20TH INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF HISTORICAL SCIENCES

（SYDNEY, 3 July - 9 July, 2005）

SPECIALISED THEMES(26 half-day sessions)

3. China and the World in Modern and Contemporary Period

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China’s World Strategy and Modern Diplomacy:

A Reassessment of Modern and Contemporary Chinese Diplomacy

KAWASHIMA,Shin(Hokkaido University, Japan)

shin@juris.hokudai.ac.jp

This paper would discuss about the Chinese diplomatic policy toward a civilized country, even a great power in the world in 1900-1920’s.

Until 1990’s, except for some western and Japanese scholars, most of scholars have recognized that Chinese diplomacy from 1900s to 1920’s doesn’t have any remarkable and significant achievements and is called ‘weak country should not have any efficient diplomacy.’

But through the survey for so much amount of the Chinese diplomatic archives to be opened in Taipei, Nanjing and Beijing, we come to be able to understand the Chinese basic diplomatic policy from last ten years of Qing dynasty to the period of Beijing government of ROC is as follows　:

(1) To revise and improve the unequal treaties. This means not only to revise unequal treaties (extraterritoriality, Tariff autonomy and Most-favored nation treatment) to much more equal ones, but also to get back lost territories, rights, collaterals and so on, through diplomatic negotiation and civilization of China.

(2) To enhance its own international status in order to improve a series of unequal treaties and get back lost rights and territories.

And China intended to become a bigger and stronger country, for example China joined the WWI and after Paris Peace Conference, wanted to get much more higher status especially in League of Nations.

(3) To retain and protect its own territory and rights, and to keep unification by strengthening the concept of National sovereignty, probably influenced by the trend of studies of international law in US at that time. And China collected and edited materials about its own process of losing national rights trough a series of wars and created historical memories of its original image of glorious empire accompanied by many neighborhood countries　as lost subjected countries. Thus China got the visible process to return a needle of a clock toward the original China.

China got result on each factors;

（１）Some treaties were revised to more equal ones and new equal treaties were concluded. And the rights of no-treaty nationals in China were changed same as Chinese subjects. Furthermore some settlements were returned to China.

(2) China got the status of one of the allied nations of WWI trough it’s joining

　in the war. Also China got the certification to join the League of Nations as an original member and become a non-regular member of the council of the L.N.

（３）China failed to in retain of territory and national rights ,to be deprived by Japan(21articles, Shandong rights and so on). But China returned these territories and rights in Washington Conference and other negotiations as soon as can. About historical memory and materials, China edited many historical textbooks including the process of Chinese losing its rights and territories after the Opium War. These textbooks were claimed many times in 1910s-1930s by Japanese government because they had the contents of ‘anti-Japanese’ and ‘warped’ historical recognition. And　the famous historical books and periodicals were edited and published in 1910-1920’s. Both of the diplomatic historical materials in Qing dynasty (Qing-shi Waijiao Shiliao) and the official periodicals of Qing dynasty had so strong connotation of Chinese ‘lost territory and rights’ story and the original image of China. This original image was sometimes different from the real historical fact, for example in fact tributal countries were not subjected to China diplomatically, but these books defined these countries as a ‘subjecting countries to China’ on the context of modern international law. The ‘creation of history’ was advanced in parallel with diplomatic activities.

These policies were basically adopted by KMT government. KMT government decorated it with the slogan of ‘revolutionary diplomacy’ and penetrated into administrative detail regulation to restrain foreign activities in China. China succeeds in recover its lost rights from allied nations in 1943, and in 1946 China recovered the extraterritoriality from Swiss. And China got the status of permanent member of Security Council of United Nations. It seemed that China’s desire of long time was gotten. But lost R.O.C. escaped to Taiwan and P.R.C. did not get the fruits trough the war.

The Chinese diplomatic history has left an insufficient ‘story.’

＜会議の様子＞