China, Indonesia and the Cold War, 1945-1967 A
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DIASPORA AND DIPLOMACY: CHINA, INDONESIA AND THE COLD WAR, 1945-1967 A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Taomo Zhou August 2015 © 2015 Taomo Zhou DIASPORA AND DIPLOMACY: CHINA, INDONESIA AND THE COLD WAR, 1945-1967 Taomo Zhou, Ph. D. Cornell University 2015 Grounded in multilingual governmental and private sources, this dissertation redefines twentieth- century China beyond the territorial boundary of the Chinese nation-state. Even though China and Indonesia are not neighboring countries with geographic borderlines, the existence of approximately 2.5 million ethnic Chinese in Indonesia gave rise to an invisible and porous social frontier that could be transgressed more easily and oftentimes accidentally, especially during a period when the Chinese Communist Party’s regime legitimacy was challenged by its Nationalist rival. At the level of the Chinese state’s relationship to the overseas Chinese, Chinese political elites used transnational migrant networks and the global circulation of media to rally popular support and affirm political legitimacy. At the level of the overseas Chinese’s relationship to the Chinese state, the ethnic Chinese were active participants in civic campaigns launched by the pro- Chinese Communist and pro-Chinese Nationalist factions in Indonesia. Both sides claimed that all ethnic Chinese owed their loyalty to China’s sole legitimate center—Beijing according to the Communists or Taipei according to the Nationalists. At the level of state-to-state diplomacy, this continuous politicization of the ethnic Chinese shook the foundation of the Sino-Indonesian strategic partnership. The ethnic Chinese’s daily social and political practices, as well as their ideological beliefs and emotional ties, limited high politics between the Chinese and Indonesian Governments. By connecting transformations in state-diaspora, diaspora-state and state-to-state relations, and by combining theoretical insights from the China-centered approach, overseas Chinese studies, transnationalism and diplomatic history, my dissertation builds a new conceptual framework for a transnational China that is vigorous and dynamic not only within its geographic boundaries but also beyond. Ultimately, I argue that the global emergence and embrace of the People’s Republic was not one historical moment within China but a set of temporally and geographically expansive processes that involved the Chinese Communist Party’s adaptation to a new relationship with the overseas Chinese, a new type of political struggle against its old rival the Nationalists, and a new international geopolitical environment. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Taomo Zhou specializes in modern Chinese as well as modern Southeast Asian history. She has long- term interests in the nexus of international relations, migration, and political movements. Taomo’s enthusiasm for these topics stems from her experiences growing up in a migrant family in Shenzhen, a Special Economic Zone at the frontier of China’s economic reforms and opening. Before coming to Cornell, she spent her intellectually formative years studying China’s relations with the outside world at Peking University, Waseda University and the London School of Economics and Political Science, and became dedicated to studying China from transnational perspectives. Taomo is a native speaker of Mandarin Chinese, is fluent in English, and has advanced mastery of bahasa Indonesia and intermediate mastery of Japanese. Taomo has published two peer-reviewed journal articles on the interactions between China and Indonesia during the Cold War period: “Ambivalent Alliance: Chinese Policy towards Indonesia, 1960- 1965,” The China Quarterly, volume 221 (March 2015), pp. 208-228, and “China and the Thirtieth of September Movement,” Indonesia 98 (October 2014), pp. 29-58. In addition to conducting her own research, Taomo served as the co-chair of the Graduate Student Steering Committee of the East Asia Program at Cornell. Outside of her academic work, Taomo devoted her time to community building as a live-in advisor at Hasbrouck Apartments, an on-campus, family-oriented housing complex for graduate students. ! iii! ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to express my sincere thanks to my committee members, Chen Jian, Sherman Cochran, Andrew Mertha and Eric Tagliacozzo, who provided unfailing intellectual and moral support over the past six years. Beyond my committee, I am extremely thankful to TJ Hinrichs and Victor Seow from the Department of History and Thomas Pepinsky from the Department of Government. I am tremendously grateful to Jeff Petersen and Liren Zheng at Cornell’s Kroch Asia Library. I am deeply thankful to my Indonesian language teacher, Jolanda Pandin. Outside of Cornell, Liang Yingming, Kong Zhiyuan, Niu Jun, Niu Ke, and Yu Tiejun from Peking University, and Arne Westad from the London School of Economics have provided invaluable input on this project. I am indebted to all the scholars who generously provided me with their expertise, archivists who patiently fulfill my requests, and all the witnesses of history who graciously shared their stories during my fieldwork in Indonesia, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Netherlands. I thank Bernadette Guthrie and Jeff Petersen for their editorial support. And I appreciate the financial support from the Henry Luce Foundation/American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Pre-dissertation Grant for Research in China, the Lee-Teng-hui Fellowship and International Travel Grant from the East Asia Program and the Knight Biggerstaff Fellowship from the History Department at Cornell University. I thank my dear friends in Ithaca, particularly Catherine Biba, Shiau-yun Chen, Priyamvada Jadaun, Anto Mohsin and family, Yooumi Lee and family, Sai Pooja Mahajan, Yuanchong Wang and Bishan Yang, for keeping me warm during my dissertation writing. My friends outside of academia, particularly Hong Haolan and Jo Ling Kent, have been wonderful listeners. My extended family, especially Maggie Liu-Anderson, have been the best cheerleaders. Last but not least, I thank my parents, Tao Yitao and Zhou Luming, for their unconditional love. ! iv! TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER 1 Night Ghosts at the Dawn of National Independence: The Chinese Nationalist Party and the Overseas Chinese in Indonesia, 1945-1949 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 14 Background: The Chinese in Indonesia ................................................................................ 17 The Chinese Nationalist Party’s Policy towards the Overseas Chinese ............................... 19 The Chinese Nationalist Government’s Attitude towards the Indonesian National Revolution ............................................................................................................................ 22 Pao An Tui and the Escalation of Ethnic Conflict ................................................................ 25 Shifting Public Opinion among the Overseas Chinese ......................................................... 28 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 31 CHAPTER 2 “The Motherland is A Distant Dream”: The Chinese Communist Party and the Overseas Chinese in Indonesia, 1942-1949 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 34 The Chinese Communist Party’s Policy towards the Overseas Chinese .............................. 35 The CCP and Political Mobilization of the Chinese during the Japanese Occupation ......... 38 The CCP and Political Mobilization of the Chinese during the Indonesian National Revolution ............................................................................................................................ 47 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 57 CHAPTER 3 Red versus Blue I: The Battle between Two Chinas, 1949-1959 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 60 Backdoor Diplomacy: Taipei Reconnecting with Jakarta .................................................... 61 Detachment from Diasporic Politics: Beijing Making Policy Adjustments ......................... 71 Deeper into Diasporic Politics: Taipei’s Response .............................................................. 75 Peace Offensive: Beijing Winning Jakarta’s Support .......................................................... 81 Regional Rebellions: Taipei’s Intervention Angering Jakarta .............................................. 86 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 92 CHAPTER 4 Red versus Blue II: The Chinese Community Divided, 1949-1959 ! v! Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 95 The Conundrum of Citizenship ............................................................................................ 97 Capitalists Devoted to Communist