This dissertation, "The Problem of China: British Writings on China in the 1920s" by Po-ming, George, Cheng, 鄭寶銘, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author. Abstract:  This dissertation examines the British conception of the problem of China in the 1920s, as reflected through political writings on the country. The focus of this study is on the texts of three authors: Bertrand Russell, Rodney Gilbert, and Arthur Ransome. Though coming from diverse traditions and drastically dissimilar political backgrounds, these writers, like many other British writers at the time, had come to view China as being essentially problematic - a view that is open to multiple interpretations, and perhaps deliberately so. Books with titles such as The Problem of China, The Chinese Puzzle, What's Wrong with China, and Is China Mad?, to name a few, reveal a way of thinking about the country that was prevalent and well-entrenched. Demands for books on a problematic China reveal a desire, on the part of the British home audience, not only to gain a better understanding as to the constitution of problem, but also to appreciate how this Chinese problem can affect Britain, and how it can be resolved. What is interesting, however, upon examining these texts that seek to explicate the titular problem, is that one discovers that there is hardly a consensus among these This dissertation examines the British conception of the problem of China in the 1920s, as reflected through political writings on the country. The focus of this study is on the texts of three authors: Bertrand Russell, Rodney Gilbert, and Arthur Ransome. Though coming from diverse traditions and drastically dissimilar political backgrounds, these writers, like many other British writers at the time, had come to view China as being essentially problematic - a view that is open to multiple interpretations, and perhaps deliberately so. Books with titles such as The Problem of China, The Chinese Puzzle, What's Wrong with China, and Is China Mad?, to name a few, reveal a way of thinking about the country that was prevalent and well-entrenched. Demands for books on a problematic China reveal a desire, on the part of the British home audience, not only to gain a better understanding as to the constitution of problem, but also to appreciate how this Chinese problem can affect Britain, and how it can be resolved. What is interesting, however, upon examining these texts that seek to explicate the titular problem, is that one discovers that there is hardly a consensus among these DOI: 10.5353/th_b4807978