Decision-Making Process Of British Recognition To The People's Republic Of China

Sino-British relation was the special existence of the relationship between China and the western countries in the 1950s.In the 1950s,Chinese officials often used the "Anglo-American imperialism" to describe the policies of the capitalist countries headed by the United States and Britain.In fact,the British policy toward China and the US policy toward China were not consistent.Although Britain and the United States maintained consultation,there are still differences between the two countries.The British policy of China was based on its own economic interests and various factors,of which recognizing the People's Republic of China was the most obvious example.This thesis is based on the Seies Volume8:Britain.and China,1945-1950 of DBPO and Foreign Office Files for China,1949-1956 of SAGE.This thesis contains three parts.The first part is about the factors the British government need to consider.The second part is about the process of the British government recognizing the People's Republic of China and the last part is about the impact of recognizing the People's Republic of China.In the second half of 1948,the Chinese Communists established the People's Government of North China,and quickly occupied the north of the Yangtze River.As a country that had huge assets in China,the British government re-estimated the situation in China,showing its realism.Britain had a large number of economic and trade groups in China so every step of the policy adjustment should base on protecting the interests in China.Meanwhile,British policy was rarely effected by ideology and value judgments.At that time,Britain expected the Chinese Communist Party unifying China as an irreversible situation.British government must contact the Communist Party of China as soon as possible to seek the protection of its interests in China.In addition,the British government judged that Chinese Communist Party need economic assistance and support of Western countries so in the short term foreign assets could not be confiscated.If Britain was initiative to lend a helping hand,the two countries would cooperate in the economic and trade field.With the passage of time,the CCP gradually gained a overwhelming victory and set out to establish a national regime,and the British Government thought it was necessary to consider the recognition to the Communist government.In weighing the British interests,the nature of the Chinese Communist Party and attitudes of other countries,especially the attitude of the United States,Britain gave early recognition to the People's Republic of China.Recognition will bind the action of the country who have given the recognition and Britain is no exception.After recognizing PRC,the British government was more cautious than other western powers in considering the ownership of the CA and CNAC,the choice of the United Nations delegates and the disposition of Taiwan.Britain tended to stand on the position of the Chinese Communist Party on the above issues.As for the reasons,except for respecting the fact on the mainland of China,the impact of recognition is an important reason.Even during the Korean War,Britain did not change her decision of recognizing PRC.Therefore,in series of international issues related to China,because of recognizing PRC,Britain had a different attitude to the United States.the United States supported the national government to curb the new Chinese government.Britain was on the contrary,even condemned the attitude and behavior of the United States.However,recognition is a bilateral field that the country mainly consider the national interests during the decision-making,and the views of other countries is only secondary reference.But the international problems usually depends on collective decision-making.Especially in the Cold War,collective decision-making often means race between great powers.In the case of collective decision-making,although Britain and the United States had different views,it was difficult to British government to ignore the view of the United States.The British international impact was significantly weaker than the United States,and it was difficult to obtain the majority of support.So the British view of China could not determine the final solutions.Sometimes even the Britain itself had to compromise.We can see that although the recognition effected the British decisions,the British government did not make substantial impact to the final solutions of series problems of China.