China Hands

The termChina Handoriginally referred to 19th-century merchants in thetreaty portsofChina,but came to be used for anyone with expert knowledge of the language, culture, and people of China. In 1940s America, the termChina Handscame to refer to a group of American diplomats, journalists, and soldiers who were known for their knowledge of China and influence on U.S. policy before, during, and afterWorld War II.During and after theCold War,the termChina watcherbecame popularized: and, with some overlap, the termsinologistalso describes a China expert in English, particularly in academic contexts or in reference to the expert's academic background.

Zhongguo tong(simplified Chinese:Trung quốc thông;traditional Chinese:Trung quốc thông;pinyin:Zhōngguó tōng;lit.'China expert'), sometimes translated as "old China Hand", refers to a foreigner who shows a familiarity with, or affinity for, Chinese language and culture.^[1]

China Hands in treaty port China

Before theOpium Warsof 1839–1843, TheOld China Tradecreated a group of British and American merchants who did not know the Chinese language but depended on their Chinese trading partners. They nonetheless had a reputation for being experts, and exerted some influence on policy in London.^[2]Merchants, journalists, and even missionaries established themselves in China, especially in theTreaty Portscreated by aseries of treatiesafter the Opium Wars. The foreign community in Shanghai was especially lively and organized. Those who carried out their careers in these territories were likely to be called "China Hands", or "Old China Hands".^[3]TheUnited States Armymaintained a training station inTianjin,and its officers, including future GeneralGeorge Marshall,were called "Old China Hands."^[4]Other Army officers trained there includeDavid D. Barrett,who headed the Army's wartimeDixie Mission.^[5]

World War II era China Hands

During World War II someForeign Service Officersof theUnited States Department of Statehad experience in China, a few with expertise going back to the 1920s. Since the general expectation was that the war would continue for perhaps another two years and that the invasion of Japan would be based in China, GeneralJoseph Stilwelldetermined that American interest required liaison with the military force of thecommunists.At his behest, theDixie Missionwas sent to the Communist headquarters inYan'anin July 1944. ColonelDavid BarrettandJohn S. Servicereported favorably on the strength and capabilities of the Communist led forces compared with theChinese Nationalists.Many China Hands argued that it would be in American national interest to work with the communists during the war, and to maintain relations if, as many government and civilian experts expected, they gained power.Theodore White,correspondent forTimemagazine was among the many journalists who visited Yan'an and described the effectiveness of communist political mobilization. This view was opposed by the newU.S. Ambassador to China Patrick Hurley.Hurley, a Republican recruited by PresidentFranklin D. Rooseveltto promote a bipartisan China policy, initially felt there was no more difference between the Chinese Communists and Nationalists than between the Democrats and Republicans in his home state of Oklahoma.^[6]But Hurley wanted to form a coalition government led byChiang Kai-shek.He accused Foreign Service Officers such as Service, Davies, and John Emmerson of disloyalty and had them removed from China.^[7]Hurley claimed that the Chinese Communists were not real communists.^[8]

Nationalist soldiers killed in World War II numbered approximately ten times more than communists killed, according to CPC records.^[8]China Burma India TheaterCommander Joseph Stilwell claimed that communists were doing more than the Nationalists, and sought to cut off all US aid to China.^[8]^[9]

John Service praised the Communists and claimed that the CPC were democratic reformers, likening them to European socialists rather than Soviet communists and claimed that they would preserve levels ofcapitalismfor an extended time until a peaceful transition to a fully realizedcommunist society.^[10]^[11]Service criticized the Nationalist government as "fascist," "undemocratic," and "feudal", while he described the communists as "progressive" and "democratic".^[12]

The journalistEdgar Snowand his wife usedextraterritorialstatus of foreigners to protect themselves when they assisted student protest movements in 1936, disseminating anti-government materials to the Chinese. They acknowledged that they would have been executed were they not exempted.^[13]^[14]He also admitted that he modified his reports in accordance with the wishes of the communists, to portray them as democratic socialist reformers.^[15]

U.S. Ambassador to ChinaClarence Gaussrecommended the United States "pull up the plug and let the whole Chinese Government go down the drain".^[8]The US strove to send aid to the Chinese Communists during the war.^[16]

Beginning of the Cold War

After the sudden surrender of Japan in 1945 and the onset of theCold War,the Communists and the Nationalists were locked in a Civil War. The China Hand view was propounded by Harvard professorJohn Fairbankin hisThe United States and China(1948) and in the bestselling bookThunder Out of China,published in 1946 by Theodore White andAnnalee Jacoby.They hoped that American policy could encourage Chinese nationalism and prevent alignment with Soviet communism.^[17]Patrick Hurley testified to Congress that the China Hands had subverted his mission and GeneralAlbert Wedemeyerblamed the State Department for failing to act. When the Chinese Communists declared victory in 1949, an immediate outcry by anti-communists asked "Who lost China?"John T. Flynn,Louis F. Budenz,Freda Utley,none of whom had any professional expertise in Chinese history or politics, were among the many who charged that China Hands had undermined Chiang Kai-shek, misled the American public and lost China either through naive ignorance of the true nature ofMarxismor even allegiance to theSoviet Union.John Service, they pointed out, had admitted that before he went to Yan'an he had not read the basic texts of Marxism, and the other China Hands were no better informed.^{[citation needed]}SenatorJoseph McCarthyexpanded these accusations to includeOwen Lattimore,who had served as personal adviser to Chiang at the beginning of the war. These charges were developed in a series ofcongressional hearings,including those into theInstitute of Pacific Relations.Foreign Service OfficersO. Edmund Clubb,John Paton Davies, Jr.,John S. Service, andJohn Carter Vincentwere forced out of the Foreign Service, while journalists such as Edgar Snow and Theodore White could not continue their careers in magazine journalism.^[18]Career trajectories slowed down for the remaining State Department China Hands, but a few eventually attained ambassadorships:James K. Penfield(Iceland),Philip D. Sprouse(Cambodia), andFulton Freeman(Colombia and Mexico).^[19]

Nixon and Carter era

Public opinion towards China Hands changed with the establishment of America's full diplomatic ties with China which began with President Nixon's visit to the country and culminated with the signing of theJoint Communiqué on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relationsunder President Carter. Notable was the invitation to the surviving China Hands to testify to theSenate Committee on Foreign Relationsin 1971. The chairman,Senator J. William Fulbright,remarked to John Paton Davies on how the China Hands who had "reported honestly about conditions were so persecuted because [they] were honest. This is a strange thing to occur in what is called a civilized country."^[20]

Archival collections

Dozens of archival collections related to foreigners who lived and worked in China before 1950, known as the "Old China Hands", are preserved in Special Collections and Archives in theUniversity LibraryatCalifornia State University, Northridge.^[21]^[22]^[23]^[24]These collections include correspondence, diaries, photographs, unpublished memoirs, official documents, artifacts, and oral histories, and reflect the lives of refugees, foreign entrepreneurs, missionaries, diplomats, and members of the military (including theChina Marines) who lived and worked in China during the first half of the 20th century.^[22]^[25]^[26]

World War II China Hands

References

^John DeFrancisABC Chinese-English Dictionary(Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1996), p. 800.
^Carroll (2021).
^French (2006).
^Finney, Charles G. (1961).The Old China Hands.Garden City, NY: Doubleday.
^Hart, John N. (1985).The Making of an Army "Old China Hand": A Memoir of Colonel David D. Barrett.Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies University of California Berkeley Center for Chinese Studies.ISBN 0912966750.
^Russel D. Buhite,Patrick J. Hurley and American Foreign Policy(Ithaca, NY: Cornell U Press, 1973), pp. 160–162.
^Kahn,China Hands,pp. 135–160.
^^a ^b ^c ^dTaylor, Jay (209).Stilwell's The Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-shek and the Struggle for Modern China.Harvard University Press. p. 297,298.ISBN 0674054717.
^Wesley Marvin Bagby, The Eagle-Dragon Alliance: America's Relations with China in World War II, p. 96.
^John Service, Report No. 5, 8 March 1944, to Commanding General Fwd. Ech., USAF – CBI, APO 879. "The Communist Policy Towards the Kuomintang." State Department, NARA, RG 59.
^U.S. Congress. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and the Other Internal Security Laws.The Amerasia Papers: A Clue to the Catastrophe of China.Vol. 1 (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1970), pp. 406–407.
^Senate Internal Security Committee,The Amerasia Papers: A Clue to the Catastrophe of China,January 26, 1970, pp. 406, 410, 577, 579, 589, 592, 1014, 1015.
^Thomas, S. Bernard (1996).Season of High Adventure: Edgar Snow in China.Berkeley: University of California Press.
^Cao, (Katy) Xinquan (2002).Helen Foster Snow: A Journalist in the Chinese Revolution in the 1930s.Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University.
^Brady, Anne-Marie(2003).Making the Foreign Serve China: Managing Foreigners in the People's Republic.Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. pp. 46–47.doi:10.25911/5d5fccdac8aba.hdl:1885/147629.ISBN 0742518612.
^Fenby, Jonathan:Chiang Kai-shek China's Generalissimo and the Nation He Lost,New York: Carrol & Graf, 2004 p. 424.
^Hayford (2009),p. 306-307.
^Kahn, pp. 212–243.
^"Diplomatic List".United States Department of State.Retrieved2020-08-24.
^Artes Liberales, University of Wisconsin article on Davies Archived2005-10-26 at theWayback Machine
^Geiser, Jessica (2014)."Old China Hands Oral History Project Collection".Online Archive of California.California Digital Library.RetrievedSeptember 23,2024.
^^a ^b"Old China Hands Oral History Project".CSUN University Library Digital Collections.California State University, Northridge.RetrievedSeptember 23,2024.
^"Old China Hands Recall Life in Shanghai".VOA News.October 31, 2009.RetrievedJanuary 21,2022.
^"Old China Hands' Celebrate Two Cultures".VOA News.October 30, 2009.RetrievedJanuary 21,2022.
^"Old China Hands Archives, California State University, Northridge".Online Archive of California.California Digital Library.RetrievedMay 4,2023.
^Mabbett, Lorraine (August 18, 2024)."Old China Hands Unpublished Manuscripts Collection at CSUN".San Fernando Valley News Portal.RetrievedSeptember 23,2024.
^"O. Edmund Clubb, 88, 'China Hand,' Dies".The Washington Post.May 12, 1989. Archived fromthe originalon October 21, 2012.Retrieved2008-08-13.
^Kaufman, Michael T. (24 December 1999)."John Paton Davies, Diplomat Who Ran Afoul of McCarthy Over China, Dies at 91 John Paton Davies, Diplomat Who Ran Afoul of McCarthy Over China, Dies at 91".The New York Times.Retrieved2008-08-15.
^Gonzalez, David (September 16, 1991)."John K. Fairbank, China Scholar Of Wide Influence, Is Dead at 84".The New York Times.Retrieved2008-08-14.
^"It takes one to know one".Salon.com.December 6, 1999.Retrieved2008-08-13.
^Kifner, John (February 4, 1999)."John Service, a Purged 'China Hand,' Dies at 89".The New York Times.Retrieved2008-08-13.
^"John Carter Vincent Dies. Specialist on China Policy. Diplomat Was Dismissed Despite Loyalty Report".The New York Times.December 5, 1972.Retrieved2008-08-15.