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China Nationalism
The importance of sovereignty and independence of action in
Chinese foreign policy since 1949 has been closely related to
Chinese nationalism. Just as Chinese national pride has been a
natural outgrowth of China's long and rich historical tradition,
the nationalism of Chinese leaders also has derived from the
injustices China suffered in more recent history, in particular,
China's domination by foreign powers from the nineteenth century
until the end of World War II
(see Emergence of Modern China
, ch.
1). During this time, which China refers to as "the century of
shame and humiliation," the formerly powerful imperial government
devolved to what China calls "semicolonial" status, as it was
forced to sign unequal treaties and grant foreigners special
privileges of extraterritoriality. Foreign powers divided China
into spheres of influence. Most debilitating and humiliating was
the foreign military threat that overpowered China, culminating in
Japan's invasion and occupation of parts of China in the late
1930s. The bitter recollection of China's suffering at the hands of
foreign powers has continued to be a source of Chinese
nationalistic sentiment since 1949. The suspicion of foreign
powers, opposition to any implication of inferior status, and
desire to reassert sovereignty and independence have strongly
influenced Chinese foreign policy. Examples of this attitude are
Mao Zedong's statement in 1949 that "the Chinese people have stood
up" and Deng Xiaoping's 1982 pronouncement that "no foreign country
can expect China to be its vassal or expect it to swallow any
bitter fruit detrimental to its interests."
A foreign policy goal closely related to nationalism has been
the desire to achieve territorial integrity and to restore to
Chinese sovereignty areas previously considered a part of China.
Although China as of 1987 had not resolved border disputes with
several of its neighbors, including India, the Soviet Union, and
Vietnam (including islands in the South China Sea), Beijing had
concluded boundary settlements with other nations, including
Pakistan, Burma, Nepal, Afghanistan, the Democratic People's
Republic of Korea (North Korea), and the Mongolian People's
Republic (Mongolia). Negotiations on border issues, held
intermittently with the Soviet Union since 1949 and with India
since the early 1980s, continued to be held in 1987. The difficulty
of resolving these issues seemed to reflect their relation to
sensitive questions of national pride both in China and in
neighboring countries and sometimes to questions of China's
perceived national security interests
(see Physical Environment
, ch. 2). For example, Qing control over Outer Mongolia (present-day
Mongolia) had lapsed long before 1949 and had been supplanted by
Russian and then Soviet influence. Although it was most likely with
reluctance and regret, China recognized Mongolia as a separate
nation in 1949. By contrast, asserting sovereignty over another
outlying area, Xizang (Tibet), was considered such an important
strategic goal that military force was used to gain control there
in 1950 and to reassert it in 1959.
Two other Chinese areas under the control of foreign powers are
Hong Kong and Macao. According to Chinese statements, these
"problems left over from history" were the result of imperialist
aggression and the incompetence of Chinese rulers. Macao, the first
European enclave on the Chinese coast, was occupied by Portugal in
1557 and ceded to Portugal under an 1887 treaty. Britain gained
control of Hong Kong island and adjacent territory through three
treaties with China in the nineteenth century. In the mid-1980s
China concluded formal arrangements with Britain and Portugal for
the return of these areas to Chinese sovereignty in 1997 (Hong
Kong) and 1999 (Macao). Both agreements were made under a policy of
"one country, two systems" (see Glossary),
giving the areas a high
degree of autonomy as "special administrative regions" of China.
From the perspective of Chinese nationalism, negotiating the return
of both Hong Kong and Macao to Chinese sovereignty before the end
of the twentieth century was undoubtedly one of the major foreign
policy accomplishments of Chinese leaders in the 1980s.
The most crucial of the issues of national reunification,
however, remained unresolved in the late 1980s: the issue of
Taiwan. Chiang Kai-shek and his forces fled to Taiwan after the
founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. The government
they established there, the "Republic of China," continued to claim
authority as the government of the Chinese nation almost four
decades after the founding of the People's Republic. Although
China's goal of reunifying Taiwan with the mainland remained
unchanged, the previous, more militant Chinese policy of
"liberating Taiwan" was replaced in the 1980s by the concept of
reunification under the "one country, two systems" policy. The
agreements on Hong Kong and Macao were considered by many observers
as possible precedents for reunifying Taiwan with the mainland.
Because of the legacy of mistrust between the leaders of the two
sides and other complex factors, however, this difficult and longstanding problem did not appear close to resolution in the late
1980s.
Data as of July 1987
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