International Rivalry and Secret Diplomacy in East Asia, 1896-1950

Description

East Asia was a major focus of struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War of 1945 to 1991, with multiple "hot" and "cold" conflicts in China, Korea, and Vietnam. The struggle for predominance in East Asia, however, largely predated the Cold War, as this book shows, with many examples of the United States and Russia/the Soviet Union working to exercise and increase control in the region. The book focuses on secret treaties, 26 of them, signed from the mid-1890s through 1950, when secret agreements between China and the USSR, including several concerning the Chinese Eastern Railway, gave Russia greater control over Manchuria and Outer Mongolia. One of the most important was negotiated in 1945, when Stalin signed the Sino-Soviet Friendship Treaty with Chiang Kai-shek and the Chinese Nationalists, that included a secret protocol granting the Soviet Navy sea control over the Manchurian littorals. This secret protocol excluded the US Navy from landing Nationalist troops at the major Manchurian ports, thereby guaranteeing the Chinese Communist victory in Northeast China; from Manchuria, the Chinese Communists quickly spread south to take all of Mainland China. To a large degree, therefore, this formerly undiscussed secret diplomacy set the underlying conditions for the Cold War in East Asia. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of figures Preface: territorial ownership as a guarded state secret Acknowledgments A word about sources Author Introduction: the international impact of secret diplomacy The 19th century “Great Game” The redrawing of the Russo-Chinese border The Ili Crisis, 1871–1881 Russia moves into Manchuria and Mongolia The supposed end of secret diplomacy The emergence of American power in East Asia The warlord years in Republican China The Bolshevik Revolution and East Asia The formation of the first United Front in China The Washington Conference The Soviet Union’s secret diplomacy in China Forming a Pro-Soviet United Front The Soviet-Japanese secret negotiations The Soviet-Japanese secret agreement on Bessarabia The final destruction of the Open Door Policy in China The Soviet Union’s temporary setback in China The Soviet-Japanese spheres of influence conflict over Manchuria China’s failed attempts to halt Soviet-Japanese Expansion The Opening of US-Soviet diplomatic relations The Sale of the CER and the Sino-Soviet non-aggression pact Soviet efforts to stay neutral in China The Yalta Agreement’s impact on Outer Mongolia and the CER Negotiating the Sino-Soviet friendship treaty The secret Chiang-Stalin pact A matter of form The USSR’s pre-eminent position in Manchuria Soviet sea control in the Manchurian littorals Determining the Sino-Soviet border Negotiating the fate of the Kuriles at Yalta Negotiating General Order No. 1 Soviet intervention in the Chinese Civil War Soviet secret diplomacy and the beginning of the Cold War The northeast territory dispute Richard Nixon’s success at flipping China Secret diplomacy and the Cold War Notes Treaty 1 3 June 1896—Sino-Russian Treaty of Alliance Secret Sino-Russian treaty of 1896 Special provision Notes Treaty 2 28 April 1899—Anglo-Russian agreement The Russian-English agreement regarding railway interests in China 28 April 1899 Note Treaty 3 6 September 1899—Open Door Policy notes Notes Treaty 4 5 September 1905—Portsmouth Peace Treaty The Treaty of Portsmouth, 1905—5 September 1905 Notes Treaty 5 30 July 1907—Russo-Japanese secret protocol Secret Convention of July 17/30, 1907 Notes Treaty 6 4 July 1910—Russo-Japanese secret protocol Secret convention of June 21/July 4, 1910 Notes Treaty 7 25 June 1912—Russo-Japanese secret protocol Secret convention of June 25/July 8, 1912 Notes Treaty 8 7 June 1915—Sino-Russian-Mongolian tripartite treaty Tripartite agreement in regard to Outer Mongolia—7 June 1915 Notes Treaty 9 3 July 1916—Russo-Japanese secret treaty of alliance Secret convention of June 20/July 3, 1916 Notes Treaty 10 2 November 1917—Lansing-Ishii agreement Note from the Secretary of State to the Japanese Ambassador Notes Treaty 11 24 September 1918—Sino-Japanese Shandong agreement 24 September 1918 Notes concerning questions in Shandong Notes Treaty 12 30 April 1919—US-Japanese Shandong note 30 April 1919 Notes exchanged between Japan and the United States Notes Treaty 13 25 July 1919—Karakhan Manifesto 25 July 1919, Declaration to the Chinese nation and the governments of southern and northern China Notes Treaty 14 31 May 1924—Sino-Soviet secret protocol Agreements on general principles for the settlement of the questions between the Republic of China and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, with six declarations, 31 May 1924 Agreement for the provisional management of the Chinese Eastern Railway Declaration (I) Declaration (II) Declaration (III) Declaration (IV) Declaration (V) Declaration (VI) Declaration (VII) Notes Treaty 15 20 September 1924—Soviet-Zhang Zuolin secret protocol Agreement entered into between the autonomous government of the three eastern provinces of the Republic of China and the government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics Notes Treaty 16 20 January 1925—Soviet-Japanese convention Basic convention between Japan and Russia, 20 January 1925 Notes Treaty 17 20 January 1925—Bessarabia secret protocol Karakhan and Yoshizawa signed the following secret notes Yoshizawa responded in an official note on behalf of the Japanese government Notes Treaty 18 22 December 1929—Sino-Soviet Khabarovsk treaty The Khabarovsk protocol 22 December 1929 Notes Treaty 19 23 March 1935—CER protocol 23 March 1935—Soviet-Japanese secret CER protocol Note Treaty 20 21 August 1937—Sino-Soviet non-aggression treaty Treaty of non-aggression between the Republic of China and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Signed at Nanking, August 21st, 1937 Note Treaty 21 23 August 1939—Molotov-Ribbentrop treaty impact on Asia The government of the German Reich and the government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics Secret additional protocol Notes Treaty 22 13 April 1941—Soviet-Japanese neutrality pact Pact of Neutrality between Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and Japan Notes Treaty 23 11 February 1945—Yalta agreement Yalta agreement Notes Treaty 24 14 August 1945—Sino-Soviet friendship treaty Treaty of friendship and alliance between the Republic of China and the U.S.S.R Notes Treaty 25 22 August 1945—General Order Number One General Order No. 1 Military and Naval Notes Treaty 26 14 February 1950—Sino-Soviet friendship treaty Treaty of friendship, alliance and mutual assistance between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the People’s Republic of China Agreement between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the People’s Republic of China concerning the Chinese Changchun Railway, Port Arthur and Dairen [Dalian] Agreement between the Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the Central People’s Government of the People’s Republic of China concerning the grant of a credit to the People’s Republic of China Chinese draft of a secret agreement on the working conditions of Soviet specialists in China of March 22, 1950 Agreement Notes Selected Bibliography Index