Party of One by Chun Han Wong;

Author:Chun Han Wong;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2023-05-23T00:00:00+00:00

FIGHTING WORDS

THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC WAS BARELY a month old when its premier and foreign minister, Zhou Enlai, assembled the bulk of his newly constituted diplomatic corps to celebrate the birth of Communist China’s foreign ministry. Some 170 people gathered that evening in November 1949 at the ministry’s new premises, an elegant European-style guesthouse in central Beijing that once hosted German royalty and the revered revolutionary Sun Yat-sen.17 Zhou had yet to meet many of his new charges, and the premier wanted to offer a personal welcome, and inspire them for the tasks ahead.18

These novice diplomats were a disparate bunch—local officials, university graduates, and peasant soldiers more comfortable with pulling triggers than pushing papers. Many hadn’t traveled abroad before and couldn’t speak any foreign language. But for Zhou, these were minor issues. Professional skills could be learned, but what every member of the foreign ministry must possess was the gumption to fight. “We must seize the initiative, have no fear, and be confident,” Zhou told his audience. Echoing earlier remarks where he declared that “diplomatic cadres are the People’s Liberation Army in civilian dress,” the premier reiterated his demands for a combative spirit.19 “Diplomacy is the same as military affairs,” he said. “Diplomacy is just fighting with words.”20

This martial ethos would animate Chinese foreign policy throughout the Mao era, as the Communist government battled for legitimacy in a hostile world. Only nine states had recognized the People’s Republic when Zhou spoke that November evening, with most countries still regarding Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang regime as the rightful government of China.21 As the “civilian army” of a fledgling nation-state, Zhou and his foreign ministry shouldered an existential mission: secure international backing for Mao’s revolution and keep foreign threats at bay.

The party picked military commanders to lead many of China’s new embassies abroad, with twelve of Beijing’s first seventeen ambassadors drawn from senior PLA ranks.22 The aim, as one former diplomat explained, was to have these “ambassador generals” apply their “strategies, tactical ideas and experience in military and political struggles toward the practice of diplomatic struggle,” and ensure that “the party and military’s fine traditions and style take root in the diplomatic corps.”23 The party also tapped PLA officers for key roles such as political counselors and military attachés, alongside civilian administrators and language specialists.24 They learned how to dress, dine, and dance, and attended lectures on politics, economics, and international law. Many turned to counterparts from fellow communist states like the Soviet Union and Poland for pointers on protocol and day-to-day embassy work.25

Zhou and his team soon proved their mettle. They held their own against the U.S., Britain, and France during post–Korean War talks in Geneva and won friends at the 1955 Bandung Conference, a landmark diplomatic assembly of twenty-nine Asian and African states that laid foundations for the Non-Aligned Movement. Zhou’s appeals for peaceful coexistence, mutual noninterference, and solidarity among developing nations persuaded more governments to recognize the People’s Republic.

Mao’s radical campaigns and antagonism toward the post-Stalin Soviet Union threatened to unravel Zhou’s gains.

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