British China Policy, 1948-1954

After World War Two, Britain faced a changed domestic and international situation. Despite that she was a major ally of the United States of American, Britain adopted a flexible and pragmatic policy towards Communist China. It is the aim of this thesis to explore the British China Policies during this period and their background.Based on the existing literature in the field and especially on the documents form British government then, the paper delineated Britain's China Policies during 1948-1954 period. It focuses on analyzing Britain's positions on some of the important issues, such as, the maintain of British Commercial and industrial interests in China, the issue of acknowledging the People's Republic of China (PRC), Hong Kong and Taiwan's position, and Britain's attitude towards China's involvement in Korea War.The thesis concluded that Britain's China Policy of this period was shaped by many considerations such as Britain's weakening position after the War, Britain's desire to maintain colonial status of Hong Kong and pro-socialist feeling inside the U.K. etc.