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Notes on The China White Paper
by William P. Meyers

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The China White Paper was originally published as United States Relations with China, with Special Reference to the Period 1944-1949. It was compiled by the U.S. Department of State and given to President Harry Truman by Dean Acheson on July 30, 1949.

By that date the Communist Party of China had become the de facto government of China, replacing the de jure government of the Kuomintang, known in the U.S. as the Nationalist Party. In the U.S. accusations were made (notably by, but not limited to, Republican Party politicians) that the Truman Administration had lost, and probably even contrived to lose, China to communism. The paper was a response to those accusations.

These are my personal notes to be used in my U.S. War Against Asia project. Because I have already taken (and posted at this site) extensive notes on the subject of U.S. relations with China, there are many topics that will not be in these particular notes, as they have been covered elsewhere. Page numbers, shown in brackets, refer to the two volume paperback edition published by the Stanford University Press, copyright 1967. I believe everything quoted here is copyright free as it was originally government material. My own comments and summaries are copyrighted, but brief quotations are welcome, hopefully with an attribution.

Wang Ching-wei. "Late in 1939 the United States learned that Japan was considering setting up a Chinese central regime at Nanking under Wang Ching-wei. The United States took the position that such a regime would be a purely artificial creation, lacking any broad Chinese popular support; that it would be designed primarily to serve the special purposes of Japan, and that it would result in depriving the people and government of the United States, as well as those of long established rights of equal opportunity and fair treatment in China which were legally theirs. When the new regime was set up in March 1940 the United States announced that it would continue to recognize the National Government of the Republic of China." [23] But the U.S. had a long history of establishing its own puppet governments, including the one currently in place across the South China Sea in the Philippines. The Nationalist regime had been established by military conquest, not a national election. Want Ching-wei had been the number 2 Nationalist; he preferred the security and economic development offered by the Japanese to the corruption and dictatorship of Chiang Kai-shek. Also, why would America have any rights in China? Did China claim rights in America? What rights does one country have in another? What does sovereign mean in this context?

America was fighting Japan in China before the Battle of Pearl Harbor: "On July 26, 1941, President Roosevelt issued an Executive Order freezing Japanese assets in the United States, thereby virtually cutting off all trade with China." Which violates "Open Door" type policies, amounts to theft, and could be considered an act of war. "The United States also supported China with positive measures in its resistance against Japanese conquest. American aviators on active duty were permitted to enter the Reserves and to join the Chinese armed forces, a military mission was sent to China, and China was declared eligible for lend-lease assistance on May 6, 1941." Note the assistance was the Chiang Kai-shek, by then just another warlord hated by most Chinese. [25]

"Unfortunately, little of the [Lend-Lease] equipment intended for China's ground forces under this program ever reached its intended destination. ... Early in 1941 this Government approved a plan which permitted American fighter planes piloted by volunteer American airmen and serviced by American ground crews to fight against Japan in the service of China. The American Volunteers Group (the "Flying Tigers") under the command of Major General Claire L. Chennault, was formally constituted as a unit of China's armed forces by an order issued by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek on August 1, 1941. ... The American Volunteer Group was disbanded in July 1942, when its personnel was [sic] incorporated into the Untied States Tenth Air Force."

continued Page 2 China White Paper

©2015 by William P. Meyers

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