British Foreign Policy Towards China In The Later Period Of Attlee Government(1948-1951)

On October 1,1949,the People’s Republic of China(PRC)was established.On January 6,1950,the British foreign secretary sent a note to Zhou Enlai,Prime Minister and Minister for foreign affairs of the Central People’s Government of the People’s Republic of China,announcing that the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland(UK/Britain)recognized the Central People’s Government of PRC as “the legitimate government of China” from now on,expressing its willingness to establish relations with PRC on the basis of equality,mutual benefit and mutual respect for territorial sovereignty.Britain became the first western country to recognize PRC and tried to quickly promote the negotiations on the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Britain in order to resume the development of Sino-British trade.Britain’s decision more reflected its own interests and was a continuation of its China policy which actively safeguarded and expanded all British interests in China after World War II.However,British post-war strength was much lower than before,and its incomparable dependence on the Anglo-American alliance determined that it was difficult to respect China’s demands equally in its general direction of China policy;at the same time,the founding of PRC marked the complete end of China’s semi-colonial and semi-feudal society.China called out that its establishment of diplomatic relations with all countries,especially western countries,should be on the basis of equality and mutual benefit,mutual respect for territorial and sovereign integrity.Therefore,this basic contradiction between China and Britain makes it difficult for Britain to continue to occupy the dominant power in Sino-British relations as in the past,not to mention achieving its desired diplomatic results.Based on the declassified archives of Documents on British Policy Overseas(DBPO),according to time axis and treating events as the core and British decision-making as the starting point,this paper attempts to analyze Britain’s judgment on the situation in East Asia and China’s actions during the period of Attlee’s cabinet,and then tries to explore the various factors behind the decision-making which affect Britain’s diplomatic mentality.This paper is divided into three chapters.The first chapter mainly discusses the relationship between Britain and the Communist Party of China(CCP)before the founding of PRC,especially British judgment of the future communist government.The British government determined the strategy of “leaving one foot in the door” of China and decided to carry out positive contacts,and the judgment of the British government became the basis for future contacts with China’s Central People’s government.The second chapter studies British decision to recognize PRC and promote the negotiations on the establishment of Sino-British bilateral diplomatic relations after the founding of PRC.Based on the reasons of legal recognition and practical requirements,Britain recognized PRC very early,making a completely different choice from its ally the United States,which fully demonstrated its application of pragmatic foreign policy.However,the differences and contradictions between the Labour government and China on China’s UN representation and the “CNAC/CATC” issue in Hong Kong during the negotiations revealed that Britain continued to regard the Anglo-American alliance as its core interest and was unwilling to continue to tilt to China when it would touch the“red line” of the United States.Therefore,this round of Sino-British negotiations on the establishment of diplomatic relations did not achieve positive results.The third chapter is about the new changes in Sino-British Relations under the background of the Korean War.Based on its basic understanding of China,Britain made a wrong estimate in judging the prospect of China’s participation in the war.On the Taiwan question and the “38th parallel” issue,it did not persuade the United States to reduce its hostile acts against China according to the actual merits,resulting in Britain being forced to become a belligerent with China after China’s participation in the war.At the same time,China’s participation in the war led to the public deterioration of Sino-West Relations,and it was difficult for Britain to continue to implement its flexible diplomatic strategy of trying to maintain a balance between China and the United States.Therefore,in the later period of the Labour Party’s governance,its policy position towards China became more and more conservative and closer to the position of the United States,and Sino-British Relations temporarily remained in the embarrassing situation of “admitting but not establishing diplomatic relations”.The normalization of Sino-British Relations has always been a hot issue in academic circles,but few articles analyze British decision-making factors in combination with the British international environment.This paper combines the British judgment before the founding of PRC with its action after the founding to explore the logical coherence of the Labour Party’s pragmatic foreign policy from presupposition to implementation;At the same time,this paper takes into account the British diplomatic tradition,the characteristics of the Labour Party and the factors of American decision-making towards China,in order to explain the national interest requirements behind the British policy towards China from positive to conservative.