China and the World, 1900-1949

Introduction

Thematically and chronologically organized, this highly condensed annotated bibliography includes works that provide insights into the long-term, core themes of China and the world during the first half of the 20th century. The fifty years from 1900 to 1949 were marked by revolution, civil war, and foreign invasion but also witnessed change and progress in China’s relations with the outside world. These include the transformation from an empire (Qing) to a nation-state, the rise of Chinese nationalism, the restoration of China’s tariff autonomy, the abolition of extraterritoriality, China’s participation in the two world wars, and its role in the world economy and international organizations. Historiographical debates bring out three interdependent methodological and thematic issues: the state behavior of the Qing (1900–1911), Beijing (1912–1928), and Nanjing governments (1928–1949) in foreign affairs; the role of external forces in China’s nation-building and integration into the world system and community in modern times; and the relationship between nationalism and globalization and between national and international histories. Three influential conceptual frameworks are John K. Fairbank’s Western impact/stimulation and China’s response paradigm, Paul A. Cohen’s China-centered and most recently China-unbound or human-centered approach, and William C. Kirby’s internationalization proposition. What these different strands of research share, in this author’s judgment, is far more important than what separates them. Out of controversy, most scholars today tend to agree that during the period from 1900 to 1949 the Qing, Beijing, and Nanjing regimes were weak but resourceful states in hostile national and international environments. China’s international status markedly improved by the end of the 1940s, as one of the “great powers” (daguo 大国) and a founder of the United Nations in the new world order. National, regional, and global concerns as well as nationalism, imperialism, colonialism, and internationalism have entangled bearings on studies of nearly all subjects that hold significance in modern China and the world.

General Overviews

General studies of China’s foreign relations (1900–1949) can be organized into three groups: works published Pre-1970s, during the 1970s–1980s, and those from the 1990s–Present. President Nixon’s historic visit to mainland China in 1972 and China’s reopening to the world a few years later spurred new interest in the China field. Consequently, the following years witnessed a burst of scholarship whereby researchers availed themselves of newly available sources. Since the 1990s, fresh research topics and multidisciplinary approaches have been further explored.

Pre-1970s

A systematic study of China and the world during the first half of the 20th century can start with Morse 2008, followed by Zeng 1926 and Pollard 1933. In spite of being criticized as “superficial” by the author’s contemporaries, Levi 1953 still stands as the only broad overview in English of China’s handling of foreign countries from the Opium Wars to the outbreak of the Korean War in 1951. Some of Levi’s analysis—such as China’s wartime alliances with the Western powers and Chiang Kai-shek’s pursuit of China’s great power status—is fair and incisive from today’s point of view. Teng and Fairbank 1982 represents an influential approach emphasizing foreign impact on China. Fu 1972 is one example of the general works in Chinese on modern Chinese diplomacy. In his signature style, the author of Spence 2002 sheds light on the lives of individual Westerners in China.

Fu Qixue 傅启学. Zhongguo waijiaoshi (中国外交史). 2 vols. Taibei: Taiwan shangwu yinshuguan, 1972.
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Examines Chinese diplomacy to 1957. Notes that Great Britain, France, Japan, and Russia were the four countries that invaded China in the last one hundred years. Germany was relatively on good terms with the Republic of China since 1912 except for the “unpleasant” Jiaozhou (Shandong) incident. In comparison, only the United States was most friendly to China. First published in 1957.
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Levi, Werner. Modern China’s Foreign Policy. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1953.
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This survey represents an early, and perhaps only, attempt to interpret in broad strokes China’s modern foreign political and economic behavior from the 1840s to 1951. Levi’s comprehensive study was not fully appreciated by his contemporaries, partly due to his inability to use sources in Chinese.
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Morse, Hosea Ballou. The International Relations of the Chinese Empire. 3 vols. Kent, UK: Global Oriental, 2008.
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A classic study of the Qing Empire’s international relations that is divided into three periods: the period of conflict, 1834–1860; the period of submission, 1861–1893; and the period of subjection, 1894–1912. First published in 1910.
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Pollard, Robert T. China’s Foreign Relations, 1917–1931. New York: Macmillan, 1933.
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An acclaimed account of China’s international position from 1917 to 1931. This continuation of Morse 2008 includes a special reference to China’s efforts to abrogate the Unequal Treaties. The “Unequal Treaties,” as understood today, refer to the treaties, conventions, and agreements imposed on China by foreign countries during the century from the 1840s to the 1940s, which are considered harmful to Chinese sovereignty.
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Spence, Jonathan D. To Change China: Western Advisers in China. New York: Penguin, 2002.
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In portraying a group of foreigners in China, Spence recaptures the rich tapestry of Western experiences of China for over three hundred years, from the 1620s through the 1950s. This book illuminates what Spence called the “indefinable realm” where imperialism and modernization met. First published in 1969.
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Teng, Ssu-yü, and John King Fairbank. China’s Response to the West: A Documentary Survey 1839–1923. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982.
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Rests upon Fairbank’s most influential but much criticized paradigm, i.e., Western challenge and Chinese response. The authors sought to unscramble foreign influences—Soviet, Japanese, American, and others—as one factor that precipitated the remaking of Chinese life and values. First published in 1954.
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Zeng Youhao 曾友豪. Zhongguo waijiaoshi (中国外交史). Shanghai: Shangwu yishuguan, 1926.
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Earlier work in Chinese. Divided into three parts: Part 1 deals with China’s relations with European and the United States, Part 2 focuses on Sino–Japanese diplomacy, and Part 3 examines the rivalry among foreign powers (lieqiang 列强) and its backlash in China.
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The 1970s–1980s

Gittings 1974 presents a history of ideas undergirding China’s foreign policy through the pen of a reputable scholar and later journalist at The Guardian, the well-known British newspaper. Ding, et al. 1986 reflects the influence of Marxist historiography which perceives the presence of foreign countries in modern China as aggression. Etō 1986 and Iriye 1986 canvass important diplomatic events in the Republican era, which are complemented by the outline by Feuerwerker 1983 of the many facets of the foreign presence.

Ding Mingnan 丁名楠, et al. Diguozhuyi qinhuashi (帝国主义侵华史). Vol. 2. Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 1986.
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A collective work by Chinese scholars on the history of imperialist aggression in China. Represents an orthodox but now highly controversial approach to viewing China’s encounter with the foreign powers from 1895 to 1919 as a harmful process of imperialist intrusion and interference with Chinese sovereignty, politics, finances, and the military.
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Etō, Shinkichi. “China’s International Relations 1911–1931.” In The Cambridge History of China. Vol. 13, Republican China, 1912–1949, Part 2. Edited by John King Fairbank and Albert Feuerwerker, 74–115. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
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Focuses on major diplomatic events and developments, particularly Japan’s and the Soviet Union’s influence in a divided China from the fall of the Qing to the Nationalist revolution.
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Feuerwerker, Albert. “The Foreign Presence in China.” In The Cambridge History of China. Vol. 12, Republican China, 1912–1949, Part 1. Edited by John King Fairbank, 128–207. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
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Outlines the multifaceted foreign establishment during Qing and Republican China. It examines the foreign network, missionaries, Chinese government agencies, and economic interests.
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Gittings, John. The World and China, 1922–1972. London: Eyre Methuen, 1974.
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Explores Mao Zedong’s view of international politics and the Chinese revolution. Argues that the foreign policy of the People’s Republic was not aggressive, but rather defensive and designed to counter American-led containment and economic and strategic dependence on Soviet Russia. The author’s opinions in this text were at loggerheads with those of many people at the time.
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Iriye, Akira. “Japanese Aggression and China’s International Position, 1931–1949.” In The Cambridge History of China. Vol. 13, Republican China, 1912–1949, Part 2. Edited by John King Fairbank and Albert Feuerwerker, 492–546. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
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Delineates Japan’s rise, the collapse of international cooperation, and the power configurations in the Sino–Japanese and Pacific wars.
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The 1990s–Present

Both Kirby 1997 and Esherick 2010 render a synthetic interpretation of the history of China’s foreign relations, although the former views internationalization as a key theme whereas the latter focuses on the transition from the tribute system to the treaty system and to nationalism. Wang 2005 examines the formation of Chinese nationalism and its linkage with foreign countries through the historical use of the Unequal Treaties by various political forces. Wang 2003 examines the correlation between China’s modernization and Western influence. Shi 1994 is a comprehensive work on Republican China’s foreign relations, focusing on China’s efforts to restore tariff autonomy, China at the Paris Peace Conference and Washington Conference, the abolition of consular jurisdiction rights, the anti-imperialist movement, two world wars, and diplomacy with Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, the United States, and China’s neighboring countries. Li and Zhongguo shehui kexueyuan jindaishi yanjiusuo 2012 is the result of collaboration among modern Chinese historians in recent decades.

Esherick, Joseph W. “China and the World: From Tribute to Treaties to Popular Nationalism.” In China’s Rise in Historical Perspective. Edited by Brantly Womack, 19–38. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2010.
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Surveys three important policy orientations discernible in China’s transformation from an empire to a nation: the tributary system, Unequal Treaties, and nationalism. In the construction of a nation-state, nationalism—in place of Marxism, Leninism, and Maoism—has become one of the fundamental bases for the current Chinese state’s claim to legitimacy.
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Kirby, William C. “The Internationalization of China: Foreign Relations at Home and Abroad in the Republican Era.” In Special Issue: Reappraising Republic China. China Quarterly 150 (June 1997): 433–458.
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Argues that everything important had an international dimension in the history of the first Republic (1912–1949). A thought-provoking and influential essay of China’s internationalization in foreign relations, culture, and the economy. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
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Li Xing 李新 and Zhongguo shehui kexueyuan jindaishi yanjiusuo 中国社会科学院近代史研究所, eds. Zhonghua minguoshi (中华民国史). 36 vols. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2012.
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A general, massive work mainly covering the thirty-eight-year political, military, and diplomatic history of the Republic of China (1911–1949), written by different generations of Chinese scholars over the span of four decades. It comprises three bian (parts): the history of the Republic of China, biographies of representative figures, and a chronology of main events.
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Shi Yuanhua 石源华. Zhonghua minguo waijiao shi (中华民国外交史). Shanghai: Shanghai renmin chubanshe, 1994.
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A comprehensive one-volume survey of the Republic of China’s diplomatic relations with foreign countries focusing on main diplomatic events.
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Wang, Dong. China’s Unequal Treaties: Narrating National History. Lanham, MD: Lexington, 2005.
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Shows how modern Chinese history (1840–1950) has been defined and redefined, using the framework of the Unequal Treaties as a national and international issue. Examines the moral, legal, and rhetorical discourses of the Unequal Treaties and what they came to mean for almost a century of central importance to the Chinese view of their interactions with the modern world.
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Wang, Gungwu. Anglo-Chinese Encounters since 1800: War, Trade, Science, and Governance. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
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Originally presented at the Smuts Commonwealth Lectures at the University of Cambridge, this book synthesizes the broad range of interplays between the Anglo world—including the United States—and the Chinese. Moving beyond politics and diplomacy, Wang calls for attention to the underappreciated impact of the West on China’s modernization.
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Primary Sources

The entries compiled in this section are a small sampling of the copious primary sources reprinted for studies of modern China and the world. MacMurray 1921 and Wang 1982 are collections of treaties and agreements with and concerning China, whereas Waijiaobu tiaoyuesi 1926 gives a glimpse of China’s foreign affairs in all areas in the first Republic of China (Beijing government). Shen 1966–1987 is a large collection of records on modern China including its foreign relations. Zhongyang yanjiuyuan jindaishi yanjiusuo 1962 and Zhongyang yanjiuyuan jindaishisuo 1974–1990 are publications of historical sources on Chinese–Japanese and Chinese–Russian relations. Chen 1980–1985 is devoted to overseas Chinese laborers, a topic that has been gaining increasing importance in the field.

Chen Hansheng 陈翰笙, ed. Huagong chuguo shiliao huibian (华工出国史料汇编). 10 vols. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1980–1985.
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A comprehensive collection of historical sources on overseas Chinese laborers from official Chinese, British, and American documents, including Chinese and foreign private materials on Chinese workers in Southeast Asia, Latin America, the United States, Canada, Oceania, Africa, and those who went abroad during World War I.
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MacMurray, John V. A., ed. Treaties and Agreements with and Concerning China. 2 vols. New York: Oxford University Press, 1921.
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A useful collection of Sino–foreign treaties and agreements signed before 1920.
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Shen Yunlong 沈云龙, ed. Jindai Zhongguo shiliao congkan zheng xu san (近代中国史料丛刊 正续三). 271 vols. Taibei: Wenhai chubanshe, 1966–1987.
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Divided into zheng xu san (three parts). A collection of reprints of valuable official and private documents for Modern China including key diplomatic records from the Qing dynasty and Republican China. An index to Parts 1–3 was published in 1991.
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Waijiaobu tiaoyuesi 外交部条约司, comp. Zhonghua minguo di ba jiu shi sanci waijiao tongji tubiao (中华民国第八九十三次外交统计图表). Beijing: Waijiaobu yinshuasuo, 1926.
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Three sets of statistical charts and tables that provide comprehensive primary data on the general situation, political affairs, commerce, and conduct of the Beijing government (1912–1928) in foreign relations.
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Wang Tieya, comp. and ed. Zhongwai jiu yuezhang huibian (中外旧约章汇编). 3 vols. Beijing: Shenghuo dushu xinzhi sanlian shudian, 1982.
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The most comprehensive collection of 1,182 legal documents in Chinese signed between China and forty-eight countries and the United Nations from 1689 to 1949.
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Zhongyang yanjiuyuan jindaishisuo, comp. Zhongri guanxi shiliao (中日关系史料). 14 vols. Taibei: Zhongyang yanjiuyuan jindaishi yanjiusuo, 1974–1990.
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A collection of historical sources for Sino–Japanese relations that covers the period from 1914 to 1920 with themes on World War I and the Shandong question, post and telecommunications; navigation, fishery, salt, and forestry issues; commerce and taxation; railways and mining; the Twenty-One Demands; general matters; and Manchuria.
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Zhongyang yanjiuyuan jindaishi yanjiusuo 中央研究院近代史研究所, comp. Zhong’e guanxi shiliao (中俄关系史料). 21 vols. Taibei: Zhongyang yanjiuyuan jindaishi yanjiusuo, 1962.
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A collection of historical sources that covers the period from 1917 to 1920 of Sino–Russian relations in the areas of Outer Mongolia, the Chinese Eastern Railway, Manchurian and Xinjiang frontiers, Russian regime change, Siberia, and general matters.
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Archives

The sources cited in this section are a small sampling of archival materials and guides to archives that are located in Taiwan (Zhongyang yanjiuyuan jindaishi yanjiusuo 1962; Zhongyang yanjiuyuan jindaishi yanjiusuo dang’anguan 1991), mainland China (Di’er lishi dang’anguan 1979–1994, Di’er lishi dang’anguan 2010), Germany (Guo and Leutner 1991), Japan (Gaimushō 1949–, Japan Center for Asian Historical Records), the United States (Foreign Relations of the United States), and Great Britain (British National Archives).

British National Archives.
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The largest and most important repository for the documents relating to China and other countries collected by the British Foreign Office (FO) since 1782 and later the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). Research guides available online.
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Di’er lishi dang’anguan 第二历史档案馆, comp. and ed. Zhonghua minguoshi dang’an ziliao huibian (中华民国史档案资料汇编). 90 vols. Nanjing, China: Jiangsu guji chubanshe, 1979–1994.
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A massive collection of primary sources, selected from the holdings at the Chinese Number Two Historical Archives in Nanjing, for the political, economic, military, diplomatic, educational, and cultural history of the 1911 revolution, the Republic of China (1912–1928), and the Nanjing government (1928–1949) including diplomatic activities.
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Di’er lishi dang’anguan 第二历史档案馆, comp. and ed. Zhonghua minguoshi dang’an ziliao huibian zongmu suoyin (中华民国史档案资料汇编总目索引). 2 vols. Nanjing, China: Fenghuang chubanshe, 2010.
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A research aid to the ninety-volume collection of the archival sources for the history of the Republic of China in Di’er lishi dang’anguan 1979–1994.
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Foreign Relations of the United States.
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The Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) series (previously known as Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs, Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, and then Foreign Relations of the United States Diplomatic Papers) contains over four hundred individual volumes from the 1860s to the early 21st century.
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Gaimushō 外務省. Nihon gaikō bunsho (日本外交文書). Tokyo: Nihon Kokusai Rengō Kyōkai, Shōwa 24, 1949–.
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A standard archival source of information on Japan–China relations in modern times.
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Guo Hengyu 郭恒玉, and Mechthild Leutner, eds. Deguo waijiao dang’an: 1928–1938 nian zhi Zhongde guanxi (德国外交档案: 1928–1938年之中德关系.) Translated by Xu Linfei 许琳菲 and Sun Shanhao 孙善豪. Taibei: Zhongyang yanjiuyuan jindaishi yanjiusuo, 1991.
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Translated materials from German diplomatic archives on the relationship between Germany and the Republic of China. Organized into five parts: politics, German diplomatic reports on China’s internal affairs, Chinese economic situation and Germany’s involvement in the reconstruction, Germans in China, and top-secret documents including German arms sale to China.
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Japan Center for Asian Historical Records.
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The database on modern and contemporary Japan’s relations with other Asian countries. Provides online access to the JACAR records held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Institute for Defense Studies, and the National Archives of Japan.
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Zhongyang yanjiuyuan jindaishi yanjiusuo 中央研究院近代史研究所, comp. Zhongfa Yuenan jiaoshe dang (中法越南交涉档), 1875–1911. 7 vols. Taibei: Zhongyang yanjiuyuan jindaishi yanjiusuo, 1962.
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Important archival sources for Sino–French relations involving Vietnam.
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Zhongyang yanjiuyuan jindaishi yanjiusuo dang’anguan 中央研究院近代史所档案馆, comp. Waijiao dang’an mulu huibian (外交档案目录汇编). 2 vols. Taibei: Zhongyang yanjiuyuan jindaishi yanjiusuo, 1991.
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An accessible guide to the diplomatic archives on modern China’s foreign affairs held at the Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica. Volume 1, Zongli yamen (Tsungli Yamen), 1861–1901 and Waiwubu, 1901–1911; Volume 2, Waijiaobu, 1912–1926.
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Bibliographical References

Bibliographical references remain a valuable source of information on the state of the field, although electronic bibliographical tools and databases have become more available. For a historiographical overview, Kirby 1997 (cited under General Overviews: 1990s–Present) is the point of entry, but the last ten years of Qing China, the first decade of the 20th century, is not included for reasons of periodization in the field. The introduction in Cohen 2003 should be read along with Kirby 1996. Fudan daxue lishixi ziliaoshi 1980 and Zhang 2005 are complementary bibliographies of literature in Chinese published from 1949 to 2000. The Bibliography of Asian Studies, published since 1971, includes works on East, Southeast, and South Asia, especially in the humanities and social sciences. Hayford 1999 provides a guide to major literature with brief annotations on American–East Asian (China, Japan, and Korea) relations. Wang and Tajiri 2005 is an extensive bibliography of works on United States and China relations.

Bibliography of Asian Studies. 1971–.
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Published by the Association for Asian Studies. Since 1991, also available online by subscription.
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Cohen, Paul A. China Unbound: Evolving Perspectives on the Chinese Past. New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003.
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More than a self-defense of Cohen’s China-centered approach that has influenced two generations of scholars and students, the introduction of this book instead reflects his deep rethinking of different perspectives on China’s past and, most importantly, how to connect them in the age of the so-called postnationalism and globalization.
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Fudan daxue lishixi ziliaoshi 复旦大学历史系资料室, comp. Zhongguo jindaishi lunzhu mulu (中国近代史论著目录) (1949–1979). Shanghai: Shanghai renmin chubanshe, 1980.
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A comprehensive bibliography of articles and books on modern Chinese history from 1949 to 1979. No annotations are provided.
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Hayford, Charles W., ed. Special Issue: Draft Bibliography of American-East Asian Relations. Journal of American-East Asian Relations 8.1–4 (1999).
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A useful annotated, draft bibliography of works in English on US relations with China, Japan, and Korea. Articles available online for purchase or by subscription.
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Kirby, William C. “Chinese-American Relations in Comparative Perspective, 1900–1949.” In Pacific Passage: The Study of American–East Asian Relations on the Eve of the Twenty-First Century. Edited by Warren I. Cohen, 163–189. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996.
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Although his main concern is obviously Chinese–American relations, Kirby devotes a section to discussing methodologies and approaches to modern China’s foreign relations. He also offers his insightful perspectives on some directions and topics that the field can further develop.
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Wang Xi 汪熙, and Tajiri Tōru 田尻利, eds. 150 nian Zhongmei guanxishi lunzhu mulu (150年中美关系史论著目录) (1823–1990). Shanghai: Fudan daxue chubanshe, 2005.
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An extensive bibliography of studies of US–China relations in Chinese, English, and Japanese published from 1823 to 1990. No annotations are provided.
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Zhang Haipeng 张海鹏, ed. Zhongguo jindaishi lunzhu mulu (中国近代史论著目录), 1979–2000. Shanghai: Shanghai renmin chubanshe, 2005.
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An extensive bibliography of articles and books on modern Chinese published from 1979 to 2000. No annotations are provided.
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Journals

No journals are available in the Anglophone and Chinese-speaking world that are exclusively devoted to modern China’s international relations. Researchers should consult general Asian, modern China, or diplomatic history journals. The Journal of American-East Asian Relations publishes a relatively higher percentage of articles on China’s relations with the United States. Although Diplomatic History is more oriented to American diplomacy, it is an important source of information on topics involving China’s foreign affairs. Jindaishi yanjiu and Jindaishi yanjiusuo jikan are parallel publications on modern Chinese history in mainland China and Taiwan. Kangri zhanzheng yanjiu specializes in articles and documents on the Sino–Japanese War of 1931–1945. Edited in the United States, Modern China and Twentieth-Century China are obviously China-themed, and the Journal of Asian Studies also covers China’s interactions with the outside world from 1900 to 1949.

Diplomatic History. 1977–.
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The Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations publishes five issues a year. Offers a variety of perspectives on the economic, strategic, cultural, racial, and ideological aspects of the United States in the world.
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Jindaishi yanjiu 近代史研究. 1979–.
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Modern Chinese History Studies is the flagship bimonthly journal on modern Chinese history in mainland China. Published by the Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica.
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Jindaishi yanjiusuo jikan 近代史研究所集刊. 1969–.
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A major journal on modern Chinese history in Taiwan. The Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, publishes the Bulletin of the Institute of Modern History four times a year.
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Journal of American-East Asian Relations. 1992–.
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This quarterly scholarly journal publishes articles mainly on the relationship between the United States and China, Japan, and Korea. Published by Imprint Publications and Brill, based in the United States and the Netherlands.
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Journal of Asian Studies. 1941–.
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A flagship academic journal on Asia based in the United States. Originally known as The Far Eastern Quarterly. Covers South and Southeast Asia to China, Inner Asia, and Northeast Asia. Published quarterly by the Association of Asian Studies.
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Kangri zhanzheng yanjiu 抗日战争研究. 1991–.
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The Journal of Studies of China’s Resistance War against Japan is a quarterly journal on the Anti-Japanese War of 1937–1945. The Institute of Modern History, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, publishes research papers, translated documents, historical sources, and bibliographic essays.
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Modern China: An International Journal of History and Social Science. 1975–.
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Presents scholarship in history and social sciences on late imperial, 20th century, and contemporary China. Published bimonthly by the University of California at Los Angeles.
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Twentieth-Century China. 1983–.
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Formerly known as Republican China, a semiannual scholarly journal edited in the United States. Presents articles that chronologically cover the late Qing period through the early 21st century. Published by Maney. The official journal of the Historical Society for Twentieth-Century China.
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Qing China (1900–1911) and the World

Works cited in this section are a small sampling of publications that emphasize the international dimension of events and figures. Important topics on the last ten years of Qing China’s foreign relations include the Boxer Uprising, the 1911 revolution, Yüan Shih-k’ai, Manchuria and international relations, and overseas Chinese. Bickers and Tiedemann 2007 is a collection of articles on the Boxers and the world, whereas Su and Liu 2000 provides a systematic overview of research on the Boxer Uprising around the world. Esherick 2006 treats the 1911 revolution as a critical moment for China to maintain sovereignty over the Qing Empire territory, whereas Wong 2011 provides a 21st-century perspective on the 1911 revolution. Price 1974 discusses the Russian influence on the overthrow of the Manchu regime in 1911. Yen 1985 takes a close look at the Qing government policy on Chinese migration. Chan 1978 focuses on Yüan’s close relationship with Sir John Jordan of Britain. Hunt 1973 examines the American Open Door policy and the Qing government handling of international rivalry in Manchuria (northeast China), which was an important Qing frontier where foreign powers such as Russia and Japan competed for control. Changing perspectives on these aspects of history are closely linked with the changing China and the changing world over the last century.

Bickers, Robert A., and R. G. Tiedemann, eds. The Boxers, China, and the World. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007.
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This collection of revised conference papers represents the latest findings of research. Sheds new light into the Boxer Movement. The Boxers mirrored human experiences of, and responses to, drought, looting, violence, and imperialism.
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Chan Lau Kit-ching. Anglo-Chinese Diplomacy 1906–1920: In the Careers of Sir John Jordan and Yüan Shih-k’ai. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1978.
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Details with clarity the interaction between Sir John Jordan, British minister to China (1906–1920), and Yüan Shih-k’ai, the first president of the Republic of China. Throws light on the Beijing government’s (North China) financial, political, and military relations with Britain, Japan, Germany, Russia, the United States, and other countries.
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Esherick, Joseph W. “How the Qing Became China.” In Empire to Nation: Historical Perspectives on the Making of the Modern World. Edited by Joseph W. Esherick, Hasan Kayali, and Eric Van Young, 229–259. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006.
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Treats the 1911 revolution as a critical moment for China to maintain sovereignty over the Qing Empire territory. Addresses the question of how the Qing Empire made the transition to a Chinese nation state. The 1911 revolution, Chinese nationalism, imperialist threats in the Manchurian, Tibetan, Mongolian, and Muslim regions were the key to understanding such a transformation.
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Hunt, Michael H. Frontier Defense and the Open Door: Manchuria in Chinese-American Relations, 1895–1911. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1973.
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Manchuria (northeast China) was an important Qing frontier where foreign powers such as Russia and Japan competed for control. Hunt perceives the Manchurian issue first as a result of China’s resourceful tactics of frontier defense and second as the development of America’s Open Door principle. Typical of Hunt’s thoroughness and provocativeness, although some critics consider his treatment unfair of most American diplomats and statesmen.
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Price, Don C. Russia and the Roots of the Chinese Revolution, 1896–1911. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1974.
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Reveals the influence of Russia on the fomentation of the Chinese revolution in 1911. Analyzes the images of, and attitudes toward, Peter the Great, Russian imperialism, and concepts of revolution held by Chinese reformers and revolutionists such as Kang Youwei, Yan Fu, Liang Qichao, and Sun Yat-sen.
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Su Weizhi 苏位智, and Liu Tianlu 刘天路, eds. Yihetuan yanjiu yibainian (义和团研究一百年). Jinan, China: Qilu shushe, 2000.
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A useful bibliographic volume to commemorate the Boxer Movement’s centennial. Provides a systematic overview of research on the Boxer Uprising around the world. Part 1 includes literature reviews including the state-of-the-field report by Li Renkai on China’s foreign relations during the Boxer Uprising. Part 2 lists publications in Chinese, English, German, French, Italian, Russian, Japanese, Korean, and other languages.
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Wong, R. Bin. “Centennial Perspectives on China’s 1911 Revolution.” China Information 25.3 (2011): 275–282.
DOI: 10.1177/0920203X11422966Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Suggests that 1911 studies be placed in both Chinese history and in global history. Raises three issues in framing the 21st-century perspectives: the challenges the post-Qing Chinese states had to overcome, the Chinese Communist solutions to those challenges, and new interpretations of 1911 from the perspective of China’s reform since 1978. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
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Yen Ch’ing-Hwang. Coolies and Mandarins: China’s Protection of Overseas Chinese during the Late Ch’ing Period (1851–1911). Singapore: Singapore University Press, 1985.
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Yen discusses the various diplomatic and legal initiatives the Qing (Ch’ing) government took, together with the overseas Chinese community, to protect Chinese emigrants in Singapore, Malaysia, Peru, Cuba, the United States, and South Africa.
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First Republic (Beijing Government)

During the First Republic (1912–1928), China made efforts to revise the Unequal Treaties and restore lost sovereign rights on major international occasions, including the Paris Peace Conference and the Washington Conference. Anti-imperialism, anti-warlordism, and unification were the three objectives of the Nationalist Revolution in the 1920s. Among other foreign influences, the Bolshevik Revolution played a significant role in reshaping Chinese politics, society, and the Communist revolution.

World War I and Paris Peace Conference

The Beijing government’s participation in the post–World War I settlement has been considered a meaningful and deliberate measure to enhance China’s international status. The question of declaring war became bogged down in China’s factional politics, which eventually led to the rupture between the North (the Beijing regime as the only foreign recognized government) and the South (where the dissenting members of the Parliament established an autonomous military government in Canton). Both Pollard 1933 (cited under General Overviews: Pre-1970s) and Zhang 1991 note that World War I provided China with an opportunity to abolish some of the foreign special rights and privileges without completing the work of domestic reform. Xu 2005 emphasizes that China was more deliberate about pursuing a new diplomacy that represented China’s search for a new national identity. Wang 2005 (cited under General Overviews: 1990s–Present, pp. 35–62) looks into the legal challenges mounted by the Chinese Foreign Ministry to fundamental interpretations of international law at the Paris Peace Conference of 1918–1919. Elleman 2002 argues that President Woodrow Wilson did not “betray” China in the negotiations over the return to China of the Shandong possessions that had been seized by Japan during World War I.

Elleman, Bruce A. Wilson and China: A Revised History of the Shandong Question. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2002.
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Discusses the historical controversy surrounding the Shandong question in Paris, including the myth of Wilson’s betrayal of China.
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Xu Guoqi. China and the Great War: China’s Pursuit of a New National Identity and Internationalization. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
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A full-length account of China’s participation in the diplomacy of World War I. Xu argues that China made a conscious decision at the time to pursue equitable status and play an active role in world affairs.
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Zhang Yongjin. China in the International System, 1918–20: The Middle Kingdom at the Periphery. New York: St. Martin’s, 1991.
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Takes a close look at China’s diplomatic struggle in the aftermath of World War I to win for itself an equal place in the emerging new world order. Points out that China entered the world stage without fulfilling the European standard of “civilization.” China asserted its sovereign rights through invoking European-originated principles that governed state-to-state relations.
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Washington Conference

In 1921, the United States took the lead in initiating an international conference on global disarmament and security issues in the Asia Pacific region. Willoughby 1922 provides an eyewitness perspective on the event. The interpretative framework of the Washington system laid out in Iriye 1990 has exerted enduring impact on scholarship in global history and international relations in East Asia.

Iriye, Akira. After Imperialism: The Search for a New Order in the Far East, 1921–1931. Chicago: Imprint Publications, 1990.
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Addresses the interwar period of international relations in Asia. Argues that the old order—the diplomacy of imperialism—was destroyed by World War I. The new order—the Washington system—promoted international cooperation. Peacekeeping efforts made by the United States, the Soviet Union, Japan, and China all ended in failure in 1931. Originally published in 1965 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press).
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Willoughby, Westel W. China at the Conference: A Report. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1922.
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Willoughby, a scholar in political science, was an American adviser to the Beijing government at the Washington Conference. Offers a dispassionate and documented report and interpretation of the issues concerning China in Washington. Optimistic about China’s overall achievements.
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Nationalist Revolution

How did China’s anti-imperialist and anti-warlord Nationalist Revolution interact with foreign presence and competition in China? Borg 1947 is a classic treatment of the issue through the prism of American involvement, and Li 1993 examines the different diplomatic tactics employed by competing political forces in a divided China. The anti-British movement and changing British policies toward China are studied in Li 1986, Fung 1991, and Atkins 1995.

Atkins, Martyn. Informal Empire in Crisis: British Diplomacy and the Chinese Customs Succession, 1927–1929. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1995.
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Discusses the mass protests and boycotts and unilateral seizure of British concessions during the Nationalist revolution in China. Narrates how Britain failed to help A. H. F. Edwardes, its preferred candidate, gain the Inspector-Generalship of the Chinese Customs, a position long held by British nationals since the 1860s.
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Borg, Dorothy. American Policy and the Chinese Revolution, 1925–1928. New York: Macmillan, 1947.
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A classic study of US–China policy during the tumultuous nationalist revolution. Examines the anti-imperialist May 30th Incident, Chinese efforts to revise the Unequal Treaties, the Special Conference on the Chinese Customs Tariff of 1925, and negotiations over extraterritoriality.
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Fung, Edmund S. K. The Diplomacy of Imperial Retreat: Britain’s South China Policy, 1924–1931. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1991.
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Provides an account of Britain’s changing relations with the Guomindang (the Nationalist Party) in South China during the Nationalist anti-imperialist and anti-warlord revolution.
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Li Enhan 李恩涵. Beifa qianhou de “geming waijiao” (北伐前后的 “革命外交”): 1925–1931. Taibei: Zhongyang yanjiuyuan jindaishi yanjiusuo, 1993.
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Traces the radical and moderate “revolutionary diplomacy” adopted by the Nationalist authorities in South China and the Beijing government in the North.
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Li Jianmin 李健民. Wusa can’an hou de fanying yundong (五卅慘案後的反英運動). Taibei: Zhongyang yanjiuyuan jindaishi yanjiusuo, 1986.
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Discusses the anti-British propaganda movement that arose in the aftermath of the May 30th Incident, focusing on propaganda organizations, approaches, activities, content, and impact.
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China and the Bolshevik Revolution

To what extent did the Bolshevik 1917 revolution and Soviet Russian policy influence the Chinese revolution, the Beijing warlord government, and the alliance and split between the Nationalist Guomindang and Communist Party? Pantsov 2000 adds evidential details to the findings of Whiting 1953, Leong 1976, Wilbur 1976, and Wilbur 1989.

Leong, Sow-Theng. Sino-Russian Diplomatic Relations, 1917–1926. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 1976.
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Adds to the growing body of literature on the Russian Bolshevik government and China’s warlord government in Beijing. Shows that both countries and their diplomats were proponents and practitioners of realpolitik in their handling of each other.
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Pantsov, Alexander. The Bolsheviks and the Chinese Revolution, 1919–1927. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2000.
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An acclaimed study that incorporates valuable sources in Russian, Chinese, and English into interpretive analysis of Soviet Russia and the Chinese revolution. Pantsov details the differences among Leon Trotsky, Vladimir Lenin, and Joseph Stalin over China and the impact of these differences on Guomindang, the Chinese Communist Party, and Chinese students in Russia.
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Whiting, Allen S. Soviet Politics in China, 1917–1924. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1953.
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A thorough work that reveals the deep cleavages within the Soviet Union and the Second Congress of the Communist International (Comintern) concerning China, the Chinese revolution, the Chinese Eastern Railway, and Outer Mongolia.
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Wilbur, C. Martin. Sun Yat-sen: Frustrated Patriot. New York: Columbia University, 1976.
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Traces the fundraising efforts among overseas Chinese and foreign supporters by Sun Yat-sen—the founding father of the Nationalist Party and the Republic of China. Mostly focusing on Sun’s relations with Soviet Russia, also looks into his perennial failure in securing aid from American, British, French, and German leaders.
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Wilbur, C. Martin, and Julie Lien-ying How. Missionaries of Revolution: Soviet Advisers and Nationalist China, 1920–1927. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989.
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Drawing on sources in Russian, Chinese, Japanese, English, and other languages, this prominent work of over nine hundred pages examines the Russian efforts to shape the Chinese Revolution in the rise of the Nationalist Party and the Chinese Communist Party.
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Nationalist Government Era (1928–1949)

Interactions between China and the world during the Nationalist government years are presented under three subheadings: Nation-Building (1928–1937); Manchuria, Japanese Imperialism, and World War II (1931–1945); and Wartime Diplomacy and Chinese Civil War (1944–1949).

Nation-Building

Thomson 1969, Young 1971, and Kirby 1984 illuminate different aspects of foreign involvement in the ten-year nation-building efforts made by the Guomindang Nationalist government.

Kirby, William C. Germany and Republican China. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1984.
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A rich study of the political, military, economic, and ideological interaction between Germany and Republican China from 1927 to 1937. Kirby suggests that substantial economic ties, military planning, national reconstruction, and Chinese admiration for the German way of life and governance contributed to an equal partnership between the two countries.
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Thomson, James C., Jr. While China Faced West: American Reformers in Nationalist China, 1928–1937. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1969.
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Examines American–Chinese relations on the nongovernmental level. Explores the participation of some American missionaries in Nationalist China’s rural reconstruction programs and New Life Movement from 1928 to 1937. In reforming China, the missionaries were confronted with hard choices of gradual evolution versus drastic revolution.
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Young, Arthur N. China’s Nation-Building Effort, 1927–1937: The Financial and Economic Record. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 1971.
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Personally involved as financial adviser to the Republic of China from 1929 to 1946, Young describes particularly the monetary and fiscal undertakings by the Nationalist government. An important first-hand account implying that Nationalist China might have been able to carry out evolutionary reforms and modernization, had Japan not escalated its invasion of China on a large scale in 1937.
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Manchuria, Japanese Imperialism, and World War II

What was the nature of Japanese imperialism in China and the Asia Pacific region? Was it simply a form of neocolonialism, as many scholars believe, or an expression of East Asian modernity in its regional struggle against colonialism and imperialism, as Duara 2003 powerfully suggests? Mitter 2000 addresses the same issue from the other side of the coin by interrogating China’s construction of resistance in the face of Japanese invaders. China’s diplomacy prior to the outbreak of the Pacific War in 1941 has also been the subject of scholarly discussion. Sun 1993 adopts a cultural approach to explain the origins of World War II in Asia, whereas Barrett and Shyu 2001 and Brook 2005 shift attention to China’s resistance to, and collaboration with, Japan during the War of Resistance. Brook 1999, Fogel 2000, and Cheng 2008 point to the multinational, divergent perspectives on the Nanjing Massacre of 1937.

Barrett, David P., and Lawrence N. Shyu, eds. Chinese Collaboration with Japan, 1932–1945: The Limits of Accommodation. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001.
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A collection of eleven articles organized into four groups: negotiations with Japan, client regimes, elite collaboration, and the hinterland. Looks into the complex practicalities of life during the Japanese occupation.
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Brook, Timothy. Collaboration: Japanese Agents and Local Elites in Wartime China. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005.
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A superb study of Chinese collaboration and Japanese tactics to recruit Chinese supporters at the local level in the lower Yangzi region.
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Brook, Timothy, ed. Documents on the Rape of Nanking. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1999.
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A suitable textbook to use the case of the Nanjing Massacre to teach university students how to render judgment based on facts by confronting the complex issue of subjectivity and objectivity in writing history. Contains a reading aid on the nature of the documents included in the volume.
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Cheng Zhaoqi 程兆奇. Riben xiancun Nanjing datusha shiliao yanjiu (日本现存南京大屠杀史料研究). Shanghai: Shanghai renmin chubanshe, 2008.
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Represents an investigation by a Chinese scholar into the Nanjing Massacre. Part 1 is an introduction of the “Nanjing Incident” sources available in Japanese. Part 2 evaluates the value of those materials in an effort to refute the “illusion” or “fabrication” thesis which denies the existence of the Nanjing crime.
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Duara, Presenjit. Sovereignty and Authenticity: Manchukuo and the East Asian Modern. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003.
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A richly deep and exciting study of Manchukuo (1932–1945), the Japanese puppet-state in Manchuria. Duara reexamines Japan’s rhetorical justification for its invasion of China and East Asia. According to Duara, Manchukuo was a regional inflection of global trends—imperialism of decolonization, or an “East Asian modern”—that emerged in the highly contested processes of Japanese empire-building and Chinese nation-building.
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Fogel, Joshua, ed. The Nanjing Massacre in History and Historiography. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000.
DOI: 10.1525/california/9780520220065.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Originated in a panel presentation on the Nanjing Massacre of 1937 for the 1997 Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian Studies. Placing the Nanjing atrocities at national, global, and transnational levels, this book helps scholars and students grasp the scope and roots of this unsettled historical and contemporary issue and has done service to society as well.
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Mitter, Rana. The Manchurian Myth: Nationalism, Resistance and Collaboration in Modern China. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000.
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Argues that the “resistancial myth” was an essential element of modern Chinese nationalism in response to the Manchurian Incident and the establishment of Manchukuo.
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Sun, Youli. China and the Origins of the Pacific War, 1931–1941. New York: St. Martin’s, 1993.
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A cultural approach to the origins of the Pacific War. The foreign policy of China’s leader Chiang Kai-shek aimed at seeking alliance with Western powers and the Soviet Union which would allow him to deal with his domestic enemies Mao Zedong and the Communist Party. Chiang’s strategy derived from his belief that Western intervention and conflict with Japan were inevitable.
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Wartime Diplomacy and Chinese Civil War

In the 1940s, the Chinese political landscape was dominated by a complex series of interactions among the Nationalists, Communists, World War II allies, and major Cold War rivals (the United States and the Soviet Union). The selection in this section intends to serve as the starting point for a much larger and richer body of literature on the subject. Garver 1988 is an exemplary work of Chinese wartime diplomacy. Westad 1993 deals with Soviet–American rivalry in the civil war between the Nationalist Party (Guomindang) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Young 1963 offers useful inside information on foreign countries and the finances of the Guomindang government. Wang 2013 reexamines core issues in China’s foreign affairs that led to the Communist victory and the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. Yang 2010 locates the CCP’s path to success within a favorable international environment.

Garver, John W. Chinese-Soviet Relations, 1937–1945: The Diplomacy of Chinese Nationalism. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.
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An outstanding work of Chinese wartime diplomacy and political history. Garver shows how Chiang Kai-shek, Mao Zedong, and Joseph Stalin devised schemes to manipulate one another and President Franklin Roosevelt from 1937 to 1945.
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Wang, Dong. “The Pacific War and Red China.” In The United States and China: A History from the Eighteenth Century to the Present. By Dong Wang, 145–172. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2013.
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Synthesizes the overarching changes in the geopolitical climate that shaped China’s international relations and the final outcome of the Civil War. Contains an annotated list of important scholarship.
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Westad, Odd Arne. Cold War and Revolution: Soviet-American Rivalry and the Origins of the Chinese Civil War, 1944–1946. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.
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Raises the importance of taking into account the interaction between world powers and Chinese domestic politics. Shows the Chinese Civil War of 1946–1949 originated with the globalization of the Soviet-American confrontation in the Cold War.
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Yang Kuisong 杨奎松. “Zhongjian didai” de geming: Guoji da beijing xia kan Zhonggong chenggong zhidao (“中间地带”的革命: 国际大背景下看中共成功之道). Taiyuan, China: Shanxi renmin chubanshe, 2010.
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An in-depth and accessible study of the domestic and international factors contributing to the Chinese Communist Party’s victory in 1949. A revised version of a book originally published in 1991.
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Young, Arthur N. China and the Helping Hand, 1937–1945. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1963.
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As a former financial adviser to the Nationalist government, Young provides a first-hand account of foreign aid to Guomindang during the Sino–Japanese War. Stresses China’s contributions to World War II. Sympathetic with the downfall of the Nationalist government in 1949.
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Unequal Treaties and International Law

Treaties signed between China and foreign countries hold a central and enduring place in Chinese writings on their foreign affairs and national memories. Willoughby 1966, Wright 1938, and Fishel 1974 form the body of classic literature on the topic in English. Cheng 1993, Wang 2006, and Tang 2010 represent three complementary approaches in contemporary scholarship.

Cheng Daode 程道德, ed. Jindai Zhongguo waijiao yu guojifa (近代中国外交与国际法). Beijing: Xiandai chubanshe, 1993.
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Connects China’s modern foreign relations with international law.
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Fishel, Wesley R. The End of Extraterritoriality in China. New York: Octagon, 1974.
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An early study of the abolition of consular jurisdiction in China in 1943. First published in 1952 by the University of California Press.
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Tang Qihua 唐启华. Bei “Feichu bupingdeng tiaoyue” zhebi de Beiyang xiuyue (被 “废除不平等条约” 遮蔽的北洋修约史) (1912–1928). Beijing: Shehui kexue chubanshe, 2010.
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The latest effort to study Republican China’s two different approaches to the treaty issue: treaty revision and the abrogation of the Unequal Treaties.
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Wang, Dong. “The Dissemination of International Law and the Study of the Unequal Treaties in China.” In As China Meets the World: China’s Changing Position in the International Community. Edited by Susanne Weigelin-Schwiedrzik, Agnes S. Schick-Chen, and Sascha Klotzbücher, 169–193. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2006.
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The dissemination of international law was inseparable from the study of the Unequal Treaties in modern China. The age of globalization, far from diminishing the influence of nation-states, has in reality made the role of sovereign nations more diverse and complex.
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Willoughby, Westel W. Foreign Rights and Interests in China. 2 vols. Rev. and enl. ed. Taipei: Chengwen, 1966.
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A classic summary of foreign rights and privileges in China within the treaty system. First published by Johns Hopkins University Press in 1927.
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Wright, Stanley F. China’s Struggle for Tariff Autonomy, 1843–1938. Shanghai: Kelly & Walsh, 1938.
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An extensive work on the history of China’s effort to regain tariff autonomy.
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Communist Foreign Relations

Hunt 1996 places more emphasis on Mao’s central role in shaping the foreign policy of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Reardon-Anderson 1980 was more influenced by Fairbank’s Western impact/stimulation and China’s response paradigm (see Teng and Fairbank 1982, cited under General Overviews: Pre-1970s), whereas Borg and Heinrichs 1980 is more comprehensive in scope. Zhang and Sun 2011 argues that the CCP had learned to formulate its independent foreign policy from its contacts with the outside world.

Borg, Dorothy, and Waldo Heinrichs, eds. Uncertain Years: Chinese-American Relations, 1947–1950. New York: Columbia University Press, 1980.
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A collection of conference essays. Offers a multinational analysis of the sources of Sino–American antagonism from 1947 to 1950.
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Hunt, Michael H. The Genesis of Chinese Communist Foreign Policy. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996.
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Discusses the central role of Mao Zedong in the formation of the Chinese Communist Party’s external relations. Emphasis is given to Mao’s changing position on internationalism, imperialism, nationalism, the United States, and the Soviet Union.
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Reardon-Anderson, James. Yenan and the Great Powers: The Origins of the Chinese Communist Foreign Policy. New York: Columbia University Press, 1980.
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The Chinese Communist Party’s foreign policy grew out of pragmatic responses to three factors: Japan’s defeat, the competition between the Russians and the Americans, and the Nationalist Party’s intransigence within China; the motive within Mao’s party to make overtures to the Americans; and the fact that neither Washington nor Moscow wanted to provide significant aid to Mao.
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Zhang Baijia 章百家 and Sun Yanling孙艳玲. “Zouxiang duli zizhu: Minzhu geming shiqi Zhonggong duiwai guanxi de fazhan licheng” (走向独立自主民主革命时期中共对外关系的发展历程). Zhonggong dangshi yanjiu 中共党史研究 6 (2011): 5–16.
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Treats foreign relations as an important component of the Chinese Communist Party history. The CCP’s independent foreign policy gradually took shape in its dealings with the Soviet Union, the Comintern, and Western powers.
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Diplomatic Institutions

The evolution of the Chinese Foreign Ministry—from Zongli Yamen (Tsungli Yamen), to Waiwubu, and then to Waijiaobu—is still an open topic worth further exploration. Wu 1987, Liu 1937, and Chen 1943 lay foundations for contemporary studies, whereas Strauss 1998 and Wang 2005 point to two possible directions—institution-building and management of diplomatic issues at international, national, and local levels—to pursue additional in-depth quantitative and qualitative analysis of the organization.

Chen Tiqiang 陈体强. Zhongguo waijiao xingzheng (中国外交行政). Chongqing, China: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1943.
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The only comprehensive scholarly work on the administration of Chinese diplomacy in Chinese.
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Liu, Pinghou C. “Chinese Foreign Affairs—Organization and Control.” PhD diss., New York University, 1937.
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Abridged summary of Liu’s 264-page doctoral thesis. It traces the evolution of China’s diplomatic agencies from the Tsungli Yamen, to Waiwubu (Ministry of Foreign Affairs), and then to Waijiaobu to the 1930s.
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Strauss, Julia C. Strong Institutions in Weak Polities: State Building in Republican China, 1927–1940. Oxford: Clarendon, 1998.
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A study of the institutional structure and state-building efforts involving the Waijiaobu (foreign ministry). By applying a Weberian theory of bureaucratization and professionalism and contrasting it with the traditional Confucianist model, Strauss constructs a group portrait of the Examination Yuan, the Salt Inspectorate, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
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Wang, Dong. China’s Unequal Treaties: Narrating National History. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005.
DOI: 10.4324/9780203352779Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Includes a chapter on the development of Waijiaobu (1912–1928) (pp. 35–62) but approaches the topic from the vantage point of Waijiaobu’s dual tactics, i.e., contesting international law outside China while implementing international law within China.
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Wu Chengzhang 吴成章. Waijiaobu yange jilüe (外交部沿革记略). Taibei: Wenhai chubanshe, 1987.
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Divided into two parts: one on the structure, personnel, and management of Zongli Yamen (Tsungli Yamen, 1861–1901) and Waiwubu (1901–1911) in the Qing dynasty, and the other on Waijiaobu (1912–1928) under the Republic of China. Originally published in 1913.
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International Organizations

This section includes an example of China’s interaction with international organizations, such as the League of Nations, during the first half of the 20th century. The consensus as shown in Osterhammel 1979, Zanasi 2007, Tang 1998, and Hong 2010 is that the League of Nations played an active but limited role in China’s nation-building and the worldwide promotion of development and foreign aid. Japan’s expansion and invasion of China compounded the overall evaluation of the League of Nations in China.

Hong Lan 洪岚. Nanjing Guomin zhengfu de Guolian waijiao (南京国民政府的国联外交). Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe, 2010.
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Systematically examines the Nanjing government’s involvement with the League of Nations from 1928 to 1937. Although highlighting the positive effects of international cooperation, Hong notes that the Nationalist government overly relied on the League in hopes of resolving its disputes and confrontation with Japan.
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Osterhammel, Jürgen. “‘Technical Co-operation’ between the League of Nations and China.” Modern Asian Studies 13.4 (1979): 661–680.
DOI: 10.1017/S0026749X00008507Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Discusses the scope and nature of the cooperation between the League of Nations and the Nanjing government, mainly in public health and rural reconstruction. Available online by subscription.
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Tang Qihua 唐启华. Beijing zhengfu yu Guoji Lianmeng, 1919–1928 (北京政府与国际联盟). Taibei: Dongda tushu gongsi, 1998.
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A rich study of the Beijing government’s relationship with the League of Nations. Diplomats responsible for foreign affairs in the Beijing government were both internationalists and nationalists. China preferred to use outside forces to deter Japan’s expansion in China but objected to international interference in China’s domestic affairs.
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Zanasi, Margherita. “Exporting Development: The League of Nations and Republican China.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 49.1 (2007): 143–169.
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Examines three experts on rural development—William Kenneth Hunter Campbell of Britain, Mario Dragoni of Italy, and Max Brauer of Germany—who were dispatched by the League of Nations to Nationalist China. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
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China and the World Economy

Was foreign business harmful to China’s industrialization during the first half of the 20th century? Cheng 1956 and Feuerwerker 1983 form the basis for inquiries into modern China and the world economy. Both were in agreement that for an underdeveloped, semicolonized country, such as China, economic gains through international exchange may only be realized when the political environment is supportive and trade is complementary in nature and on fair terms. Hou 1965 suggests that foreign investment was not as harmful to the Chinese economy as widely believed. Wang 1999 emphasizes the predominantly negative role played by foreign banks in China, whereas Eng 1986 suggests that imperialism was neither progressive nor destructive to China’s economic welfare. Wright 1986 is an incisive critique of the debate over the impact of imperialism on the Chinese economy. Sugihara 2005 examines a century (1850–1949) of the Chinese economy within a broader Chinese, Japanese, and international context. Shiroyama 2008 shows that China’s integration into the global economy and unregulated silver monetary system had made Nationalist China vulnerable to the global economic crisis as well as the measures that foreign powers took to counter the crisis. Sun 2004 concludes that China, although it must integrate itself further into the global economy, should be cautious with national economic sovereignty and financial security.

Cheng, Yu-Kwei. Foreign Trade and Industrial Development of China: An Historical and Integrated Analysis through 1948. Washington, DC: University Press of Washington, DC, 1956.
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A widely consulted work on foreign trade and industrial development from the 1840s through 1948. Among other political, social, and economic factors, treaty obligations toward foreign powers, fluctuating silver prices, foreign investments, tariff, war, Japanese invasion, and inflation altogether profoundly impacted China’s manufacturing industries and foreign trade.
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Eng, Robert Y. Economic Imperialism in China: Silk Production and Exports, 1861–1932. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986.
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Argues that foreign imperialism and Chinese domestic factors were responsible for both the growth as well as the underdevelopment of the silk industry.
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Feuerwerker, Albert. “Economic Trends, 1912–49.” In The Cambridge History of China. Vol. 12, Republican China, 1912–1949, Part 1. Edited by John King Fairbank, 28–127. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
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Suggests that the Chinese economy as a whole underwent no significant change, although foreign business helped promote a small sector of Chinese- and foreign-owned enterprises.
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Hou, Chih-ming. Foreign Investment and Economic Development in China, 1840–1937. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1965.
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One of the core readings on the economic influence of foreign presence in China. Finds that, despite its small size, foreign investment did not “oppress” traditional Chinese handicrafts or modern manufacturing, mining, banking, and steamships and railway industries.
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Shiroyama, Tomoko, China during the Great Depression: Market, State, and the World Economy, 1929–1937. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2008.
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Using the data from silk-reeling and cotton-spinning industries in the Lower Yangzi Delta, Shiroyama explains why the Great Depression had a devastating effect on the Chinese economy.
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Sugihara, Kaoru, ed. Japan, China, and the Growth of the Asian International Economy, 1850–1949. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
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This collection of articles has two interconnected themes: one is the exchange of goods and people within and between China, Japan, and other Asian regions and countries; the other deals with the entangled national and international politics and economy in Asia.
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Sun Yuqin 孙玉琴. Zhongguo duiwai maoyishi (中国对外贸易史). Vol. 2. Beijing: Duiwai jingji maoyi daxue chubanshe, 2004.
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Provides a comprehensive coverage of China’s foreign trade from 1840 to 1948. Divided into six chapters.
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Wang Jingyu 汪敬虞. Waiguo ziben zai jindai Zhongguo de jinrong huodong (外国资本在近代中国的金融活动). Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 1999.
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A collection of eleven articles on the financial activity of foreign capital in modern China. Argues that foreign banking was a form of economic aggression in modern China.
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Wright, Tim. “Imperialism and the Chinese Economy: A Methodological Critique of the Debate.” Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars 18.1 (January–March 1986): 36–45.
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An insightful review of the debate over the role of international trade and investment in China. Wright questions the significance of even debating such a broad question when politics and economics are blurred and when the implications of the economic unit and research hypothesis are not specified.
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Missionary Cultural Legacy

Unlike missions in the 19th century, research on Christianity in China of the 20th century has somehow been treated as self-contained. As a cultural legacy, Christian educational enterprises have been undervalued as an important aspect of China and the world from 1900 to 1949. The eighteen Christian universities and colleges in China underwent adaptation and accumulated enormous human capital, the impact of which has still been visible around the globe. These occurrences should not simply be viewed as sheer cultural imperialism, as Dunch 2002 points out. West 1976 is a solid study that defies simple categorization of the Christian experience in China. Wang 2007 illustrates how an originally American institution became both foreign and local in a changing China and the world. Bays 2009 highlights cross-cultural connections in different localities and historical contexts. Wang 2006 points to the fact that religion is an important aspect of China’s international relations.

Bays, Daniel H., and Ellen Widmer, eds. China’s Christian Colleges: Cross-Cultural Connections, 1900–1950. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2009.
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Edited by authoritative scholars in the field. A collection of articles originally prepared for a 2003 conference titled “The American Context of China’s Christian Colleges,” held at Wesleyan University (Middleton, CT).
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Dunch, Ryan. “Beyond Cultural Imperialism: Cultural Theory, Christian Missions, and Global Modernity.” History and Theory 41.3 (October 2002): 301–325.
DOI: 10.1111/1468-2303.00208Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Points to the new direction for scholars interested in power and culture in international history. He argues that in assessing the missionary role we need to move beyond the “polarized praise and blame tendencies of earlier scholarship, recognizing the dependency of both on the twin teleologies of developmentalism and nationalism” (p. 318). Available online for purchase or by subscription.
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Wang, Dong. “Portraying Chinese Christianity: The American Press and U.S.–China Relations since the 1920s.” Journal of American-East Asian Relations 13.1–4 (2006): 81–119.
DOI: 10.1163/187656106793645169Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Reexamines the change from the 1920s through the 2000s of political temper and Christianity in China through the lens of the US printed press. It also provides a long perspective on contemporary debates over human rights and religious freedom as a universal value and international regime. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
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Wang, Dong. Managing God’s Higher Learning: U.S.–China Cultural Encounter and Canton Christian College (Lingnan University), 1888–1952. Lanham, MD: Lexington, 2007.
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Using the case of Lingnan University, reassesses the broad question of localization and globalization of education, governance, ideas, and cultures in China’s encounter with the outside world.
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West, Philip. Yenching University and Sino-Western Relations, 1916–1952. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1976.
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An early effort to reflect in depth on the missionary cultural enterprise in China by examining the history of one of the best Chinese universities. The Vietnam War, however, compounded West’s overall assessment in a personal way.
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