The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2019

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JULY-AUGUST 2019 47 American Foreign Policy and China One of the most vexing problems of the international scene for more than a decade and a half has been the Sino-American con- frontation. It would not be an exaggeration to say that through- out this period the U.S. and the communist Chinese have been in a de facto state of war with one another. The Chinese at this stage of their history are suffering from all manner of complexes, foremost among them a sense of inferiority. The leaders in Peking and the people themselves, whatever their differences, are both struggling with the inheritance of the years when Chinese territory was fought over, partitioned, and expropri- ated by foreign powers. The backwardness and impotence of their country is something the communists are determined to put an end to once and for all, whatever the cost. Various proposals have been put forward for relaxing the offi- cial American stand on such issues as admission of Peking to the United Nations, the trade embargo and exchanges of various sorts. The United States must first recognize in its ownmind the reality of China and its place in the world. Having done this, American policy can then come to grips with the issues requiring settlement. As long as the U.S. maintains its Biblical position of treating China as a prodigal son whomust repent before he can return to the fold, there is no hope of any progress. —James A. Ramsey, FSO, from his article by the same title in the October 1966 FSJ . Shanghai: How the Iron Curtain Is Drawn Tight Around a City When the Chinese Communists took over Shanghai they soon summoned newsmen to a “discussion forum” where the Red version of press freedom was explained: “Press and publications which serve the interest of the people will be granted freedom. Those detrimental to the interest of the people will not be granted freedom.” It was as easily stated as that. USIS was told summarily to close, or, as the Wen Hui Pao newspaper put it: “The megaphones of the Imperialists in this city have been ordered to cease their activities.” Soon the innumerable bookstalls of Shanghai began to be flooded with booklets and pamphlets followingThe Line as the published houses were taken over. One of the first such pamphlets accused Chiang Kai-shek of granting Americans “all conceivable rights” to reside where they pleased, travel where they liked, to engage in any kind of business, or to gather intelligence. Quite an impressive list. And the conclusion was: “China has thus been turned into a satellite nation of Imperialistic America, or an Ameri- can colony.” The Red drive to wipe out the scourge of imperialism soon rid the city of such street names as Wedemeyer Road. It substituted Chinese for English on suchmanufactured items as soap. By suchmaneuvers the Communists were able within four months after their capture of Shanghai to plug every hole in the iron curtain, excepting only the Voice of America. Unlike the Rus- sians, they did not yet have the jamming equipment to do that. —Earl J. Wilson, Foreign Service staff officer, from his “The Line Forms to the LEFT” in the March 1950 FSJ. Opium and Consuls Just as it was the slave trade that made the African coast well known to the mariners of the 18th and early 19th centuries, it was the opium trade that familiarized the British and American sea- faring men with the coast and commercial opportuni- ties of China. Gradually, however, public sentiment became aroused against the opium traffic and in 1880 the United States con- cluded a treaty with China, by which the governments of the two countries mutually agreed to prohibit the importation of opium by Americans into China or by Chinese into the United States. Our legislation putting this treaty into effect dates from 1887, and it is this statute which makes the smuggling of opium back and forth across the Pacific a criminal act. Ever since this enactment, the detection of opium smugglers has been one of the best known activities of American customs and consular officers. The trade is now, as always, extremely lucra- tive—provided the smuggler is not caught—and, despite the fact that action taken by our authorities in China has resulted in the confiscation and destruction of large quantities of opium, clandes- tine traffic continues. One of the most daring schemes for selling opiumwas that unearthed by Vice Consul Walter A. Adams at Changsha, China, in June 1921. —Consul Edwin L. Neville, from his article by the same title in the August 1922 American Consular Bulletin. n