A knowledge of history is very important to an understanding of international situations and events. The seeds of tomorrow’s events will be sown in the actions taken today. Here is a footnote to the history of relations between Russia and China covering a period of sixty years, a cycle of Cathay. It has an important bearing upon what is going on now between Russia and China. The events here recounted will influence Sino-Russian relations in the years ahead.
In the year 1894 the Japanese declared war upon China over Korea. Chinese forces on land and on sea were defeated and at the peace negotiations in Shimonoseki in 1895 the Japanese demanded and obtained from the Chinese the cession of the southern part of Manchuria (the Liaotung peninsula) with the ports of Port Arthur and Talienwan or Dairen, and the island of Formosa.
Count Sergei Witte, the great Russian civil engineer, railroad and empire builder, anxiously watched events in the Far East. Suspicious of the advance of Japan, Russia even moved a body of troops from Vladivostok overland in the direction of Kirin in Manchuria. Perhaps this was in fact a feeler in the direction of the advancing Japanese, although later, in negotiations with Li Hung- chang at Moscow, Witte was to describe this action to the Chinese as practical evidence of Russia’s desire to uphold the territorial integrity of China. When Witte learned of the Japanese demand for the Liaotung peninsula, he persuaded his Emperor that Russia could not afford to allow this to happen. The German Emperor joined with the Emperor of Russia and the government of France in advising the Japanese in 1895 that they should accept from the Chinese an indemnity in lieu of the Liaotung peninsula.
Japan, exhausted by the war, accepted the advice and returned the Liaotung peninsula to China in exchange for an indemnity. The Russian government then guaranteed a loan to China, subscribed by France, Germany, and Russia, to help pay the indemnity to Japan.
In 1896 Nicholas II was crowned in Moscow. The Chinese took the unprecedented step of sending Grand Councilor Li Hung- chang as a special Ambassador to represent them at the coronation ceremonies. He was also to thank Russia for the assistance rendered in upholding China’s territorial integrity by taking the lead in persuading Japan to return the Liaotung peninsula. Witte was so anxious lest Li Hung-chang be diverted to Western Europe that he caused Prince Ukhtomski, at that time one of the Tsar’s intimates, to be sent to meet Li at Port Said and escort him directly to St. Petersburg where he arrived on April 18, 1896, three weeks before the coronation ceremonies.
During the ceremonies which took place at Moscow, Witte and Lobonoff, the Russian Foreign Minister, presented Li with the draft of a treaty of alliance. By this treaty Russia and China agreed to support each other in case either was attacked by Japan. To facilitate the Russians in going to the aid of China, the Chinese agreed to permit Russia to build a railway across Chinese territory along a strip of land to be assigned to the railway as a right of way, within which the railway was to exercise complete jurisdiction. This agreement, known for a long time as the Cassini Convention, was kept secret, although from leaks every one knew something of its terms. Visible evidence of its existence was the announced establishment of the Chinese Eastern Railway Company and the laying of the rails for the line straight across northern Manchuria. Thus did Witte accomplish a long held purpose of extending his then building Trans-Siberian railway straight through to Vladivostok, saving some four hundred miles by avoiding the long deviation northwards on Siberian soil which would have been necessary if the line followed the northern bank of the Amur river.
During the year 1897 there was a certain amount of activity between the Russian and German Emperors, evidenced by the notorious Willy-Nicky letters published after World War I. A result of this activity was that in November, 1897, the Germans seized, to hold under a 99 year lease, the port of Tsingtau on the Chinese coast, ostensibly as a reprisal for the accidental death of a German missionary in Shantung when bandits raided the village where the missionary happened to be. This was the signal for the Russian fleet to move into Port Arthur and Dairen the following month. The Russians demanded and, through the use of bribery and chicanery, obtained the lease of the Liaotung peninsula and also obtained the right to connect the port of Dairen with Harbin on the Chinese Eastern Railway, then building across Northern Manchuria. Russia had at last obtained the warm water port on the Pacific ocean which she had long been seeking. In doing so Russia had violated the Treaty of Alliance with China entered into hardly two years before and upon which the ink was barely dry. One can imagine the effect of all of this upon the Japanese who, three years before, had been forced by the advice of Russia, Germany, and France to return to China this territory which they had taken from China as spoils of war.
During the year 1898 Great Britain, suspicious of Russia at Port Arthur, asked for and obtained from the Chinese government a lease of the port of Weihaiwei on the Chinese coast just opposite Port Arthur. The French rewarded themselves by obtaining from China a lease of the port of Kuangchow- wan, located between Hongkong and Hanoi.
That year became known in the Orient as the year of the battle of the concessions. It was said throughout Asia, Europe, and America that China was about to be divided up among the European powers. The Chinese had been ignominiously defeated by Japan, their government had proved utterly incapable of standing up to the demands of the powers who were encroaching on the coast. The Chinese people were much disturbed. In 1899 there began in Shantung a popular revolt against the Chinese government. It was led by people who styled themselves I Ho T’uan, later known to the Western world as “Boxers.”
The Imperial Government of China cleverly turned the wrath of the revolting people from itself to the foreigners in the land. The movement became violently anti-foreign. The legations at Peking were besieged and foreigners were attacked everywhere. Russia used the attacks upon her railway workers in Manchuria as a welcome pretext for sending in a military force which effectively occupied the whole of Manchuria. In the summer of 1900 an international expeditionary force which included American forces was landed at Tientsin and fought its way to the relief of the legations at Peking.
The “Boxer” uprising was settled between the Powers and China by a written protocol signed at Peking in 1901. The Powers agreed to evacuate their forces from Chinese soil except for certain troops to be stationed along the railway which connected Peking with the sea at Tientsin and Shannaikuan.
Throughout the years 1902, 1903, and into 1904, Japan, China, and the United States joined diplomatic forces in an attempt to persuade the Russians to fulfill their promise and evacuate their forces which continued to occupy Manchuria. The Russians procrastinated. Finally in 1904, Japan, feeling that further diplomacy was futile, suddenly and without warning attacked the Russians at Port Arthur and in Korea below the Yalu. In the hostilities which followed Russian arms were defeated again and again by the Japanese and driven back into Manchuria north of Mukden.
At Portsmouth, New Hampshire, at the invitation of President Theodore Roosevelt, the Japanese and the Russians negotiated and signed a treaty of peace in 1905, by which the Russians ceded to Japan the Russian leasehold of the Liaotung peninsula and the railway into Manchuria as far north as Changchun.
In September, 1931, Japan suddenly occupied the whole of Manchuria, drove out all Chinese authority, and set up in its place a puppet regime subservient to its will. In 1935, acting through its puppet, the Japanese bought the Russians out of their remaining rights in the Chinese Eastern Railway which crossed northern Manchuria. Thus, by 1935, Russia had nothing left in Manchuria. Japan was in complete control.
In February, 1945, at Yalta in the Crimea, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill, and Premier Stalin met to discuss military plans in World War II. Russia, then party to a neutrality agreement with Japan, was asked what would be her price for joining the United States and Great Britain and attacking Japan. Stalin asked that there be restored to Russia those rights which Russia had possessed in Manchuria in 1905 which the Japanese had seized. The United States and Great Britain agreed to this. The United States, at the request of Stalin, agreed to use its great influence with China to obtain China’s acceptance of Stalin’s terms. This agreement was kept secret because Russia was at peace with Japan and needed time to move adequate forces into the Far East after the defeat of Germany. It was not published to the American people until February, 1946. It was made without consulting the Chinese Government. Soviet Russia declared war on Japan on August 9, 1945, and began at once the invasion of Manchuria. At the time Japan was seeking a way to terminate the war having somewhat earlier requested the Soviet Government to explore the possibilities.
On August 14, 1945, at the urging of the United States, the Nationalist Government of China negotiated and signed a treaty of alliance with Soviet Russia, which provided that either would go to the aid of the other if attacked by Japan. China agreed that the railways in Manchuria formerly known as the Chinese Eastern Railway and the South Manchurian Railway were to be merged and operated as a joint Russo-Chinese concern. Russia was to have the right to use Port Arthur as a naval base and one half of the facilities of the port of Dairen. With the occupation of Manchuria by Soviet forces that area became once more closed. Soviet forces even placed obstacles in the way of efforts by the Nationalist Government of China to move its forces into Manchuria after the surrender of the Japanese. The agreement made at Yalta, and its offspring, the treaty of alliance of August 14, 1945, between Nationalist China and Soviet Russia, appeared to have turned the pages of history back to China’s first alliance with Russia of 1896.
The Communist Chinese occupied Manchuria, armed themselves with Japanese arms surrendered to the Russians, and drove the Nationalist government out of mainland China. In October, 1949, Communist Chinese under the leadership of Mao-Tse-tung proclaimed the establishment of the Chinese Peoples’ Republic with its capital at Peking.
In December, 1949, Mao went to Moscow to attend the 70th birthday of Stalin. He remained to thank Soviet Russia for their help in his successful struggle against the Nationalist government of China and to negotiate for certain settlements. In a sense his visit paralleled the visit of Li Hung-chang to Moscow in 1896. In February of 1950, during this visit, Mao signed a new treaty of alliance with Soviet Russia. By this agreement Russia was given the right to station troops in Port Arthur and the neighborhood of Dairen. Soviet Russia promised to return the Chinese-Changchun Railroad (defined by agreement attached to the treaty of alliance of August 14, 1945, as “the main trunk line of the Chinese Eastern Railway and the South Manchurian Railway from Manchuli to Suifenho and from Harbin to Dairen and Port Arthur”) to China and to withdraw troops from Port Arthur. This promise as regards the return of the railway has since been fulfilled. Soviet Russia granted aid to the extent of 300,000,000 United States dollars in industrial equipment to be repaid in the products (chiefly mineral and agricultural) of China. Soviet Russia and Communist China agreed to come to each other’s assistance in case of renewed aggression by Japan or by any other country. Later Soviet Russia was to provide the military arms and equipment which North Koreans and the Chinese “volunteers” used in the war against the South Koreans and the forces of the United Nations.
Soviet Russia sent a very impressive delegation made up of virtually all of the major figures in the Soviet hierarchy with the exception of Premier Malenkov and Foreign Minister Molotov, to attend the celebration of the 5th anniversary of the establishment of the Chinese People’s Republic at Peking on October 10, 1954. Later it was announced from Peking that a new series of agreements had been negotiated and signed with Soviet Russia at Peking. This event and the resulting agreements are noteworthy for the following reasons. In 1945, 1950, and 1952 it was the Chinese who went to Moscow with hat in hand. This time Soviet Russia went to Peking. In the earlier agreements the important concessions were plainly made by the Chinese. This time the concessions are almost all on the Soviet side, obviously made to meet the growing dissatisfaction at Peking over the Russian position in Manchuria stemming from the agreements made at Yalta. The agreement made by Soviet Russia to return Port Arthur to China, in accordance with the promise contained in the treaty of alliance of 1950, will end a major source of Sino-Soviet friction. The additional economic aid and the dissolution of the Sino-Soviet joint Stock Companies are an evident effort on the part of the Russians to sooth two other Chinese sore spots. It is believed that these belated concessions on the part of Russia will serve to strengthen the Sino-Soviet alliance for the time being at least—but the fact that Russia negotiated these concessions in Peking confirms a growing belief that the Chinese communist regime, because of the results of Chinese intervention in North Korea and in Indo-China, has grown in stature and is no longer the subservient member of the Peking-Moscow partnership. Additional evidence may be cited in the recent visit of Prime Minister Nehru of India to Peking.
What has passed between Russia and China during the past sixty years leaves little doubt as to what Russia wants in the East. Mao Tse-tung, who has established himself among his own people as a leader, is now faced with the necessity of making decisions of far reaching importance to his continued leadership. He is a stubborn, patient Chinese of Hunanese peasant background. He has brought himself this far by twenty years of hard, persevering effort. He is a self-taught Communist who claims with some justice that he has adapted Communist doctrines born of the industrial revolution in Europe to the needs of an agrarian oriental population. As a dedicated Communist he has turned to Moscow as his spiritual ally. He sent armed Chinese “volunteers” into northern Korea to assist the hard pressed Russian fostered Communist regime against the United nations and south Korea. He has given aid to the Communists of Indo-China in their fight to evict French authority from an area which was once a Chinese satellite. To accomplish all of this he has placed China in debt to Russia for munitions and materials needed for his ambitious scheme of industrializing his people. This debt is mounting and history shows that Russia does not give something for nothing.