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19 results

  • 15 - Conclusion

  • from Part IV - The New Imperialism
  • Edited by Zach Fredman, Duke Kunshan University , Judd Kinzley, University of Wisconsin, Madison
  • Book:
    Uneasy Allies
    Published online:
    12 December 2024
    Print publication:
    19 December 2024, pp 271-280

  • Summary

    The history of Sino-American relations during World War II can offer a window onto understanding the contemporary relations between the two countries. By way of a conclusion, the chapter offers three main “lessons” from the volume that point toward a new perspective on this critical relationship: 1. We must pay attention to grassroots interactions, 2. Drawing on Chinese sources is critical in understanding relations, 3. We must question our assumptions about the other side.

  • 1 - Introduction

  • Edited by Zach Fredman, Duke Kunshan University , Judd Kinzley, University of Wisconsin, Madison
  • Book:
    Uneasy Allies
    Published online:
    12 December 2024
    Print publication:
    19 December 2024, pp 1-18

  • Summary

    The history of Sino-American relations since the eighteenth century has been powerfully influenced by a series of ad hoc, one might say grassroots American actors, often only loosely bound to the United States government. This insight is the central theme running through this introductory chapter which seeks to offer a new window onto Sino-American relations. While these ad hoc relationships had a powerful influence on US-China relations since the earliest interactions between the two countries, World War II marked a turning point as these ad hoc actors were subsumed into a larger state-centered system of engagement.

  • 14 - Smuggling, Military Jurisdiction, and the Remaking of US Empire in Postwar China

  • from Part IV - The New Imperialism
  • Edited by Zach Fredman, Duke Kunshan University , Judd Kinzley, University of Wisconsin, Madison
  • Book:
    Uneasy Allies
    Published online:
    12 December 2024
    Print publication:
    19 December 2024, pp 254-270

  • Summary

    In fall 1945, Lieutenant Colonel William K. Evans, the US Army’s chief civil affairs officer in Taiwan, smuggled sixty kilograms of gold bullion that he confiscated from the Japanese Tenth Area Army and offloaded it on Shanghai’s black market, returning to the United States with $108,000 in cash (worth approximately $1.5 million today). The gold was supposed to go the Chinese Nationalist government. Although US military authorities found overwhelming evidence of Evans’ guilt and had recently sentenced another colonel to ten years in prison for a nearly identical crime committed in Tokyo, Evans walked away a free man after a protracted Sino-US diplomatic struggle and two mistrials in federal court. By examining the Evans case, this chapter sheds light on the transition from extraterritoriality and formal colonialism to America’s postcolonial model of using status of forces agreements (SOFAs) to exercise jurisdiction over US forces stationed abroad.

Uneasy Allies
  • Sino-American Relations at the Grassroots, 1937–1949
  • Edited by Zach Fredman, Judd Kinzley
  • Published online:
    12 December 2024
    Print publication:
    19 December 2024
  • This timely collection of essays examines Sino-American relations during the Second World War, the Chinese Civil War and the opening of the Cold War. Drawing on new sources uncovered in China, Taiwan, the UK and the US, the authors demonstrate how 'grassroots' engagements - not just elite diplomacy - established the trans-Pacific networks that both shaped the postwar order in Asia, and continue to influence Sino-US relations today. In these crucial years, servicemen, scientists, students, businesspeople, activists, bureaucrats and many others travelled between the US and China. In every chapter, this innovative volume's approach uncovers their stories using both Chinese and English language sources. By examining interactions among various Chinese and American actors in the dynamic wartime environment, Uneasy Allies reveals a new perspective on the foundations of American power, the brittle nature of the Sino-American relationship, and the early formation of the institutions that shaped the Cold War Pacific.