Evening star., 1945-08-13
Chino and Russio

With a beaten Japan certain to
disappear as a great power, the most
important factor in the rearrange-
ment Of the Far Eastern mainland
will be the relations of China and
the Soviet Union. It Is widely as
sumed that Soviet policy aims at
restoring" the situation which ex-
listed between the two countries
previous to the upset produced by
Japanese intervention on the Asiatic
continent and the defeat OF Russia
in the war of 1904-5. Yet, while
new arrangements may outwardly
follow those at the turn of the CEN
tury, it should be understood that
interim changes within both China
and Russia have profoundly altered
the psychological framework within
which political and economic
changes can operate. 1t should thus
be useful briefly to survey the status
OF China and Russia at that earlier
time.
Down to the revolution of 1911,
China was neither a nation nor a
state, in the western sense Of those
terms. Instead it was a loosely
jointed Oriental empire which, at
least in theory, belonged" to a
dynasty Of foreign conquerors, the
ManchuS. So far as China proper
was concerned, this belonging"
had become little more than a
fiction, the Chinese being governed
by their traditional bureaucracy of
native scholars recruited through
competitive literary examinations.
But that was not true of Manchuria,
the dynastic homeland, and the de-
pendencies - Mongolia, Tibet and
Singkiang, or Chinese Turkestan,
which were imperial fiefs, with no
organic connection with China
proper. Thus, when Russia, during
the nineteenth century, first made
the Manchu Emperors cede the
Maritime Province and later ac-
quired a privileged position in Man
churia and Outer Mongolia, the
transactions were made between
two dynastic empires, their respec-
tive subjects having little to say in
the matter.
The revolution of 1911 trans
formed China into a republic based
on the western concept of the
nationstate. So far as China
proper was concerned, the change
was accepted by the people, who
have become nationalistic and pa
triotic during the ensuing thirty
odd years. But the dependencies
did not accept the idea that they
were indivisible parts of a Chinese
nation-state. So Outer Mongolia
fell willingly within the Russian
orbit, while Inner Mongolia and
Singkiang were recalcitrant to di-
rect Chinese rule. AS for Man.
churia, wholesale Chinese inmigra-
ton, first permitted after the fall
of the Manchus, who had kept their
homeland as a special preserve,
tended to bind it closer to China
proper, though with reservations.
Meanwhile, Russia had transformed
itself from dynastic empire, semi
Oriental in its governmental con-
cepts, into Soviet federation with
Communist ideals. And, lastly,
Communism took root in China
itself.
1t is against this complex political
and theological background that the
new relations between China and
the Soviet Union should be evalu-
ated. The collapse of the japanese
Empire will necessitate far-reaching
readjustments in Sino- Russian re-
lations. But to speak of a "restora-
ton" of the conditions which pre-
vailed before the Russo-Japanese
War of 1904-5 is to oversimplify
the matter and lead to erroneous
interpretations of whatever may
take place.