Fu Bingchang, Chiang Kai-shek and Yalta

Abstract

Fu Binchang, the last ambassador General Chiang Kai-shek sent to Soviet Russia was stationed in Moscow from 1943 to 1949. During his more than six-year residency in Moscow, Fu recorded the details of his political and operational dealings as a full and active participant of the diplomatic corps on the very doorstep of the Kremlin. This paper analyses Fu's role in the gathering of intelligence and timing of information leaked to the Chinese embassy about the Far Eastern Agreement – a secret agreement concluded by China's Big Three allies at the Crimea Conference of 1945.

Acknowledgements

I wish to express my gratitude to Steven I. Levine, Hans van de Van and Odd Arne Westad for their valuable comments on earlier drafts.

Notes

Yee Wah Foo is a senior lecturer of politics at the University of Lincoln. Projects include the ‘Historical Photographs of China’ archive, http://chp.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr, and a forthcoming book entitled The Wartime Diaries of Fu Bingchang: Chiang Kai-shek's Last Ambassador to Moscow, Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 978-0-230-58477-8. Yee Wah is the grand-daughter of Fu Bingchang.

  [1] Fu Bingchang Diary, 4 January 1943; Meeting between Fu Bingchang and Chiang Kai-shek at the Yunyou Bldg, Huangshan Area, Chongqing.

  [2] Hsiang-lin, Fu Ping Ch'ang and Modern China, Introduction.

  [3] Wai, ‘The Prince's Clique and Hong Kong Chinese Merchants, 1918-1927’.

  [4] See Hsia, My Five Incursions into Diplomacy, for a full account of the 1938 mission to Moscow.

  [5] For information about fundraising and the decisive battle of Taierzhuang, see van de Ven, War and Nationalism in China, 224.

  [6] ‘Record of Leading Personalities in China. 9 August 1944’. FO 371 41682:17, Foreign Office files, Public Records Office, London (hereafter cited as PRO).

  [7] On Fu see Foo, ‘A Chinese Photographer’, 45–8.

  [8] See ‘Historical Photographs of China’, http://chp.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr/.

  [9] For descriptions of the Czar's palace see Kathleen Harriman, Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, WAH Papers, Box 176, ‘Letters to Miss Marshall’, 1 February 1945.

 [10] Minutes 28 May 1945 taken at Harry Hopkins–Stalin meeting, Kremlin. Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Box 187 WAH Papers. Also PRO, FO371 41746, 109–17. (Stalin wanted to keep troop movements to the Far East secret). See also Harriman to the President. Navy Cable, 15 June 1945: ‘It was recognized that in Chungking there was a danger of a leak to the Japanese’. Library of Congress, WAH Papers, Box 180. Also Hurley to Truman 10 May 1945, US Department of State, Foreign Relations of the United States (hereafter cited at FRUS), 866. Hurley would not tell Chiang until the opportune time and signal was received by Stalin.

 [11] US Department of State, Foreign Relations of the United States, 984.

 [12] Garver, Chinese Soviet Relations, 210–2.

 [13] Jian, ‘The Myth of America's “Lost Chance in China”’; Cohen, ‘Symposium’; Youli, ‘Revisiting Cairo and Yalta’; Harriman , America and Russia in a Changing World, 55. Harriman quipped, ‘Some people have said we lost China. It just happens that we never owned China’.

 [14] Hull, The Memoirs of Cordell Hull , 1583; Minutes of Conference, 29 November 1943, Box 170. WAH Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, DC. Roosevelt to Stalin – ‘…better to have them as friends rather than a potential source of trouble’. Also, Office Memorandum prepared by John Davies, 4 January 1945. The National Archives, MD, USA. Box 4020, Dept of State RG59, F761.93/1-244.

 [15] Memorandum concerning US Post-war Military Policies with Respect to China, State Department Paper dated 3 April 1945, Foreign Relations United States 1945, 75.

 [16] Moscow News, Wednesday 3 November 1943; Also Fu Bingchang Diary, September–November 1943.

 [17] Hull, Memoirs, 1307. Navy Cable to President from Harriman: ‘Soviet Acceptance of the Declaration’, 27 October 1943. Library of Congress, WAH Papers, Box 70. Also Memorandum of Conversation Re: China and the Conference, 1 November 1943. The Chinese Ambassador to the Secretary of State, Library of Congress, WAH Papers, Box 70.

 [18] Telegram Sir A. Clark Kerr to the War Cabinet, 4 November 1943. Public Records Office, London, FO 371 35860.

 [19] van de Ven, War and Nationalism in China, 20. Also memo by Assistant Chief of the Division of Chinese Affairs, Mr. Chase, FRUS: 1 March 1945, 57; Manser, ‘Roosevelt and China: From Cairo to Yalta’, Conclusion.

 [20] Dept. of State memorandum, 9 February 1945. ‘Chinese–Soviet Relations’, The National Archives, MD, U.S.A., Box 4020, 761.93/2-945.

 [21] Memo from Assistant Chief of the Division of Chinese Affairs, Mr. Chase, March 1945, FRUS: 1945, 57.

 [22] van de Ven, War and Nationalism, 58. Operation Ichigo was in full force, so it was reasonable to look for alternatives.

 [23] Fu Bingchang Diary, 1 September 1944. Fu presented a positive picture to Hurley. Also Memorandum from Deputy Director to Secretary of State, 24 August 1944, FRUS: 1944 China, 252; National Archives, MD, USA, FO 761.93/8-2444. Also Hull to Harriman, 26 August 1944, FRUS: 1944 China, 252. Also in FRUS: 1944 China, 248, Roosevelt to Donald Nelson, ‘economic relations with China to be one of the utmost importance’. Also Hull to Harriman, 5 September 1944, FRUS: 1944 China, 254.

 [24] Reardon-Anderson, Yanan and the Great, 52–3.

 [25] Westad, Cold War and Revolution, 20.

 [26] Westad, Cold War and Revolution, 60.

 [27] Stoler, Allies and Adversaries, 123, 180; Reynolds, ‘World War II and Modern Meanings’, 464; Clemens, ‘Averell Harriman’, 279.

 [28] Truman, The Truman Memoirs Vol. 2, 182. ‘I know what would have happened in 1944 if Roosevelt and his ideals were not allowed to continue through those extremely critical times’.

 [29] Small, ‘How We Learned to Love the Russians’; Report for the Ambassador's Information on ‘optimism concerning the outlook for harmonious relations between the U.S. and the Soviet Union’. Library of Congress, WAH Papers, Box 180, 22 June 1944.

 [30] Memo of Conversation Harriman to Roosevelt: ‘Development of Closer Relations between the Soviet Union and the US’. (Also, Paraphrase of Army Cable No. 6, 21 October 1943). Library of Congress, WAH Papers, Box 70. Also Memorandum of Conversation between Molotov and W.A. Harriman, 21 October 1943, Library of Congress, WAH Papers, Box 70.

 [31] Memorandum of Conversation, Harriman to Roosevelt, ‘Development of Closer Relations between the Soviet Union and the U.S.’, Library of Congress, WAH Papers, Box 70.

 [32] Fu Diary, 12 February 1944 and 4 June 1944. Meetings between Fu and Harriman. Also Paraphrase of Navy cable dated 15 December 1944, Ambassador Harriman to President, US National Archives, Box 4020. Doc. 152020. Also George Kennan to Harriman, 18 September 1944, Library of Congress, WAH Papers, Box 174; Also Kennan to Harriman, US National Archives, Box 4020, Telegram dated 23 April 1945 761.93/4-2345 KFC.

 [33] Fu Papers, Cable to Chiang Kaishek, 26 July 1944.

 [34] Special Survey of Intelligence, Office of Dept. of Intelligence, Government of India, Peshawar, 31 December 1943, London, PRO, FO 371, File 41591, 1–2.

 [35] Garver, Chinese–Soviet Relations, 155.

 [36] Fu Diary, 15–20 March 1944. See also for events in Xinjing Province, Whiting and Shih t'sai, Pawn or Pivot?; Lattimore, Pivot of Asia; Garver, Chinese–Soviet Relations, Chapter 6.

 [37] Telegram Hull to Ambassador Gauss, 11 April 1944 on Sino-Soviet Relations, FRUS: 1944, 772. Also Garver, Chinese–Soviet Relations, 200.

 [38] Westad, Cold War and Revolution, 22.

 [39] Sir H. Prideaux-Brune to Ashley Clarke, Foreign Office, London, FO 371/35874. PRO, London. Regarding a leaked report from the Senate Military Affairs Committee in Washington, ‘We think Britain ought to keep her hands off all foreign nations and stay out of China’.

 [40] Stoler, Allies and Adversaries, 223–4; van de Ven, War and Nationalism, 41.

 [41] Fu Bingchang Diary, 26 February 1944.

 [42] General conversation. Dinner given by Marshall Stalin. Library of Congress, WAH Papers, Box 176.

 [43] For analysis of Iakov Malik's recommendations in which there are striking similarities between Malik's list and Stalin's proposal for the Yalta Agreement, see Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, Racing the Enemy (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005), 25–8.

 [44] The President and Marshall Stalin, Memorandum of Conversation, Crimean Conference, 8 February 1945, Far East: Russian Desires, Library of Congress, WAH Papers, Box 176.

 [45] Westad, Cold War and Revolution, Introduction.

 [46] Maxwell M. Hamilton to the Ambassador, ‘Comments of the Soviet Attitude toward the Far East’, 15 November 1943, Library of Congress, WAH Papers, Box 70.

 [47] Westad, Cold War and Revolution, 9.

 [48] Levine, ‘Comments’, 398.

 [49] Memo from John Davies to State Dept., ‘No one is more aware than Stalin of the fallibility of foreign loyalties to the Soviet Union’. FRUS: 4 January 1945, 155.

 [50] For Stalin's basic policies for the post-war period see Holloway, ‘The Premises of Policy’. Also Zubok, ‘Stalin's Plans and Russian Archives’.

 [51] Wei, China and Soviet Russia, 1–5, 182–7. See also Holloway, ‘Jockeying for Position in the Post-war World’.

 [52] From a cultural and racial view of the Russo-Japanese war, see Tamonoi, ‘Knowledge, Power and Racial Classifications’. And from a nationalist perspective, Pyle, ‘The Technology of Japanese Nationalism’, 51.

 [53] Holloway, The End of the Pacific War, 183.

 [54] Hasegawa, Racing the Enemy, 34.

 [55] Hasegawa, Racing the Enemy, 26–36.

 [56] Garver, Chinese–Soviet Relations, 209–13; Fu Diary, 1 November 1943.

 [57] Record of Conversation between Fu and Harriman, 15 November 1943, Library of Congress, WAH Papers, Box 170. See also Hull to State Department, FRUS: Vol.1, 693.

 [58] Van de Ven, War and Nationalism, 44; Garver, Chinese Soviet Relations, 196–9.

 [59] Fu to T.V. Soong and Chiang, FRUS: 1944, 788.

 [60] Garver, Chinese–Soviet Relations, 197.

 [61] Fu Diary, 4 February 1943; Garver, Chinese–Soviet Relations, 3–13; Westad, Cold War and Revolution, 5; Eastman, Seeds of Destruction, 133–57; van de Ven, War and Nationalism, 40–6.

 [62] Garver, Chinese–Soviet Relations, 209; Westad, Cold War and Revolution, 35, notes that Chiang's journal showed little emotional reaction to the Agreement handed to him by Ambassador Hurley.

 [63] Chin-tung, in Nationalist China During the Sino-Japanese War; Yaung, ‘The Impact of the Yalta Agreement on China's Domestic Politics’.

 [64] Garver, Chinese–Soviet Relations; Westad, Cold War and Revolution; Xiaoyuan, A Partnership for Disorder.

 [65] Garver, Chinese–Soviet Relations, 209.

 [66] Westad, Cold War and Revolution, 32. Westad takes this information from Chiang's Diary, 21 February 1945, Zongtong Jiang, Vol. 5, Book 2, 680. Fu's diaries suggest he did not receive broad hints from Soviet officials.

 [67] Liu, A Partnership for Disorder, 243.

 [68] Fu Diary, 28 September 1944.

 [69] Fu Diary, 16 November 1944.

 [70] Fu Diary, 1943, 1944, 1945.

 [71] Fu Diary, 1943, 1944, 1945. Also Kathleen Harriman Letters, Library of Congress, WAH Papers, ‘Kathleen to Mary’, Boxes 170, 172 and 173.

 [72] Fu Bingchang Diary, 28 February 1945. For an illustration of Stalin's total hold over Soviet papers, see ‘Document 1. Stalin's cipher telegram from Sochi to Molotov, Beria, Malenkov and Mikoyan. 10 November 1945’, 132–3.

 [73] Telegram Sir A. Clark Kerr to the War Cabinet, 4 November 1943. London PRO, FO 371 35860.

 [74] Liu, A Partnership for Disorder, 233.

 [75] Fu Diary, 17 December 1944.

 [76] For more information on the ‘Tolstoy’ talks, see Kimball, ‘Naked Reverse Right’.

 [77] Fu Diary, 22 November 1944.

 [78] Fu Diary, 17, 18 December 1944.

 [79] Holloway, End of the Pacific War, 155.

 [80] Lunch with US First Secretary Calder, Fu Diary, 17 January 1945.

 [81] Lunch with US First Secretary Calder, Fu Diary, 16 February 1945.

 [82] Lunch with US First Secretary Calder, Fu Diary, 19 February 1945.

 [83] Hasegawa, Racing with the Enemy, 27.

 [84] Fu Diary, 18 May 1945.

 [85] Yaung, Impact of the Yalta Agreement, 50.

 [86] Fu Diary, 18 May 1945.

 [87] Fu Diary, 18 May 1945.

 [88] Fu Diary, 7 June 1945.

 [89] Fu Diary, 5 May 1945.

 [90] Fu Diary, 26 May 1945.

 [91] Fu Diary, 6 June 1945.

 [92] Fu Diary, 23 January 1945.

 [93] Fu Diary, 13 February 1945.

 [94] According to an 8 February memorandum, Stalin said he ‘would like to discuss the political conditions under which the USSR would enter the war against Japan’. [The Harriman–Stalin meeting had taken place 8 December at the Kremlin – see Library of Congress, WAH Papers, Box 176] Meeting of the President with Marshal Stalin, 8 February 1945, WAH Papers, Box 176.

 [95] Meeting between Fu and Harriman, Fu Diary, 14 February 1945.

 [96] See ‘Memoranda of Conversations regarding the Far East’, 8–10 February 1945. Library of Congress, WAH Papers, Box 176–7.

 [97] Memorandum of Conversation, Dinner Given by Marshal Stalin. Library of Congress, WAH Papers, Box 176.

 [98] Clark Kerr's name does not appear as an attendee in the Minutes on the Far East, so his assertion may have been in good faith. Library of Congress, WAH Papers, Box 176.

 [99] We only have Fu's transcription in Chinese; but did Clark Kerr specifically mention Russia's imperial interests in the Far East? We can only guess.

 [100] Jiang Jieshi, Diary, 21 February 1945, Zongtong Jiang, Vol. 5, Book 2, 680. (This entry suggests Fu guessed the general outline of Yalta by hints from Soviet officials. The date does not tally with Fu's journal, but by this time Fu had already met with Ambassadors Harriman and Clark Kerr).

[101] Fu Diary, 22 February 1945.

[102] Westad, Cold War and Revolution, 35.

[103] Fu Diary, 28 June 1945.

[104] This news was not new to Fu. On 17 July 1944 French Minister, Pierre Cot, told him Molotov wanted a ‘strong China’ to maintain peace in the Far East.

[105] Westad, Cold War and Revolution, 32.

[106] Yaung, Impact of the Yalta Agreement, 72; Liang, Nationalist China During the Sino-Japanese War, 373.

[107] Garver, Chinese–Soviet Relations, 209; Westad, Cold War and Revolution, 35.

[108] Garver, Chinese–Soviet Relations, 72.

[109] Westad, Cold War and Revolution, 8.

[110] Van de Ven, War and Nationalism in China, 14. See also Hasegawa, End of the Pacific War.

[111] Telegram from Ambassador Hurley in Chongqing to Secretary of State in Washington, US National Archives, Box 4020 761.93/2-445; Fu Diary, 8 March 1943.

[112] Meeting with Harriman, Fu Diary, 18 December 1944.

[113] American Consul General, O. Edmund Clubb to Secretary of State, Washington, DC, ‘Regarding Japanese–Soviet Relations’, US National Archives, File 761.04/11-2244.

[114] Foo, ‘Fu Bingchang: Chiang Kai-shek's last Ambassador to Soviet Russia’.

[115] Fu and the Minister of Australia, Fu Diary, 31 August 1945.

[116] Fu and the Minister of Australia, Fu Diary, 28 June 1945.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yee Wah Foo

Yee Wah Foo is a senior lecturer of politics at the University of Lincoln. Projects include the ‘Historical Photographs of China’ archive, http://chp.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr, and a forthcoming book entitled The Wartime Diaries of Fu Bingchang: Chiang Kai-shek's Last Ambassador to Moscow, Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 978-0-230-58477-8. Yee Wah is the grand-daughter of Fu Bingchang.