Frontier Politics and Sino-Soviet Relations: a Study of Northwestern Xinjiang, 1949-1963
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University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2017 Frontier Politics And Sino-Soviet Relations: A Study Of Northwestern Xinjiang, 1949-1963 Sheng Mao University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Mao, Sheng, "Frontier Politics And Sino-Soviet Relations: A Study Of Northwestern Xinjiang, 1949-1963" (2017). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 2459. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2459 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2459 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Frontier Politics And Sino-Soviet Relations: A Study Of Northwestern Xinjiang, 1949-1963 Abstract This is an ethnopolitical and diplomatic study of the Three Districts, or the former East Turkestan Republic, in China’s northwest frontier in the 1950s and 1960s. It describes how this Muslim borderland between Central Asia and China became today’s Yili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture under the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. The Three Districts had been in the Soviet sphere of influence since the 1930s and remained so even after the Chinese Communist takeover in October 1949. After the Sino- Soviet split in the late 1950s, Beijing transformed a fragile suzerainty into full sovereignty over this region: the transitional population in Xinjiang was demarcated, border defenses were established, and Soviet consulates were forced to withdraw. As a result, the Three Districts changed from a Soviet frontier to a Chinese one, and Xinjiang’s outward focus moved from Soviet Central Asia to China proper. The largely peaceful integration of Xinjiang into PRC China stands in stark contrast to what occurred in Outer Mongolia and Tibet. Previous scholarship has attributed this to many factors, such as the flexibility of CCP’s ethnic and frontier policies, the success of local party building and cadre recruitment system, the use of military power, and mass migrations of Han people to Xinjiang. While these studies broke new ground, the scarcity of archival documents weakened their arguments. By taking advantage of documents from Xinjiang local archives, the Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing, as well as the Russian archives recently made available, this study demonstrates that rather than implementing exceptional social policies in Xinjiang, the CCP excelled at strategic negotiation with the USSR, greatly aiding their bid for power. This dissertation also reveals that the relations between the Chinese communist state and its borderlands must be understood in the context of CCP’s nation-building process. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group History First Advisor Arthur Waldron Keywords China, frontier, Soviet Union, transnational, Xinjiang Subject Categories History This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2459 FRONTIER POLITICS AND SINO-SOVIET RELATIONS: A STUDY OF NORTHWESTERN XINJIANG, 1949–1963 Sheng Mao A DISSERTATION in History Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2017 Supervisor of Dissertation ________________________________ Arthur Waldron Lauder Professor of International Relations Graduate Group Chairperson ________________________________ Peter Holquist, Associate Professor of History Dissertation Committee Frederick R. Dickinson, Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania Xiaoyuan Liu, David Dean Professor of East Asian Studies & Professor of History, University of Virginia ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! FRONTIER POLITICS AND SINO-SOVIET RELATIONS: A STUDY OF NORTHWESTERN XINJIANG, 1949–1963 COPYRIGHT 2017 Sheng Mao ! ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ! When I began my Ph.D. study at the University of Pennsylvania, Barack Obama had just came to power as the 44th president of the United States. When the time came to defend my dissertation, he had already left the White House. Writing a dissertation takes longer than serving as the president of the United States, it seems. Longer even than serving two terms. I finished the bulk of my dissertation in Hong Kong. During the past three years, many things occurred in this city that still trigger vivid emotions. In 2014, almost every day at 8:30 a.m., I would send my 3-year-old daughter to her preschool and then go to the main library of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). Each morning, Judy had her schoolbag on her back and I had mine. We both were students going to school every day, yet she was a kid and I was already the father of two girls. I was embarrassed every time I had to write “graduate student” as my occupation on my daughters’ many preschool application forms. My discomfort only grew when their teachers double- checked to make sure I had filled the form correctly regarding my occupation. Hong Kong was nonetheless an excellent place to write a dissertation on Xinjiang. The libraries of CUHK have rich English and Chinese collections on modern China. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the professional and kind librarians at CUHK. More significantly, recent events in Hong Kong have helped me to better understand how Northwest Xinjiang changed from a Soviet frontier to a Chinese frontier. iii ! ! Pursuing a Ph.D. degree was a very long journey for me. It began in 2004 when I enrolled as a Ph.D. student in the Department of History at Nanjing University. Before that, I was trained in journalism and mass communication, and worked as a radio host for several years—by all rights, I should have become a TV reporter. What drove me to become a historian was a history book, How the Red Sun Rose by Gao Hua,my late supervisor at Nanjing University. In this regard, I want to thank Professor Gao Hua for leading me to become a historian. When I was in the Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Arizona, I was very lucky to work with Professors Fabio Lanza and Hai Ren. They both were supportive even when I decided to transfer to another program. It was at UA that I was first exposed to American academic education, which was both challenging and rewarding. It was also at UA that I adapted to English as my working language. I also want to thank Professors Douglas Weiner and Dian Li. I learned a lot from their courses, especially Professor Weiner’s “Russian History.” I also would like to thank the UA students who attended the first courses I taught as a teaching assistant, and thus played a part in my becoming a more experienced teacher. At the University of Pennsylvania, I have been blessed with advisors who have helped me in so many ways. My principle advisor Professor Arthur Waldron has been a constant source of encouragement and sound advice. Not only did Professor Waldron allow me the freedom to pursue whatever topic I was interested in, but he also made sure that I had the financial support so vital to international students who have limited opportunities for outside funding. Professor Frederick Dickinson was always a resource iv ! whom I could depend on. When I felt I was off track in some way, he was the first person I asked for help. His “slogan,” “Japan is not uniquely unique,” has inspired me to focus more on the similarities than the differences between the history of China and its Western counterparts. Professor Siyen Fei’s research on frontiers in the Ming era inspired me to follow her intellectual path, and her enthusiasm about transnational history convinced me that my study of Xinjiang was worth pursuing. From the moment he arrived at Penn, Professor Christopher Atwood was an inspiration and a role model to me and many other graduate students. With permission from Professor Atwood, I audited his course, “China’s Last Empire: The Qing.” This course has challenged both my Han-centered and Eurocentric views and led me to look at the Qing Empire from the perspective of Inner Asia. Professors Eugene Park, Kathleen Brown, Peter Holquist, Lynn Hollen Lees, Michael Kates and Benjamin Nathans have all been more instrumental in my scholarly development than they likely realize. I am deeply grateful to many professors, scholars and language teachers. Without their help, it would have been impossible for me to finish my dissertation. Professor Xiaoyuan Liu at the University of Virginia agreed to serve on my dissertation committee. As an established scholar of Chinese frontier studies, his research has inspired me and his advice has benefited me in many ways. Professors Li Danhui and Shen Zhihua have generously shared with me precious archival documents, which made my research possible at the first place. My thanks also go to Professors David Brophy, Peter Carroll, Cai Hongsheng, Janet Chen, Chuang Chi-fa, Roger Des Forges, Huang Ko-Wu, Perry Link, Mao Haijian, Susan Naquin, Q. Edward Wang, Wang Qisheng, Wu Zhe, Yafeng v ! Xia, Yang Guoqiang, and Yang Kuisong. Mr. Zhao Yuanchao and Ms. Maria Alley taught me Russian, a language essential for my research. Throughout my graduate studies, from Nanjing to Tucson to Philadelphia, I have benefitted immeasurably from my fellow graduate students and friends. Thank you in particular to Nick Admussen, Joe August, Cai Zhongyue, Samuel Casper, Yi Chen, Fangyi Cheng, Rashon Clark, Wendy Doyon, Emily Fridlund, Robert Hegwood, Nagatomi Hirayama, Xiaobai Hu, Huang Guangsheng, Jiang Baolin, Jing Shijie, Wah Guan Lim, Xiaoyi Liu, Sydney Xu Lu, Salar Mohandesi, Lara Netting, Ke Peng, Alexander Ponsen, Jawan Shir Rasikh, Yi Ren, Leander Seah, Xiaolin Shi, Tang Xiaolu, Sarah Xia Yu, and Zhu Xiangfeng. At CUHK, Gan Qi, Lin Ying, Yu Kwok Leung, Lin Xiao, Angelina Wong and Yuan Zaijun supported me in various ways. Every time I met Bei Dao, he would ask about my dissertation progress. Their kindness made Hong Kong a home for me.