War, Leadership and Ethnopolitics: Chiang Kai-shek and China's frontiers, 1941–1945

Abstract

This article examines how China's war with Japan served as a crucial factor that shaped modern China's ethnopolitics. It argues that the Japanese invasion of China in 1941–1945 provided the Nationalists with an unprecedented opportunity to push their authority further westward into the Central Asian heartlands. The Nationalists' marching westward as a result of the Japanese invasion also urged them to factor frontier and ethnopolitics into their wartime strategic thinking and institutional reforms. To a great extent, the war and its repercussions caused a redefinition of modern China's border security and defense in both northwestern and southwestern China. The war with Japan turned the Nationalists westward, a new perspective which shifted the power relationship between the Nationalists and China's frontier regional leaders. This historical phenomenon resulted in the extension of Nationalist power to, and the building of, new institutions and infrastructures, in China's remotest ethnic frontier. It also contributed to modern China's first contact with the Middle East. The westward expansion during wartime also transformed modern China from a maritime economy rooted in East Asian trade to a continental one based on overland trade routes through the heartland of Asia.

Notes

^*Hsiao-ting Lin is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He received his D.Phil. from the University of Oxford in 2003. He is the author of Tibet and Nationalist China's Frontier; Intrigues and Ethnopolitics, 1928–49, and more than 40 essays, journal articles and book reviews. His academic interests include ethnopolitics in greater China, the political history of modern China, and the Taiwan–US relationship in the late 1940s and the early 1950s.

^1. On the Nomonhan incident, see Alvin D. Coox, Nomonhan: Japan against Russia, 1939 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1985).

^2. Stanley Hornbeck Papers, Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford University, Box 300, State Department confidential memorandum, 9 December 1942. On Chiang Kai-shek's effort to obtain U.S. support in the early years of the Sino-Japanese war, see also Tai-chun Kuo, “A Strong Diplomat in a Weak Polity: T.V. Soong and Wartime US-China Relations, 1940–1943”, Journal of Contemporary China, Vol. 18, No. 59 (March 2009), pp. 219–231.

^3. President Chiang Kai-shek Collections, Academia Historica, Taipei, Choubi (CB), 09-1413, Memorandum concerning the negotiation with Sheng Shicai, June 1942 (n.d.); Tejiao Wendian (TW), Vol. 5, No. 31043989, Zhu Shaoliang to Chiang Kai-shek, 30 July 1942.

^4. CB, 09-1439, Chiang to Kung, 26 August 1942.

^8. Chiang's diary, entry for 31 August 1942, CKD, Box 42.

^5. Chiang Kai-shek diary, entry for 20 August 1942, Chiang Kai-shek Diaries (CKD), Hoover Institution Archives, Box 42.

^6. TW, Vol. 5, No. 31043988, Chiang Kai-shek to Sheng Shicai, 24 July 1942; No. 31044029, Sheng to Chiang, 30 October 1942.

^7. Chiang Kai-shek diary, entry for 27 August 1942, CKD, Box 42.

^9. British National Archives, London, War Office Records (WO), 208/268, Memorandum by British Military Attaché in China to Government of India, 22 October 1942; Foreign Office Records (FO) 436/16605, Report on the journey of Eric Teichman (Councilor of British Embassy in China) in Xinjiang, 24 September 1943.

^10. Liu Jin, Zhongxin yu Bianyuan—Guomindang Zhengquan Gan-Ning-Qing Shehui [Center and Margin: The Nationalist Regime and the Societies of Gansu, Ningxia and Qinghai] (Tianjin: Tianjin guji chubanshe, 2004), pp. 154–155.

^11. Diao Baoshi, ed., Minguo Wu Liqing Xiansheng Zhongxin Nianpu [A Chronicle of Mr. Wu Zhongxin's Life] (Taipei: Taiwan Commercial Publishing Ltd, 1988), pp. 117–118.

^12. WO, 208/268, British Military Attaché in China to War Office, 12 November 1942; FO 436/16518, Report from Teichman to Horace Seymour, 3 September 1943; Yang Xiaoping, Ma Bufang Jiazu di Xingshuai [The Rise and Fall of the Ma Bufang Family] (Xining: Qinghai renmin chubanshe, 1986), pp. 190–212.

^13. CB, 09-1329, Chiang Kai-shek to Zhu Shaoliang, 2 June 1942; 09-1406, Chiang to Ma Buqing, 19 July 1942; FO 436/16605, British Embassy in China to Foreign Office, 24 November 1943.

^14. Chiang Kai-shek diary, entries for 15 July, 28 and 29 August, and 1 September 1942, CKD, Box 42; WO 208/428, Memorandum entitled ‘Moslem soldiers in Tsaidam Basin’, 24 October 1942.

^15. FO 436/16605, ‘Weekly summary for November 1943’, 6 December 1943. Chiang Kai-shek described the return of Gansu Corridor to the Nationalist fold as ‘one of the greatest achievements of Nationalist China's war cause’. See Chiang's diary, entry for 22 August 1942, CKD, Box 42.

^16. FO 436/16605, Memorandum entitled ‘Present Circumstances and Future Prospects of the Chinese Government and Future Trends of Chinese Policy’, 27 October 1943.

^17. Chiang Kai-shek diary, entries for 9 and 12 August 1942, CKD, Box 42.

^18. Zhongyang Dangwu Gongbao [KMT Central Party Affairs Gazette] 4(19), (September 1942), pp. 23–24.

^19. Chiang Kai-shek's diary, entry for 28 August 1942, CKD, Box 42.

^20. FO 436/16373, British Embassy in China to Foreign Office, 5 October 1942.

^21. FO 436/16518, Travel report by Teichman, 14 September 1943.

^22. Wu Zhongli, ed., Ningxia Jindai Lishi Jinian [The Chronological History of Modern Ningxia] (Yinchuan: Ningxia renmin chubanshe, 1987), pp. 286–291.

^23. FO 436/16605, Report from Teichman in Gansu, 6 October 1943; Oriental and India Office Collections (OIOC), British Library, London, L/P&S/12/4620, Government of India to India Office, 22 November 1943.

^24. Archives of the Supreme National Defense Council (ASNDC), Hoover Institution Archives, 003/2352, Supreme National Defense Council (SNDC) to Executive Yuan, 31 December 1942; 003/2361, Executive Yuan to SNDC, 22 February 1943.

^25. ASNDC, 003/2359, SNDC to Executive Yuan, 30 December 1942; Executive Yuan memorandum, 7 May 1943; T.V. Soong Papers, Hoover Institution Archives, Box 25, Central Planning Bureau, ‘Blueprint for the construction of the Northwest for the fiscal year 1943’, 1 November 1942.

^26. KMT Central Executive Committee, ed., Zhengling Xuanchuan Jiyao [A Summary of Government Decrees and Propaganda] (Chongqing: KMT Central Executive Committee, 1943), pp. 64–66.

^27. ASNDC, 003/2439, KMT Central Executive Committee to SNDC, 19 March 1943.

^28. Andrew Forbes, Warlords and Muslims in Chinese Central Asia: A Political History of Republican Sinkiang (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), pp. 157–162.

^29. Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (AMFA), Academia Historica, 172-1/0100-1, Foreign Ministry to Chinese Embassy in London, 23 March 1942; FO 436/16363, ‘China: Political Review, 1942’, 22 June 1943.

^30. Hsiao-ting Lin, Tibet and Nationalist China's Frontier: Intrigues and Ethnopolitics, 1928–49 (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2006), pp. 126–136.

^31. AMFA 172-1/0008, ‘Constitution of the Xikang–Tibet Pack Transport Firm’, 29 January 1944.

^32. OIOC, L/P&S/12/4205, Seymour to Foreign Office, 26 July and 12 August 1942; Government of India to India Office, 26 August 1942.

^33. AMFA, 172-1/0035, Executive Yuan to Foreign Ministry, 11 July 1945; Foreign Ministry to Chinese Commission in India, 18 July 1945; Zhou Yishi, Zhongguo Gonglu Shi [A History of China's Highways] (Taipei: Wenhai chubanshe, 1957), pp. 222–223.

^34. AMFA, 172-1/0103, Foreign Ministry to Ministry of Military Affairs, top secret, 18 July 1942.

^35. AMFA, 172-1/0103, Foreign Ministry memorandum, 21 October 1942; Chinese Embassy in Moscow to Foreign Ministry, 26 January 1943.

^36. FO 436/16605, Teichman's travel report from Kashmir, dated 10 January 1944; AMFA, 172-1/0103, Chinese Embassy in Moscow to Foreign Ministry, 12 and 13 September 1943.

^37. Arthur Young, China and the Helping Hand, 1937–1945 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1963), pp. 252–253.

^38. AMFA, 172-1/0102-1, Ministry of Communications to Foreign Ministry, 29 July 1942; Memorandum by Foreign Ministry, 23 January 1943.

^39. OIOC, L/P&S/12/4617, Report by M. C. Gillett (British Consul-General in Kashgar), 18 November 1942.

^40. OIOC, L/P&S/12/4609, Memorandum by Foreign Office, dated 3 February 1943; L/P&S/12/757, Foreign Office Minute, 23 July 1943.

^41. AMFA, 172-1/0104, Foreign Ministry to Ministry of Communications, 7 December 1942; Foreign Ministry to Executive Yuan, 25 December 1943.

^43. OIOC, L/P&S/12/2405, British Consulate in Urumqi to British Embassy in China, 4 April 1946.

^42. OIOC, L/P&S/12/2406, British Consulate in Urumqi to British Embassy in China, 13 January and 21 February 1944; Office of Chinese Deputy Inspector-General of Customs to British Consulate in Urumqi, 12 February 1944.

^44. AMFA, 172-1/0102-2, Ministry of Communications to Foreign Ministry, 21 May 1943; Chinese Embassy in London to Ministry of Communications, 17 May 1943.

^45. AMFA, 172-1/0102-2, Report by Ministry of Communications, January 1944; Chiang Kai-shek's instruction to Foreign Ministry, 14 March 1944; Foreign Ministry memorandum, 22 March 1944.

^46. AMFA, 172-1/0102-2, Memorandum by General He Yingqin (Chief of General Staff) to Chiang Kai-shek, 13 January 1944; Military Affairs Commission to Foreign Ministry, 31 March 1944.

^47. AMFA, 172-1/0102-1, Chinese Commission in India to Foreign Ministry, 23 March 1943; Xinjiang Provincial Government to Foreign Ministry, 16 April 1943.

^48. AMFA, 172-1/0102-1, Shen Shihua to Foreign Ministry, 25 March 1943; Ministry of Economic Affairs to Foreign Ministry, 26 April 1943; Foreign Ministry to Military Affairs Commission, 6 May 1943.

^49. OIOC, L/P&S/12/4609, India Office to Government of India, 2 March 1943; India Office minute paper, 2 June 1943.

^50. AMFA, 112/923, Ministry of Military Ordinance to Foreign Ministry, 15 January 1942; Chiang Kai-shek to T. V. Soong, 1 April 1943.

^51. Chiang's diary, entry for 17 November 1942, CKD, Box 42.

^52. Nationalist China's marked presence in the Pamirs and the adjacent regions during wartime became one crucial factor leading to the Soviets' territorial and administrative realignments in Central Asia. See Olivier Roy, The New Central Asia: The Creation of Nations (London: I.B. Tauris, 2000), pp. 66–68.

^53. AMFA, 172-1/0102-2, British Embassy in China to K. C. Wu (Vice Foreign Minister), 20 October 1944; He Yingqin to Chiang Kai-shek, 3 November 1944.

^54. OIOC, L/P&S/12/3289, Memorandum by British Resident in Kashmir, No. D.7910/41, 27 August 1941; Annual trade report: Ladakh 1944-1945, dated 30 August 1945; Annual trade report: Ladakh 1945–1946, dated 10 December 1946.

^55. OIOC, L/P&S/12/2407, K. P. S. Menon (Indian Agent-General to China) to Government of India, 25 October, 19 and 29 December 1944; AMFA 172-1/0104, Xinjiang Provincial Government to Foreign Ministry, 5 April 1944.

^56. OIOC, L/P&S/12/2402, C. Gillet (British Consul-General at Kashgar) to Government of India, 5 January 1945.

^57. OIOC, L/P&S/12/2407, Report by Etherington-Smith (British Consul-General at Kashgar), 23 August 1945.

^58. OIOC, L/P&S/12/2402, Etherington-Smith to Government of India, 21 November 1946.

^59. OIOC, L/P&S/12/2405, British Consulate in Urumqi to British Embassy in China, 2 September 1945.

^60. Xiaoyuan Liu, A Partnership for Disorder: China, the United States, and their Policies for the Postwar Disposition of the Japanese Empire, 1941–1945 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp. 55–80.

^61. Chiang Kai-shek, China's Destiny (New York: Roy Publishers, 1947), pp. 9–11.

^62. Chiang Kai-shek's diary, entries for 13 and 30 September, and 6 October 1942, CKD, Box 42.

^63. On the Western powers' negative reactions toward Chiang's book, see, for example, FO 436/16680, Foreign Office minute paper entitled ‘China's Destiny’, 15 February 1944.

^64. OIOC, L/P&S/12/355, British Embassy in Angora to Government of India, 6 June 1939; AMFA, 172-1/0047, Chinese Consulate-General in Calcutta to Foreign Ministry, 2 September 1942.

^65. OIOC, L/P&S/12/355, British Mission in Kabul to Foreign Office, 25 January 1940; AMFA, 172-1/0047, KMT Central Organization Department to Foreign Ministry, 7 December 1942.

^66. AMFA, 172-1/0047, Chinese Consulate-General in Calcutta to Foreign Ministry, 29 October 1942; Chiang Kai-shek to Foreign Ministry, 10 December 1942.

^67. Linda Benson and Ingvar Svanger, China's Last Nomads: The History and Culture of China's Kazaks (New York: M. E. Sharpe, 1998), pp. 56–87.

^68. AMFA, 172-1/0047, Chinese Consulate-General in Calcutta to Foreign Ministry, 12 May 1943; Xinjiang Provincial Government to Foreign Ministry, 17 July 1943.

^69. FO 436/17087, Memorandum entitled ‘Chinese Moslems’, 9 April 1942; AMFA, 172-1/0047, Foreign Ministry to Ministry of Military Ordinance, Ministry of Home Affairs, and KMT Central Organization Department, 11 August 1943.

^70. AMFA, 172-1/0103, Li Tiezheng to Foreign Ministry, 7 July 1943; 172-1/0103, Li to Foreign Ministry, 2 and 4 February, 1 April, and 18 October 1943.

^71. AMFA, 172-1/1368, Ministry of Economic Affairs to Foreign Ministry, 13 November 1943.

^72. AMFA, 172-1/1368, Li Tiezheng to Foreign Ministry, 20 November 1943, and 4 October 1944; Foreign Ministry to Ministry of Economic Affairs, 6 November 1944.

^73. ASNDC, 003/2358, Military Affairs Commission to SNDC, top secret, 29 April 1943; 003/3206, SNDC to Executive Yuan, 9 August 1945.

^74. OIOC, L/P&S/12/806, British Military Attaché in China to War Office and Government of India, 11, 15 and 16 March 1943; Government of India to British Military Attaché in China, 16 March 1943.

^75. AMFA, 321/87, Moslem Youth Monthly (Lanzhou) to Foreign Ministry, 6 June 1942; Executive Yuan to Foreign Ministry, 8 January 1943.

^76. AMFA, 172-1/1366, Foreign Ministry to Chinese Legations in Iran and Turkey, 19 February 1943; 172-1/1360, Li Tiezheng to Foreign Ministry, 7 April 1944.

^77. AMFA, 172-1/1366, Li Tiezheng to Foreign Ministry, 5 November 1943; 172-1/1371, Li to Foreign Ministry, 12 June 1944.

^78. AMFA, 172-1/1360, Prince Abdulilah (le Régent of Iraq) to Chiang Kai-shek, 7 May 1945.

^79. AMFA, 172-1/1360, Li Tiezheng to Foreign Ministry, 1 November 1944; Foreign Ministry to Executive Yuan, 14 November 1944; Chinese Legation in Egypt to Foreign Ministry, 23 March 1945.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hsiao-Ting Lin

80 *Hsiao-ting Lin is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He received his D.Phil. from the University of Oxford in 2003. He is the author of Tibet and Nationalist China's Frontier; Intrigues and Ethnopolitics, 1928–49, and more than 40 essays, journal articles and book reviews. His academic interests include ethnopolitics in greater China, the political history of modern China, and the Taiwan–US relationship in the late 1940s and the early 1950s.