Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T09:20:47.765Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Chinese Civil War and Implications for Borderland State Consolidation in Mainland South-East Asia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 June 2019

Enze Han
Enze Han*
Affiliation:
University of Hong Kong. Email: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Few studies on the legacies of the Chinese Civil War have examined its effects on state consolidation in the borderland area between China and mainland South-East Asia. This paper empirically examines the impact of the intrusion of the defeated Kuomingtang (KMT) into the borderland area between China, Burma and Thailand. In the People's Republic of China (PRC), the presence of the US-supported KMT across its Yunnan border increased the new communist government's threat perceptions. In response, Beijing used a carrot-and-stick approach towards consolidating its control by co-opting local elites while ruthlessly eliminating any opposition deemed to be in collusion with the KMT. In the case of Burma, the KMT presence posed a significant challenge to Burmese national territorial integrity and effectively led to the fragmentation of the Burmese Shan State. Finally, in Thailand, Bangkok collaborated with the Americans in support of the KMT to solidify its alliance relations. Later, Thailand used the KMT as a buffer force for its own border defence purposes against a perceived communist infiltration from the north. This paper contextualizes the spill-over effects of the Chinese Civil War in terms of the literature on how external threats can potentially facilitate state consolidation.

摘要

摘要

现有文献很少有关于中国内战对中国与东南亚大陆边境地区国家整合的影响。本文通过实证, 讲述了战败的国民党入侵中缅泰边境地区的影响。对于中华人民共和国, 国民党军队在美国的支持下增加了新共产党政府在云南边境的威胁感。作为回应, 北京采用软硬皆施的方式巩固了其控制权。一边吸收当地精英进入新政权, 同时无情地消除任何与国民党勾结的反对派。在缅甸, 国民党军队对缅甸国家的领土完整构成了重大挑战, 并实际性地导致了缅甸掸邦的分裂。最后, 泰国与美国合作, 通过支持国民党巩固其与美联盟关系。后来, 泰国也利用国民党军队作为其自身边境防御目的的缓冲力量, 以防止来自北方的共产主义渗透。

Keywords

Chinese Civil WarKMTBurma/MyanmarThailandborderland consolidationChinese–South-East Asian relations中国内战国民党缅甸泰国边疆巩固中国与东南亚关系
Type
Research Article
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 241 , March 2020 , pp. 214 - 235
Copyright
Copyright © SOAS University of London, 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ang, Cheng Guan. 2001. “The Domino Theory revisited: the Southeast Asia perspective.” War & Society 19(1), 109–130.Google Scholar
Ang, Cheng Guan. 2018. Southeast Asia's Cold War: An Interpretive History. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai‘i Press.Google Scholar
Ball, Desmond. 2013. Tor Chor Dor: Thailand's Border Patrol Police: History, Organisation, Equipment and Personnel. Vol. 1. Bangkok: White Lotus.Google Scholar
Bresnan, John. 1994. From Dominoes to Dynamos: The Transformation of Southeast Asia. New York: Council on Foreign Relations.Google Scholar
British Consulate Chiang Mai. 1968. Correspondence from D.C. Rivett-Carnac to D.J. Gibson, 30 August. FCO 15/338, BNA.Google Scholar
British Embassy Bangkok. 1952. Correspondence, 26 May. FO 371/101192, BNA.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
British Embassy Bangkok. 1968. Correspondence from R.S. Scrivener, 19 June. FCO 15/338, BNA.Google Scholar
Callahan, Mary P. 2005. Making Enemies: War and State Building in Burma. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
CCP Central Committee. 1952a. “Zhongyang guanyu bianjiang zongjiao gongzuo gei xinanju he Yunnan shengwei de zhishi” (Directive to South-West Bureau and Yunnan Provincial Committee on religious work in the borderland area), November. Available at “The history of contemporary Chinese political movements” database, the Chinese University of Hong Kong.Google Scholar
CCP Central Committee. 1952b. “Zhongyang dui xinanju guanyu ‘Yunnan shengwei bao bianjiang minzu gongzuo fangzheng yu buzhou de yijian de pishi’” (Directive to South-West Bureau on “Yunnan province's report on guidance and steps for borderland ethnic work”), 6 December. Available at “The history of contemporary Chinese political movements” database, the Chinese University of Hong Kong.Google Scholar
Cederman, Lars-Erik, Gleditsch, Kristian Skrede, Salehyan, Idean and Wucherpfennig, Julian. 2013. “Transborder ethnic kin and civil war.” International Organization 67(2), 389–410.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chaloemtiarana, Thak. 2007. Thailand: The Politics of Despotic Paternalism. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Southeast Asia Program Publications.Google Scholar
Chang, Wen-Chin. 2001. “From war refugees to immigrants: the case of the KMT Yunnanese Chinese in Northern Thailand.” International Migration Review 35(4), 1086–1105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chang, Wen-Chin. 2014. Beyond Borders: Stories of Yunnanese Chinese Migrants of Burma. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Chin, Ko-Lin. 2009. The Golden Triangle: Inside Southeast Asia's Drug Trade. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Clymer, Kenton. 2015. A Delicate Relationship: The United States and Burma/Myanmar since 1945. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Editorial Committee for Dehong Prefecture Gazette. 1989. Zhonggong Dehongzhou dangshi ziliao xuanbian (Select Materials of the CCP Party History in Dehong Prefecture). Mangshi: Dehong Ethnic Press.Google Scholar
Editorial Committee for Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture Gazette. 2002. Xishuangbanna daizu zizhizhou zhi (Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture Gazette). Beijing: Xinhua Press.Google Scholar
Fineman, Daniel. 1997. A Special Relationship: The United States and Military Government in Thailand, 1947–1958. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai‘i Press.Google Scholar
Gibson, Richard Michael, and Chen, Wen H.. 2011. The Secret Army: Chiang Kai-Shek and the Drug Warlords of the Golden Triangle. Singapore: Wiley.Google Scholar
Guo, Xiaolin. 2008. State and Ethnicity in China's Southwest. Leiden: Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Han, Enze. 2013. Contestation and Adaptation: The Politics of National Identity in China. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
He, Long, and Xiaoping, Deng. 1951. “He Deng Zhang Li guanyu wuling nian jiaofei qingkuang xiang Mao zhuxi ji junwei de zhonghe baogao” (He Deng, Zhang Li's comprehensive report to Chairman Mao and the Military Commission regarding the situation of elimination of bandits in 1950), 6 January. Available at “The history of contemporary Chinese political movements” database, the Chinese University of Hong Kong.Google Scholar
Hyun, Sinae. 2014. “Indigenizing the Cold War: Nation-Building by the Border Patrol Police in Thailand, 1945–1980.” PhD Diss., University of Wisconsin-Madison.Google Scholar
Kampan, Palapan. 2014. “Standing up to giants: Thailand's exit from 20th century war partnerships.” Asian Social Science 10(15), 153–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaufman, Victor S. 2001. “Trouble in the Golden Triangle: the United States, Taiwan and the 93rd Nationalist Division.” The China Quarterly 166, 440–456.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kisangani, Emizet F., and Pickering, Jeffrey. 2014. “Rebels, rivals, and post-colonial state-building: identifying bellicist influences on state extractive capability.” International Studies Quarterly 58(1), 187–198.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lintner, Bertil. 1999. Burma in Revolt: Opium and Insurgency since 1948. Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books.Google Scholar
Liu, Shaoqi. 1952. “Zhongyang guanyu Yunnan tugai wenti de zhishi” (CCP Central Committee decree on issues of land reform in Yunnan), 16 June. Available at “The history of contemporary Chinese political movements” database, the Chinese University of Hong Kong.Google Scholar
Luo, Ruiqing. 1951. “Jianjue zhengya fangeming: Luo Ruiqing zai Zhongyang renmin zhengfu suoshu bumen jiguan dahuishang de baogao” (Resolutely suppress counterrevolutionaries: report by Luo Ruiqing at Central Government Ministries Cadres Conference), 4 April. Available at “The history of contemporary Chinese political movements” database, the Chinese University of Hong Kong.Google Scholar
Maung, Maung. 2013. Grim War aganist KMT. Yangon: Seikku Cho Cho Publishing House.Google Scholar
McCarthy, Susan. 2009. Communist Multiculturalism: Ethnic Revival in Southwest China. Seattle: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
McCoy, Alfred W. 1991. The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade. Brooklyn, NY: Lawrence Hill Books.Google Scholar
Ngoei, Wen-Qing. 2014. “The domino logic of the darkest moment.” Journal of American–East Asian Relations 21(3), 215–245.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olson, James Stuart, and Roberts, Randy W.. 2013. Where the Domino Fell: America and Vietnam 1945–2010 (6th ed.). Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Perry, Elizabeth J. 1985. “Rural violence in Socialist China.” The China Quarterly 103, 414–440.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Qin, Yihui. 2009. Jinsanjiao guojun xueleishi (History of Blood and Tears of the Nationalist Army in the Golden Triangle). Taipei: Academic Sinica and Lianjing Press.Google Scholar
Ritharom, Chatri. 1976. “The Making of the Thai–US Military Alliance and the SEATO Treaty of 1954: A Study in Thai Decision-Making.” PhD Diss., Claremont Graduate School.Google Scholar
Salehyan, Idean. 2007. “Transnational rebels: neighboring states as sanctuary for rebel groups.” World Politics 59(2), 217–242.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
South-West Bureau of Public Security. 1952. “Xinan gong'anbu guanyu disici quanguo gong'an huiyihou bage yuelai xinan zhengfan jiben qingkuang ji jinhou yijian de baogao” (South-West Bureau of Public Security's report about the current situation and future opinions of the south-west suppression of counterrevolutionaries for the past eight months since the fourth National Public Security Conference), 21 July Available at “The history of contemporary Chinese political movements” database, the Chinese University of Hong Kong.Google Scholar
Strauss, Julia C. 2002. “Paternalist terror: the campaign to suppress counterrevolutionaries and regime consolidation in the People's Republic of China, 1950–1953.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 44(1), 80–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, Brian D., and Botea, Roxana. 2008. “Tilly tally: war-making and state-making in the contemporary Third World.” International Studies Review 10(1), 27–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, Robert H. 1973. Foreign and Domestic Consequences of the KMT Intervention in Burma. Ithaca, NY: Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University.Google Scholar
Tejapira, Kasian. 2001. Commodifying Marxism: The Formation of Modern Thai Radical Culture, 1927–1958. Kyoto: Trans Pacific Press.Google Scholar
Thies, Cameron G. 2005. “War, rivalry, and state building in Latin America.” American Journal of Political Science 49(3), 451–465.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thies, Cameron G. 2006. “Public violence and state building in Central America.” Comparative Political Studies 39(10), 1263–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tilly, Charles (ed.). 1975. The Formation of National States in Western Europe. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
US Chiengmai Consulate. 1959. “Another ‘Shan State independence army’ news report.” Report to department of state. No. 10, 4 December, 790B.00/12-1559, RG 59, CDF 1955-1959, Box 3852, US NAII.Google Scholar
US London Embassy. 1950. “End of Burma war near.” Report to department of state. No. 2489, 22 May, 790B.00/5-2250, RG 59, CDF 1950–1954, Box 4135, US NAII.Google Scholar
US Rangoon Embassy. 1950. “Status of various Burmese insurrections.” Report to department of state. No. 220, 26 April, 790B.00/4-2650, RG 59, CDF 1950–1954, Box 4135, US NAII.Google Scholar
US Rangoon Embassy. 1954a. Telegram 694, 15 January, 790B.00/1-1554, RG 59, CDF 1950–1954, Box 4138, US NAII.Google Scholar
US Rangoon Embassy. 1954b. “Political pressures in Burma, 1948–1954.” Report to department of state. No. 298, 18 February, 790B.00/2-1854, RG 59, CDF 1950–1954, Box 4138, US NAII.Google Scholar
US Rangoon Embassy. 1959a. “Ceremonial renunciation of powers by Shan Sawbwas.” Report to department of state. No. 552, 29 April, 790B.00/4-2959, RG 59, CDF 1955–1959, Box 3852, US NAII.Google Scholar
US Rangoon Embassy. 1959b. “Political conditions and prospects in the Shan State.” Report to department of state. No. 668, 23 June, 790B.00/6-2359, RG 59, CDF 1955–1959, Box 3852, US NAII.Google Scholar
Vijirakorn, Amporn. 2015. History of 55 Years of Helping the Shan Nation. Chiang Mai: Chiang Mai University Regional Center for Social Science and Sustainable Development.Google Scholar
Wang, Gungwu. 1991. China and the Chinese Overseas. Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Academic.Google Scholar
Yan, Hongyan. 1965. “Zai Yunnan sheng bianjiang gongzuo huiyishang de jianghua: Yunnan shengwei diyishuji Yan Hongyan” (Speech by Yunnan province CCP first secretary Yan Hongyan at Yunnan province borderland works conference), 21 December. Available at “The history of contemporary Chinese political movements” database, the Chinese University of Hong Kong.Google Scholar
Yang, Kuisong. 2008. “Reconsidering the campaign to suppress counterrevolutionaries.” The China Quarterly 193, 102–121.Google Scholar
Yunnan Provincial Government. 1954. “Yunnan shengwei guanyu muqian bianjiang qingkuang he bianjiang gaige wenti xiang zhongyang de baogao” (Report to the CCP Central Committee on the current borderland situation and problems of borderland reforms), 16 November. Available at “The history of contemporary Chinese political movements” database, the Chinese University of Hong Kong.Google Scholar