War or stratagem? Reassessing China's military advance towards Tibet, 1942-1943

China Quarterly

Volumn , Issue 186, 2006, Pages 446-462

  Hsiao Ting, Lin ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

BORDER REGION; ETHNOPOLITICS; MILITARY INTERVENTION; POLITICAL HISTORY;

ASIA; CHINA; EURASIA; FAR EAST; XIZANG;

EID: 33746009572     PISSN: 03057410     EISSN: 14682648     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0305741006000233     Document Type: Article

References (59)

1. On the alleged border war between China and Tibet in the midst of the Second World War, see, for example, Melvyn C. Goldstein, A History of Modern Tibet, 1913-1951: The Demise of the Lamaist State (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989), pp. 385-390;
2. Warren W. Smith, Jr., Tibetan Nation: A History of Tibetan Nationalism and Sino-Tibetan Relations (Boulder, CO: Westview, 1996), pp. 243-47;
3. Alastair Lamb, Tibet, China & India 1914-1950: A History of Imperial Diplomacy (Hertfordshire: Rexford Books, 1989), pp. 316-320.
4. In the Chinese literature see, for example, Li Shi'an, Taipingyang zhanzheng shiqi di Zhong-Ying guanxi (Sino-British Relations during the Pacific War) (Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe, 1994), pp. 10-12;
5. Wang Furen and Suo Wenqing, Zangzu shiyao (Highlights of Tibetan History) (Beijing: Sichuan minzu chubanshe, 1981), pp. 194-204.
6. Peter Lowe, Great Britain and the Origins of the Pacific War: A Study of British Policy in East Asia, 1937-1941 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977), pp. 72-102;
7. Antony Best, Britain, Japan and Pearl Harbor: Avoiding War in East Asia, 1935-41 (London: Routledge, 1995), pp. 71-86.
8. Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford University, T. V. Soong Papers (hereafter TVSP), Box 59, Chiang Kai-shek's confidential dispatch to T. V. Soong, dated 10 April 1941.
9. Academia Historica (Taipei, Taiwan), Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (hereafter AMFA), 172-1/0099-1, instruction from the Executive Yuan to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 10 February 1941; conference minute of the Executive Yuan, dated 8 February 1941; note from the Ministry of Communication to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 3 April 1941.
10. AMFA, 172-1/0099-2, report from the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 13 September 1941; Chang Kiangau (Minister of Communication) to Guo Taiqi (Minister of Foreign Affairs), 6 October 1941.
11. TVSP, Box 64, "Agreement reached between Chiang Kai-shek and the government of India," enclosed in C. E. Gauss (US Ambassador to China) to the US Department of the Army, 25 February 1942.
12. AMFA, 172-1/0099-2, note from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Ministry of Communication, 7 March 1942; 172-1/0100-1, report from the Chinese embassy in London to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 12 June 1942.
13. Melvyn C. Goldstein et al., A Tibetan Revolutionary: The Political Life and Times of Bapa Phüntso Wangye (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004), pp. 77-78.
14. British National Archives (Kew, London), Foreign Office Record (hereafter FO), 436/17087 F3470/G, confidential report from Foreign Office (London) to the British embassy in Washington, 15 May 1942; AMFA, 172-1/0100-1, report from Wellington V. K. Koo (Chinese ambassador to Britain) to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 12 June 1942.
15. Academia Historica, Archives of the Nationalist Government (hereafter ANG), 200000000A, microfilm, 419/1600-419/1606, report by Kong Qingzong (Chinese representative in Lhasa), enclosed in the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission to Chiang Kai-shek, 11 July 1942; AMFA, 172-1/0100-1, memorandum by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, dated 11 July 1942.
16. AMFA, 172-1/0100-1, Military Affairs Commission to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1 July 1942; memorandum by the Military Affairs Commission, top secret, dated 14 July 1942.
17. British Library (London), Oriental and India Office Collections (hereafter OIOQ, L/P&S/12/4201, weekly report by the British Mission in Lhasa ending 28 June 1942; FO 436/17097 F5837/78/10, Sir Horace Seymour (British ambassador to China) to Foreign Office, 17 August 1942.
18. Chinese sources reveal that the Nationalist government sought to use the dispatch of these "technicians" to deploy its military, political and intelligence personnel along the proposed route between Sichuan proper and Tibet. See AMFA, 172-1/0200-2, memorandum by the Executive Yuan, dated 5 August 1942.
19. OIOC, L/P&S/20/D222, Hugh E. Richardson, Tibetan Précis (Calcutta: Government of India, 1945), p. 73; AMFA, 172-1/0016, minute of conference by the Executive Yuan, dated 22 July 1942.
20. OIOC, L/P&S/12/4201, minute paper by the Political Department of the Government of India, dated 27 April 1943; weekly report of the British Mission in Lhasa ending 15 August 1943.
21. Academia Historica, President Chiang Kai-shek Archives (hereafter CKSA), Teiiao Dang'an (Specially-submitted Papers)/Zhengzhi (Politics)/Xizang Wenti (Tibetan Issues), Vol. 61, No. 42462, minute of private conversation between the Generalissimo and the Tibetan representative, May 1943 (n.d.).
22. Judith M. Brown and WM. Roger Louis (eds.), The Oxford History of the British Empire: The Twentieth Century (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), pp. 306-329.
23. FO 436/16158 F3916/895/10, "China summary no. 9," enclosed in Sir A. Clark-Kerr (British ambassador to China) to Foreign Office, 3 October 1940; FO 954/6C F769/74/10, minute from Mr A. Eden (British Foreign Secretary) to Clark-Kerr, 21 January 1942. See also Sir Llewellyn Woodward, British Foreign Policy in the Second World War (London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1975), Vol. IV, p. 488.
24. See, for example, Jiang Junzhang, "Kang-Zang jiaotong yu kangzhan jianguo" ("The Xikang-Tibetan communication and the War of Resistance"), Bianzheng gonglun (Frontier Affairs) (Chongqing), Vol. 5/ 6 (January 1942), pp. 39-47;
25. Zhu Shaoyi, "Lan Kang Zang yiyun" ("On the Xikang-Tibetan pack transportation"), Biangzheng gonglun, Vol. 9/10 (April 1942), pp. 60-62.
26. AMFA, 172-1/0012, memorandum from the Military Affairs Commission to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, top secret, 24 December 1942.
27. OIOC, L/P&S/12/2305, intelligence report from the British Political Office in Sikkim to the government of India, 13 April 1941; letter from the British Political Office in Sikkim to the government of India, 5 January 1942.
28. On the subtle relationship between the Kuomintang and the warlord governors of south-west China at the early stage of Sino-Japanese war, see Zhou Kaiqing, Sichuan yu dui Ri kangzhan (Sichuan and the War of Resistance against Japan) (Taipei: Taiwan Commercial Publishing Ltd., 1971);
29. Society on the history of China's War of Resistance against Japan (ed.), Kangzhan shiqi di Xinan dahoufang (The South-west Interior during the War of Resistance) (Beijing: Beijing chubanshe, 1997).
30. Zhang Lian'an, "Jiang Jieshi paiwo hui Xikang de Qianhou" ("Around the time when I was sent back to Xikang by Chiang Kai-shek"), in Wenshi ziliao xuanji (Selections of Literary and Historical Materials), Vol. 110 (1987), pp. 74-75.
31. The KMT Party Archives (Taipei), Archives of the Supreme National Defence Council (hereafter ASNDC), 003/732, Generalissimo's headquarters in Xichang to Chiang Kai-shek concerning reforming Xikang province, dated 27 September 1940; 003/315, schemes for developing Sichuan and Xikang provinces, enclosed in the Executive Yuan to the Supreme National Defence, dated 14 October and 3 November 1940.
32. CKSA, Tejiao dang'an/Zhengzhi/Yiban bianzheng (Frontier Affairs), Vol. 63, No. 42548, Confidential memorandum submitted to Chiang Kai-shek by the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission, entitled "Border defence on the south-west," 1942 (n.d.); Vol. 65, No. 42540, Report submitted to Chiang Kai-shek from the Inspection Mission to Xikang and Qinghai, January 1942 (n.d.).
33. CKSA, Choubi (Plans and Directives), digitized version, 09-1413, Chiang Kaishek to Xu Yongchang (Minister of Military Ordinance), 19 October 1942.
34. Viewpoints and concerns of top KMT officials on wartime China's border defence are revealed in the following documents: ANG, 200000000A, 419/ 1621-419/1629, joint analytical report submitted by General He Yingqin (KMT Chief of Staff), General Chen Yi and Wu Zhongxin (Head of the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission) to Chiang Kai-shek, dated 14 December 1942; AMFA, 172-1/0100-2, minute of conference by the Executive Yuan on China's border defence in the southwest, top secret, dated 5 August 1942.
35. ASNDC, 005/14, minute by the Supreme National Defence Council to Chiang Kai-shek, 25 December 1942; CKSA, Tejiao dang'an/Zhengzhi/Xizang wenti, Vol. 61, No. 42465, Proposal submitted to Chiang Kai-shek by the People's Political Council, dated 3 November 1942.
36. CKSA, Tejiao dang'an/Zhengzhi/Yiban bianzheng, Vol. 63, No. 42548, Memorandum prepared by the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission entitled "A general condition on the south-western border defence," top secret, October 1942 (n.d.).
37. CKSA, Tejiao dang'an/Zhengzhi/Yiban bianzheng, Vol. 63, No. 42549, Memorandum prepared by the Office of Aides entitled "A study of the current situation on Xikang and Tibet," top secret, dated 2 February 1943. In this memorandum, another "Army yi" (yi jun), consisting of some petty Sichuan warlord forces, was meanwhile proposed to be trained and sent to the forefront to fight with the Japanese.
38. CKSA, Choubi, 09-1541, Chiang Kai-shek to Ma Bufang, 8 May 1943; Tejiao wendian (specially submitted dispatches), Vol. 6, No. 32017694, Ma Bufang's report to Chiang Kai-shek, 8 June 1943.
39. See Liu Wenhui, "Zoudao remain zhenying di lishi daolu" ("The historical path of my walking towards the mass's side"), in Wenshi ziliao xuanji, Vol. 33 (1986), pp. 15-16;
40. Wu Peiying, "Jiang Jieshi jia zheng-Zang yi tu-Kang di jingguo" ("The story of how Chiang Kai-shek plotted for Xikang under the pretext of attacking Tibet"),
41. ibid. pp. 140-154. Similar reports can also be seen in the first-hand report of the British diplomats in wartime China. See OIOC, L/P&S/12/ 4210, report from the British embassy in China to Foreign Office, 25 May 1943.
42. FO 436/16459 F2132/1955/10, Seymour to Foreign Office, 22 April 1943; F2385/40/10, report from the British embassy in China to Foreign Office, 8 May 1943; OIOC, L/P&S/12/4201, weekly report by the British Mission in Lhasa ending 31 May 1943;
43. OIOC, L/P&S/12/4210, Memorandum by the government of India to India Office, dated 1 May 1943; report from the British embassy in China to Foreign Office, 8 May 1943.
44. FO 371/35755 F2418/40/10, British embassy in Chongqing to Foreign Office, 11 May 1943.
45. TVSP, Box 61, T. V. Soong to Chiang Kai-shek, 20 May 1943; OIOC, L/P&S/12/4210, India Office to the government of India, 26 May 1943.
46. TVSP, Box 61, T. V. Soong to Chiang Kai-shek, 25 May 1943.
47. CKSA, Choubi, 09-1556, Chiang Kai-shek to T. V. Soong, 23 May 1943; TVSP, Box 61, Chiang's confidential dispatches to Soong, 23 and 25 May 1943.
48. CKSA, Choubi, 09-1541, Chiang Kai-shek to Ma Bufang, 8 May 1943.
49. TVSP, Box 61, Soong to Chiang, 23 May 1943.
50. TVSP, Box 26, Soong's personal memorandum on Tibet, May 1943 (n.d.); Box 61, Soong's confidential dispatch to Chiang Kai-shek, 25 May 1943.
51. FO 371/35755 F2245/40/10, Foreign Office memorandum entitled "Tibet and the question of Chinese suzerainty," dated 10 April 1943.
52. "Aide-Mémoire from the British embassy in Washington to the State Department," dated 19 April 1943, in United States Department of States, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1943: China (Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1957), pp. 626-28.
53. "Aide-mémoire from the Department of State to the British embassy in Washington," dated 15 May 1943, ibid. p. 630. On receiving this note, the British officials admitted that they had failed to secure US support on the Tibetan issue. See FO 436/16373 F3774/254/10, "Monthly news summary for June 1943," enclosed in H. Seymour to Foreign Office, 5 July 1943.
54. FO 371/93001 F3742/40/10, Foreign Office memorandum entitled "Status of Tibet," dated 5 August 1943.
55. Richardson, Tibetan Précis, pp. 74-75.
56. OIOC, L/P&S/12/4201, weekly reports from the British Mission at Lhasa ending 14 and 21 November 1943; AMFA, 172-1/0008, Report on the establishment of the Xikang-Tibetan pack transport company, 29 January 1944.
57. On Nationalist China's proactive policy towards Tibet, see, for example, Dawa Norbu, China's Tibet Policy (Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, 2001), esp. ch. 7;
58. Hugh E. Richardson, Tibet and its History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1962), pp. 155-168;
59. Smith Jr., Tibetan Nation, pp. 243-45, 323-29.