Recast All under Heaven: Revolution, War, Diplomacy, and Frontier China in the 20th Century
Xiaoyuan Liu
Language: English
Pages: 288
ISBN: 1441134891
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
In applying the two interpretative themes of "frontier" and "ethnicity", the book examines the externalization from and internalization to China by a number of the tributary affiliates and outlying territories of the by-gone Qing Empire (e.g. Korea, Vietnam, "Outer" and Inner Mongolia, Tibet, and Xinjiang) The historical developments dissected here are certain overlooked aspects of the otherwise well-scrutinized international history of 20th-century East Asia. These helped transform the territorial domain and ethnic composition of the Chinese state from "imperial" to "national" The book is unique in blending analyses of "domestic" and "international" developments involved in China's modern reincarnation, and in providing an integral narrative that links historical themes pertinent to the eastern and western halves of China. While the frontier characteristics of the Chinese state in the pre-industrial age are not news to the field of China studies, this is the first study contending that "frontier China" has remained a fitting characterization of the rising Asian giant.
as individual candles. To highlight the interpretative aspect of these essays, the overall structure of the book is organized thematically while the chapters in each section are arranged chronologically. PREFACE IX Part I includes two chapters that present separately the paradigm of territoriality transformation and the perception of China as both an East Asian and a Center Asian entity in terms of its geopolitical identity. Part two contains three chapters on the Chinese Nationalist
1942–1945,” 1290–1291. 61. FRUS, 1945, 1: 124. 62. See, for instance, Louis, Imperialism at Bay, 28; Watt, Succeeding John Bull, 216; La Feber, “Roosevelt, Churchill, and Indochina,” 1295; and Kimball, Juggler, 153. 63. Edgar Snow, Random Notes on Red China, 1936–1945 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1974), 127. 64. Gu Weijun (Wellington Koo), Gu Weijun Huiyilu (Memoirs of Gu Weijun) (Beijing, Zhonghua Shuju, 1987), 5: 577–578. 65. RWK, 5 (E): 841, 864–866, 869–872; ZZSC, 3 (2): 542–543. 66.
problem for the KMT regime, however, was that the CCP, a collaborator in the Northern Expedition, also revived its northward effort after Japan’s surrender. This time, the CCP was the KMT’s deadly competitor. Pursuing a long-standing dream of national unification and battling along the way an “international communist fifth column,” the KMT leadership found the theme of Chinese nationalism vitally important. Chiang Kai-shek attached such importance to the theme that in March 1948, a difficult
end of war. In view that the CCP was so masterful in conducting mass movements and propagated so much about the KMT government’s suppressive policies toward the non-Han peoples of China, this lack of foresight was especially astonishing. The scarcity of information about the Inner Mongols was just part of the reasons. A more important reason was the CCP leadership’s fundamental underestimation of the Inner Mongols as a people. During World War II, frustrated by their abortive efforts to mobilize
as evidence of political numbness. Secondly, now that the Inner Mongols’ political activism was evident, it must be kept in the CCP’s orbit lest it be manipulated by the KMT, create difficulties to CCP operations, or grow into an unstoppable separatist movement to harm China’s territorial integrity. And, thirdly, the West Sunid incident educated the CCP leadership that an ethnic separatist movement might be encouraged by “friendly” foreign influence, even though in this particular case the Soviet