Allies, enemies and aliens: Migration and U.S.-Chinese relations, 1940--1965

Migration has long played a role in the U.S. relationship with China, but international tensions and changes in the 1940s and 1950s demonstrate the importance of this element in how the two nations interacted. Throughout this volatile era, immigration and diaspora policies played two key roles.;First, the United States, the Republic of China, and later, the People's Republic of China all used their policies toward overseas Chinese to further their foreign policy goals. The United States used its immigration policies to further the foreign policy goals of promoting U.S. prestige, containing the spread of communism, and promoting the legitimacy of the government of the Republic of China. The Republic of China relied on its overseas citizens and on its management of migration issues to promote its own survival as it faced increasing competition from Chinese communists and declining legitimacy. Although the People's Republic of China made the shift from revolutionary party to governing entity during this period, it too looked to manage the movement of its people abroad and the attitudes of overseas Chinese communities to suit its interests.;Second, immigration policies are not merely domestic polices, but can have long-reaching affects on how countries relate to one another. Although the United States repealed its Chinese Exclusion Laws in 1943, it experienced many unintended consequences of that policy in its interaction with the governments of the ROC and the PRC throughout these decades. Similarly, the contest between the ROC and the PRC for the loyalties of Chinese abroad had the sometimes unanticipated effect of damaging relations between the Chinese governments and the "host" governments of the Chinese abroad.;In spite of their formal status as allies, attempts at cooperation between the U.S. and the Republic of China on immigration and diaspora issues had mixed results, as the two governments sometimes had very different views on the role of the Chinese overseas. Nonetheless, during the many conflicts affecting Sino-American relations at mid-century---World War II, the Chinese Civil War, the Korean War and the onset of the Cold War---migration issues had an important role to play.