the Chinese and North Koreans. After closing the Review in July 1953 and returning to the United States, Powell, his wife Sylvia Campbell and assistant editor Julian Schuman were put on trial for sedition. As the government narrowed its focus to the bacteriological warfare issue, Powell and his lawyers countered by trying to prove the veracity of the charges, seeking witnesses in China and North Korea. Adverse publicity led to a mistrial in January 1959 and limitations in both the sedition and treason statutes ended plans to renew prosecution. Powell and the Review had insisted that positive diplomatic and economic relations between China and the United States were both possible and desirable. The gradual normalization of trade, investment and political relations since the 1970s seemed to validate this belief. In the post-Cold War age when Sino-American relations are often strained and tempestuous, this book serves as a reminder of the value of making the extra effort to achiece understanding.

1. Introduction: John William Powell and the China Weekly/Monthly Review, an American Editor in Early Revolutionary China 2. The Strands of Disillusionment, A Three Year Overview of the China Weekly/Monthly Review, 1946-1948:
Part One 3. The Strands of Disillusionment Part Two: Loss of Faith 4. Seasons Change: The Late Fall 1948 and Impending Collapse 5. Plumbing the Unknown: The Months Prior to Takeover, January-May 1949 6. Shock and Adjustment to the New Order: The Communists Enter Shanghai, May-September 1949 7. The Review's Campaign for Recognition, June 1949 - July 1950 8. Accommodation and Reassessment: The Winds of Ideological Change 9. The Bacteriological Warfare Issue and the Review, Part One: Antecedents and Controversy 10. The Bacteriological Warfare Issue and the Review: Part Two 11. Homecoming and Execration 12. Conclusion