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Suzerainty, Semi-Sovereignty, and International Legal Hierarchies on China's Borderlands

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 September 2020

Yuan Yi ZHU*
Affiliation:
University of Oxford, United [email protected]*

Abstract

The concept of semi-sovereignty, a now obsolete category of international entities possessing limited sovereignty, remains hazily understood. However, the historical examination of how semi-sovereignty was defined and practised during the long nineteenth century can provide insights on the interplay between authority and control within the hierarchies of international relations. This paper examines one specific type of semi-sovereignty—namely, suzerainty—which is often used to describe China's traditional authority in Tibet and Mongolia. By examining the events that led to the acceptance of suzerainty as the legal framing for the China-Tibet and China-Mongolia relationships, I argue that suzerainty was a deliberately vague concept that could be used to create liminal international legal spaces to the advantage of Western states, and to mediate between competing claims of political authority. Finally, I point to the importance of semi-sovereignty as an arena of legal contestation between the Western and non-Western members of the “Family of Nations”.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Asian Journal of International Law, 2020

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Footnotes

*

Lecturer in Politics, Pembroke College, Oxford, and DPhil candidate in International Relations, Nuffield College, Oxford. I wish to thank Gordon Barrett, Benjamin de Carvalho, Andrew Hurrell, Edward Keene, Halvard Leira, Rana Mitter, and Ewan Smith for their comments.

References

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42. Liu, supra note 10.

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51. Waijiaobu archives, 02-16-001-06-61, quoted in Cheney, supra note 11 at 780 (emphasis added).

52. See ONON, Urgungge and PRITCHATT, Derrick, Asia's First Modern Revolution: Mongolia Proclaims Its Independence in 1911 (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1989)Google Scholar.

53. For many years the treaty was shrouded in mystery, with Chinese (and some Western) writers suggesting that it did not, in fact, exist. A copy resurfaced in the Mongolian state archives in 2007. For general background, see GRUNFELD, A. Tom, The Making of Modern Tibet, Revised Edition (Abingdon: Routledge, 2015) at 65CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

54. Zhonghua Minguo linshi yuefa (11 March 1912), art. 3.

55. Qinding Xianfa Dagang (27 August 1908), art. 1.

56. Text in Zhonghua Minguo zhengfu gongbao [Republic of China Government Gazette], No. 103, 21 August 1912.

57. At least in Mongolia, the vision had very little traction, as the Republic of China was viewed as “the country of the Han people”. See TACHIBANA, Makoto, “The 1911 Revolution and ‘Mongolia’: Independence, Constitutional Monarchy, or Republic” (2014) 3 Journal of Contemporary East Asia Studies 69CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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59. See NEMZER, Louis, “The Status of Outer Mongolia in International Law” (1939) 33 American Journal of International Law 452CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

60. Treaty of Peace, Boundaries etc. Between China and Russia, 21 October 1727, 33 CTS 23; Treaty Between China and Russia Respecting the Re-Establishment of Chinese Authority in the Country of Ili etc., signed at St Petersburg, 12(24) February 1881, 158 CTS 79.

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63. Alternatively transliterated as Jebtsundamba Khutuktu, the holders of the title occupied a position analogous to that of the Dalai Lama in Tibet under the ancien régime, being simultaneously the highest-ranking lama and political leader.

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65. Declaration Relative to Outer Mongolia Between China and Russia, signed at Peking, 5 November 1913, 219 CTS 13.

66. The official Chinese minutes of the Kyakhta negotiations are reproduced in Yiran, LU, ed., Beiyang zhengfu shiqi de menggu diqu lishi ziliao (hereinafter cited as Beiyang menggu ziliao) (Harbin: Heilongjiang Educational Publishing House, 1999)Google Scholar.

67. Ibid., at 41–2.

68. Ibid., at 50.

69. Ibid., at 44.

70. Ibid., at 44, 50, 54, 60. On territorial integrity, see BLAY, Samuel K.N., “Territorial Integrity and Political Independence” in WOLFRUM, Rüdiger and SÓLVEIGARDÓTTIR, Margrét, eds., Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law, vol. IX (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), 863Google Scholar.

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72. Lu, supra note 66 at 45. The calendar issue must have seemed an exceptionally petty one for the Russians, yet the issue had some historical resonance. Historically, acceptance of the Chinese calendar by states within the Chinese world-system was an important symbol of its acceptance of Chinese civilization, and tributaries were often required to accept the calendar as a condition of the relationship.

73. Ibid., at 57.

74. Ibid., at 49, 58.

75. Ibid., at 53, 56–8, 69, 72.

76. Ibid., at 63–4.

77. Ibid., at 146, 171.

78. Ibid., at 91, 146.

79. Ibid., at 52.

80. Agreement between China, Mongolia and Russia Relative to Outer Mongolia, signed at Kiachta, 7 June 1915, 221 CTS 101.

81. Art. II.

82. Art. IV.

83. Art. IV.

84. Arts. III, V.

85. Arts. V (internal administration), XIII–XV (extra-territoriality), VII (troops), and X (officials).

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88. See Robert BARNETT, “Did Britain Just Sell Tibet?” The New York Times (24 November 2008) at A31; Free Tibet, “Britain Rewrites History by Recognising Tibet as Part of China for the First Time” (6 November 2008), online: <https://www.freetibet.org/news-media/pr/britain-rewrites-history-recognising-tibet-part-china-first-time>.

89. On the Anglo-Chinese Convention and suzerainty, see Cheney, supra note 11.

90. Convention Between Great Britain and Russia Relating to Persia, Afghanistan and Tibet, signed at St Petersburg, 31 August 1907, 204 CTS 404. The Entente was a general settlement of the two powers’ respective spheres of influence, a preliminary step to the formation of the Triple Entente.

91. Bell, supra note 46 at 148–9. Bell was the British political officer for Tibet at the time.

92. Anon, The Boundary Question Between China and Tibet: A Valuable Record of the Tripartite Conference Between China, Great Britain and Tibet Held in India, 1913–1914 (Peking, 1940).

93. Ibid., at 1–7.

94. Ibid., at 3.

95. Ibid., at 23–87.

96. Ibid., at 15–16.

97. Ibid., at 7–11.

98. Ibid., at 91.

99. Ibid., at 91–5.

100. Ibid.

101. Ibid., at 101–14.

102. Ibid., at 102.

103. Ibid.

104. Ibid., at 140.

105. Ibid., at 145–50.

106. The text of the Convention, along with the text of the Anglo-Tibetan Declaration of 3 July which disbarred China from its rights until it signed the Convention, are reprinted together in GOLDSTEIN, Melvyn C., A History of Modern Tibet, 1913–1951: The Demise of the Lamaist State (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1989) at appendix CGoogle Scholar.

107. It appeared that London had instructed McMahon not to sign on these grounds, but the cable had arrived too late.

108. See e.g. Liu, supra note 10; Jiawei, WANG and GYAINCAIN, Nyima, The Historical Status of China's Tibet (Beijing: China Intercontinental Press, 1997)Google Scholar. For a similar post-1949 view from the ROC's perspective, see LI, Tieh-Tseng, “The Legal Position of Tibet” (1956) 50 American Journal of International Law 394CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Chinese sources are unanimous in this interpretation, the only difference being on the degree of blame attached to Ivan Chen for initialling the treaty.

109. Waijiaobu archives, 03-28-024-03-004. This is an important document, as it is one of the few insights into the private attitude of the Chinese government towards both sets of tripartite talks.

110. Ibid.

111. See generally LIN, Hsaio-ting, Tibet and Nationalist China's Frontier: Intrigues and Ethnopolitics, 1928–49 (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2006)Google Scholar.

112. WOODHEAD, H.G.W., ed., The China Year Book 1921–2 (Tientsin: Tientsin Press, 1921)Google Scholar. Quoted and reprinted in NOORANI, A.G., India–China Boundary Problem 1846–1947 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011) at 318–22CrossRefGoogle Scholar. No source is provided, but is said to come from “an official of the Waichiaopu”.

113. Sir John Jordan to Earl Curzon of Kedleston, 2 April 1919, FO 371/3688/79285, The National Archives [TNA].

114. Lord Curzon of Kedleston to Lord George Hamilton, 8 January 1903, in East India (Tibet). Papers Relating to Tibet, Cd. 1920, 162. The despatch is unsigned but the words are undoubtedly Curzon's. His impolitic remark was still cited by the Chinese government as proof of British deviousness a century later.

115. Lord George Hamilton to Lord Curzon of Kedleston, 27 February 1903, in East India (Tibet). Papers Relating to Tibet, Cd. 1920, 183.

116. Convention between Belgium, Bolivia, the British Empire, China, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Ecuador, France, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, the Hedjaz, Italy, Japan, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Roumania, the Serb-Croat-Slovene State, Siam and the United States relative to the Control of the Trade in Arms and Ammunition, signed at St Germain-en-Laye, 10 September 1919, 225 CTS 482.

117. Curzon to India Office, 23 April 1920, FO 535/F660/22/10.

118. L/P&S/18/344 B. 344, India Office Records, The British Library. The argument was similar to Thomas Baty's and Japan's argument that China, because of its internal disorder, could not be a state. See Thomas BATY, “Can an Anarchy be a State?” (1934) 28 American Journal of International Law 444. From the British point of view, however, this was a somewhat unappealing argument, given its longstanding public support for the integrity of China.

119. Beilby Alston to Earl Curzon of Kedleston, 27 April 1920, FO 371/5315 F/677/22/10.

120. Memorandum by Charles Henry Bentinck, 13 May 1920, FO 371/5315 F/834/22/10.

121. Minute by Miles Lampson, 14 April 1921, FO 371/6607 F/1238.

122. Minute by William Malkin, 14 April 1921, FO 371/6607 F/1238. Malkin thought that Tibet's status as a vassal tended to suggest it was not a part of China, but ignored the fact that the British had accepted the opposite view at Simla. He quoted Oppenheim at some length, but did not take a strong stance either way.

123. India Office to Foreign Office, 15 October 1919, L/P&S/18/344 B.344 P5833.

124. In order to induce China to resume the talks, in 1921 Curzon (by then foreign secretary) told Wellington Koo that unless China came back to the negotiating table Britain would recognize Tibet “as an autonomous state under the suzerainty of China, and intend dealing on this basis with Tibet in the future”. It is not obvious why the Foreign Office thought this would be an effective threat, given that these were the terms China all but accepted at Simla and sought in 1915. In the event the Chinese stalled, and the talks never resumed. The text of Curzon's ultimatum is in FO 371/6609/59/10.

125. Files on this issue are at FO 371/35755 and L/P&S/12/4196.

126. Similarly, “dependent” and “owing some degree of allegiance” were both rejected. See Ashley Clarke to Peel, 17 January 1944, L/P&S/12/4194.

127. Anand, supra note 11 at 240. Tibet considered joining the League of Nations and the Universal Postal Union, but in neither case did the Tibetans pursue the application with any seriousness. Had an application been made, it would have been most unlikely to be granted, even putting the legal problems aside.

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