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Between Sovereignty and Legitimacy: China and UNESCO, 1946–1953

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2019

GORDON BARRETT Open the ORCID record for GORDON BARRETT [Opens in a new window]
GORDON BARRETT*
Affiliation:
Faculty of History and Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford Email: gordon.barrett@history.ox.ac.uk
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Abstract

UNESCO's founding in 1946 coincided with the resumption of hostilities between China's ruling Nationalist Party (KMT) and their Chinese Communist Party (CCP) rivals for power. The new international organization's officials in Paris and its representatives on the ground in China were thus forced to navigate a fractious and fluid set of national circumstances that would result in an ambiguous outcome in 1949, with regimes on the Chinese mainland and Taiwan both claiming to represent ‘China’. Although the KMT-led Republic of China continued to claim membership in UNESCO until the 1970s, the international organization nevertheless continued to operate within the People's Republic of China (PRC) for a number of years. Exploring the relationship between the issue of Chinese representation in UNESCO and the organization's on-the-ground presence from the mid-1940s through to the early 1950s, this article argues that domestic and international factors were inescapably intertwined in shaping the trajectory of Chinese relations with international organizations during this period. While CCP officials demonstrated a mixture of ideology and pragmatism, similar to their handling of foreign entities and groups present in the PRC after its founding, engagement with UNESCO was significantly shaped by the complexity and depth of the KMT's engagement with the international organization from its inception onwards. The CCP's relations with UNESCO underscore the extent to which the emerging Cold War—and China's place within it—was ultimately characterized by complexity and contingency.

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Research Article
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 53 , Issue 5 , September 2019 , pp. 1516 - 1542
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

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Footnotes

I am grateful to Robert Bickers, Mark Baker, and the anonymous reviewers for highly constructive feedback and suggestions. Thanks also to John Moffett and Jonathan Howlett for help tracking down crucial information, to Wei Yungaoli for ace assistance in the archives, and the Oxford TORCH Academic Writing Group. Research for this article was supported by the generous funding of the University of Bristol, the Worldwide Universities Network Researcher Mobility Programme, and the Universities’ China Committee in London.

References

1 Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China (hereafter ‘CFMA’), Beijing, 113-00013-01, Zhou E. to J. T. Bodet, 12 May 1950.

2 The text of these other letters can be found in: CFMA, 113-00013-02 to -08.

3 Mao Z. to Zhou E. and Liu S., 7 January [1950], Wilson Center Digital Archive, http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/112681, [accessed 29 March 2019].

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5 On the United States and Chinese representation, see: Kaufman, V. S., ‘“Chirep”: The Anglo-American Dispute over Chinese Representation in the United Nations, 1950–71’, English Historical Review, vol. 115, no. 461, April 2000, pp. 354–77CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6 Weng, B. S. J., Peking's UN Policy: Continuity and Change, Prager, London, 1972Google Scholar, remains the standout work on the PRC's relations with the UN during the 1950s and 1960s. A comprehensive list of other notable scholarly works from the 1960s and 1970s on the PRC and UN can be found in: Kim, S. S., China, the United Nations, and World Order, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1979, p. 99Google Scholar.

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12 See: ‘Dong Biwu’, in Lianheguo cidian [Dictionary of the United Nations], Yang, Y. (ed.), Heilongjiang Chubanshe, Harbin, 1998, pp. 686–87Google Scholar. On the CCP's early UN policy, see: Weng, Peking's UN Policy, pp. 73–75.

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17 See: Boecking, F., ‘Unmaking the Chinese Nationalist State: Administrative Reform among Fiscal Collapse, 1937–1945’, Modern Asian Studies, vol. 45, special issue 2, March 2011, pp. 277–301Google Scholar.

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19 For more on Needham's wartime activities with the Sino-British Science Cooperation Office (SBSCO), see: Needham, J. and Needham, D. (eds), Science Outpost: Papers of the Sino-British Science Co-operation Office (British Council Scientific Office in China), 1942–1946, Pilot Press, London, 1948Google Scholar; Mougey, T., ‘Needham at the Crossroads: History, Politics, and International Science in Wartime China (1942–1946)’, British Journal for the History of Science, vol. 50, no. 1, March 2017, pp. 83–109CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Winchester, S., The Man Who Loved China, HarperCollins, New York, 2008Google Scholar.

20 Cambridge University Library, Department of Manuscripts and University Archives, Joseph Needham Papers (hereafter: ‘JNP’), GBR/0012/MS Needham D.1, Copy of Letter to T. V. Soong, Excerpt [December 1943].

21 See: Needham's handwritten note in: JNP, GBR/0012/MS Needham D.1, H. C. Kiang to Needham, 22 December 1943.

22 The degree to which his Chinese experiences informed Needham's push is highly evident in these memorandums. This can be seen especially in the first and third, both published in Nature: Needham, J., ‘An International Science Co-operation Service’, Nature, vol. 154, no. 3917, 1944, pp. 657–60CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Needham, J., ‘The Place of Science and International Scientific Co-operation in Post-War World Organization’, Nature, vol. 156, no. 3967, 1945, pp. 558–61CrossRefGoogle Scholar. On the Conference of Allied Ministers and the creation of UNESCO, see: Singh, J. P., United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO): Creating Norms for a Complex World, Routledge, Abingdon, 2011, pp. 12–16Google Scholar.

23 JNP, GBR/0012/MS Needham D.35, Duplicate typescript of Constitution of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 16 November 1945.

24 JNP, GBR/0012/MS Needham D.159, Needham to E. Barger, 11 September 1949.

25 On Needham's politics, see: Werskey, G., The Visible College: A Collective Biography of British Scientists and Socialists of the 1930s, Free Association Books, London, 1988Google Scholar.

26 JNP, GBR/0012/MS Needham D.144, G. Archey to Needham, 15 September 1948.

27 JNP, GBR/0012/MS Needham D.144, Needham to E. Marsden, 7 October 1948.

28 Hillig, J., ‘Going Global: UNESCO Field Science Offices’, in Sixty Years of Science at UNESCO, 1945–2005, Petitjean, P. et al. (eds), UNESCO Publishing, Paris, 2006, pp. 72–75Google Scholar.

29 JNP, GBR/0012/MS Needham D.144, J. Smid, ‘Activity Report’, 3 September 1948.

30 One example of the nature of these ties can be seen in: ‘Lian jiao zuzhi pai Shimaozhi lai Hua [UNESCO Sends Jan Smid to China]’, Shenbao, 19 October 1947, p. 6.

31 ‘Lian jiao zuzhi zai Woguo shoubu [UNESCO in China's Capital]’, Shenbao, 29 October 1947, p. 6.

32 ‘Shimaode di Hu [Jan Smid Arrives in Shanghai]’, Shenbao, 12 November 1947, p. 7; ‘Lian jiao Zhongguo weihui huanying Shimaode [UNESCO Chinese National Commission Welcomes Jan Smid]’, Shenbao, 29 November 1947, p. 6.

33 JNP, GBR/0012/MS Needham D.144, Smid, ‘Activity Report’, 1948.

34 Ibid.; JNP, GBR/0012/MS Needham D.155, ‘Activity Report’, 29 December 1949.

35 On the UNRRA in China, see: Mitter, ‘Imperialism’, pp. 51–69. On UNESCO's inherited reconstruction activities, see: Maurel, C., ‘L'action de l'Unesco dans le domaine de la reconstruction’, Histoire@Politique, no. 19, 2013, pp. 160–75CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

36 JNP, GBR/0012/MS Needham D.144, Smid, ‘Activity Report’, 1948.

37 JNP, GBR/0012/MS Needham D.155, ‘Activity Report’, 1949.

38 ‘Lianheguo chongshi wo xuexiao shebei [United Nations Enriches Chinese Schools’ Equipment]’, Shenbao, 3 February 1949, p. 4.

39 UNESDOC Database, ‘Draft Proposal for UNESCO Book Coupons Scheme’, Paris, 1947, http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001424/142485eb.pdf, [accessed 29 March 2019].

40 Zuckerman, J., ‘UNESCO Book Coupon Scheme’, Notes, second series, vol. 6, no. 2, March 1949, p. 237CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

41 JNP, GBR/0012/MS Needham D.155, ‘Activity Report’, 1949.

42 Ibid.

43 JNP, GBR/0012/MS Needham D.152, Smid to Needham, 8 March 1949.

44 JNP, GBR/0012/MS Needham D.159, Needham to Barger, 11 September 1949.

45 Ibid.; JNP, GBR/0012/MS Needham D.159, Barger to Needham, [no date] no. 112694; Needham to Barger, 22 September 1949.

46 JNP, GBR/0012/MS Needham D.159, Needham to Jensen, 29 September 1949.

47 JNP, GBR/0012/MS Needham D.159, Jensen to Needham, telegram received 7 October 1949; and Jensen to Needham, 23 October [1949].

48 JNP, GBR/0012/MS Needham D.159, Jensen to Needham, 23 October [1949].

49 JNP, GBR/0012/MS Needham D.159, Needham to M. Lindsay, 14 November 1949.

50 On USSR–UNESCO relations in this period, see: Kulnazarova, A., ‘Debating International Understanding in the Eastern World: UNESCO and the Soviet Union’, in UNESCO Without Borders: Educational Campaigns for International Understanding, Kulnazarova, A. and Ydesen, C. (eds), Routledge, Abingdon 2017, pp. 256–74Google Scholar.

51 Coate, R. A., ‘Changing Patterns of Conflict: The United States and UNESCO’, in The United States and Multilateral Institutions: Patterns of Changing Instrumentality and Influence, Karns, M .P. and Mingst, K. A. (eds), Routledge, London, 1992, pp. 161–62Google Scholar; and P. Petitjean, ‘Visions and Revisions: Defining UNESCO's Scientific Culture, 1945–1965’, in Sixty Years, Petitjean et al. (eds), pp. 31–32.

52 Petitjean, P., ‘The Joint Establishment of the World Federation of Scientific Workers and of UNESCO after World War II’, Minerva, vol. 46, no. 2, June 2008, p. 267CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Petitjean, ‘Visions and Revisions’, p. 31. See also: UNESDOC, ‘Records of the General Conference, Fifth Session: Resolutions, Florence, 1950’, Paris, 1950, p. 5, http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0011/001145/114589e.pdf, [accessed 29 March 2019].

53 Wen, Y., ‘Personal Recollections of the 5th and 7th General Conferences of UNESCO’, Free China Review, vol. 3, no. 5, May 1953, pp. 7–10Google Scholar.

54 CFMA, 113-00078-07, ‘Lianheguo wen jiao zuzhi taolun Tai fei diabiao quan wenti [UNESCO Debate on the Issue of the Taiwanese Bandits’ Representation]’, 25 June 1951.

55 Kaufman, ‘“Chirep”’, pp. 355–56.

56 UNESDOC, ‘Records of the General Conference, Sixth Session: Resolutions, Paris, 1951’, Paris, 1951, p. 5, http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0011/001145/114588E.pdf, [accessed 29 March 2019].

57 CFMA, 113-00078-07, Zhu Ruishi dashi bao bu guan wen jiao dahui liu yue sa ri jiejue Tai fei biaojuequan wenti [‘Ambassador in Switzerland's Report for the Ministry on the UNESCO General Conference Resolution about Taiwanese Bandits’ Representation on 30 June]’, 4 July 1951.

58 Radhakrishnan, S., India and China: Lectures Delivered in China in May 1944, Hind Kitabs, Bombay, 1947, 2nd edn, pp. 1–2Google Scholar.

59 UNESDOC, ‘Resolutions and Decisions Adopted by the Executive Board at its Twenty-Sixth Session, 7 June to 9 July 1951’, 1951, http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0011/001137/113790E.pdf, [accessed 29 March 2019]. In subsequent years, Radhakrishnan continued to publicly support both the PRC and its representation in the UN. See, for example: Radhakrishnan, S., ‘India and China’, in Occasional Speeches and Writings: First Series, October 1952–January 1956, Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Delhi, 1957, pp. 40–44Google Scholar.

60 Zhou and Tang, Shanghai waishi zhi, p. 329.

61 Ibid., pp. 330–31.

62 Hooper, B., China Stands Up: Ending the Foreign Presence, 1948–1950, George Allen and Unwin, London, 1986, pp. 71–72Google Scholar.

63 JNP, GBR/0012/MS Needham D.155, ‘Activity Report’, 1949. According to Needham, there was some debate at UNESCO headquarters in Paris during this period about whether Smid was himself partly responsible for the EAFSCO's lack of progress with the CCP. Needham speculated that Smid's family falling foul of the new communist regime in Czechoslovakia made him somewhat languid in his approach to the Chinese communists. See: JNP, GBR/0012/MS Needham D.159, Needham to F. Jensen, 29 September 1949. Smid's personal feelings and circumstances aside, unless UNESCO's field officer had been an overt CCP sympathizer, practical impediments on the ground made it highly unlikely they would have been any more successful.

64 See: Hooper, China Stands Up, esp. Chapter 5.

65 CFMA, 113-00078-03, Waijiaobu bangongting [MFA General Office] to Wenjiao weiyuanhui [Foreign Affairs Committee], ‘(Yi) qing diaocha wenjiao xitong jiguan xuexiao zhi guoji guanxi huodong (er) qing zhuyi Lianheguo dongfang kexue hezuoguan huodong, bing chi suoshu jiguan bu yu laiwang [(1) Please Investigate the International Relations Activities of Organizations in the Culture and Education System; (2) Please Note the UN East Science Cooperation Office's Activities and Order Affiliated Organizations to not Have Dealings with it]’, 25 March 1950.

66 CFMA, 113-00078-04, Shen Y. [courtesy name for Shen Dehong (Mao Dun)] to Waijiaobu [MFA], 20 January 1950.

67 CFMA, 113-00078-03, Zhou E. to Zhongyang renmin zhengfu wenhuabu [Central People's Government Culture Committee and Education Committee], 25 January 1950.

68 CFMA, 113-00078-03, Jiaoyubu gaojiaosi [Ministry of Education Higher Education Department] to Waijiaobu [MFA] and enclosures, [16 March 1950].

69 CFMA, 113-00078-03, Waijiaobu bangongting [MFA General Office] to Jiaoyubu gaojiaosi [Ministry of Education Higher Education Department], ‘Han fu Jiaoyubu gaojiaosi xun ji Beida xiang Dongfangkexue hezuoguan goumai goushi shuquan shi [Reply to Ministry of Education Higher Education Department Inquiry and the Matter of Beida Purchasing Book Coupons from the East Asian Field Scientific Cooperation Office]’, 25 March 1950.

70 See: Hsiao, K. S., Money and Monetary Policy in Communist China, Columbia University Press, New York, 1971Google Scholar.

71 CFMA, 113-00078-03, Smid to Y. T. Yao [Rao Yuqin], 7 February 1950.

72 CFMA, 113-00078-02, Smid, 25 June 1951, quoted in Louis E. Low to Jacob Zuckerman, 6 August 1951.

73 CFMA, 113-00078-02, Shanghaishi renmin zhengfu junbu guangzhi weiyuanhui waishichu [Shanghai People's Government Military Control Commission Foreign Affairs Department] to Waijiaobu [MFA], ‘Baogao [Report]’, 8 September 1951.

74 Ibid.

75 CFMA, 113-00078-02, Waijiaobu guojisi [MFA International Department] to Shanghai waishichu [Shanghai Foreign Affairs Department], ‘guanyu Lianheguo jiao ke wen zuzhi dongfang kexueguan jixu zai Woguo chushou shu quan shi [On the Matter of the UNESCO EAFSCO Continuing to Sell Book Coupons in China]’, 26 September 1951.

76 CFMA, 113-00078-02, ‘Waijiaobu guojisi to Zhongyang wenjiao weiyuanhui, Wei Lianheguo jiao ke wen zuzhi dongfang kexue hezuoguan zai Woguo chushou shu quan shi [UNESCO EAFSCO Selling Book Coupons in China]’, 27 September 1951.

77 Shanghai Municipal Archives, Shanghai, File Q249-1-147, Ma X., ‘Zhongyang renmin zhengfu jiaoyubu tongbao [Central People's Government Ministry of Education Circular]’, 10 November 1951.

78 CFMA, 113-00133-01, Shanghaishi renmin zhengfu junbu guangzhi weiyuanhui waishichu to Waijiaobu, ‘Lianheguo jiao ke wen zuzhi ni diaocha woguo xueshu, wenhua, kexue jigou ji kexuejia zhi chuli jingguo [UNESCO plans to Survey the PRC's Academic, Cultural, and Scientific Institutions and Ways of Handling Scientists]’, 24 March 1952; Gong P., ‘Baogao [Report]’, 6 May 1952.

79 CFMA, 113-00289-01, ‘Guanyuda huo Jie fang xun Wo shifouyuan pai guanchayuan canjia Lian jiao zuzhi huiyi shi [On Replying to Czechoslovakian Enquiry as to Whether or Not China Sends an Observer to the UNESCO Meeting]’, 16 July 1956.

80 UNESDOC, ‘Resolutions and decisions adopted by the Executive Board at its 88th Session, Paris, 6 October–2 November 1971’, 2 December 1971, p. 48, http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0011/001131/113195E.pdf, [accessed 29 March 2019].

81 UNESDOC, ‘Resolutions and decisions adopted by the Executive Board at its 93rd session, Paris, 12 September–11 October 1973’, 9 November 1973, p. 40, http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0000/000057/005730E.pdf, [accessed 29 March 2019].

82 See, especially: Howlett, ‘“The British Boss is Gone”’; and King, ‘Reconstructing China’.

83 See: Mitter, ‘Imperialism’.

84 University of Warwick Modern Records Centre, Coventry, World Federation of Scientific Workers Collection, MSS.270/12/2/2/2, W.143/52, Secretary General's Report on Activities, [1952], pp. 2–3.

85 On the CCP and WFSW in this period, see: G. R. B. Barrett, ‘Foreign Policy, Propaganda, and Scientific Exchange: Scientists in China's Cold War Foreign Relations’, PhD thesis, University of Bristol, 2015, pp. 36–80. On the organizations’ early history, see: Petitjean, ‘Joint Establishment’.