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China and the Third World: Foreign Relations and Nation Building in China in the Cold War Era

Module description

The module aims to provide you with a new perspective in understanding the making of the People’s Republic of China’s foreign policy. The “third world” will be the key concept of discussion for this course. It will address key issues such as the Sino-Japanese War criminal problem, the Korean War, the Bandung conference, the Sino-Taiwanese relations, the Sino-Arab relations, the Sino-Soviet split, and the P.R. China’s admission into the UN. In addition to the linear historical narrative of major events in P. R. China during the Cold War period, this course will also allow you to understand from an analytical perspective the relations between Chinese foreign policy and its domestic nation building concern. The primary materials discussed in this course will include Chinese Communist propaganda posters, political documents/writings, music, literature, and films.

Module aims - intentions of the module

In this module, you will:

• Show a historical understanding of the development of the Chinese Foreign policy in the Cold War period.
• Acquire knowledge on concepts such as the third world countries, and internationalism.
• Be able to analyse contemporary Chinese politics and culture through a historical perspective;
• Be familiar with the key political writings of Mao Zedong and his influence in today’s Chinese politics;
• Understand the political significance of Chinese Communist revolutionary tradition;
• Acquire a comparative and interdisciplinary perspective in understanding contemporary China.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Demonstrate a sound general understanding of the chosen texts/images/music, including reference to their place in the political, historical, and generic context of their time
• 2. Analyse selected texts, images, and events from a comparative perspective; situate them in a Communist-China nation-building context
• 3. Understand the political imagination of internationalism and the third world as key bricks establishing the communist China’s national identity

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 4. Mount an argument in sound written English using basic textual or other evidence
• 5. Conduct archival investigations under tutorial
• 6. Show cross-cultural awareness of contextualising events and ideas

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 7. Assimilate, select and organise material in order to produce, to a deadline, a written or oral argument
• 8. Undertake structured learning activities with guidance from course tutor(s) and with the help of written guidelines

Syllabus plan

Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:

Section 1: Ideas and context

1. Introduction: Communist China and its World View
2. From National Salvation to Modernisation: The Chinese Communist Party and its Revolutionary Tradition
3. The Cultural and Political narratives of the “Oppressed Nations”
4. Mao Zedong’s Legacy (1): Three Stages of Revolution
5. Mao Zedong’s Legacy (2): The United Front and Chinese understanding of National Problems

Section 2: Events and practices

6. Re-education: Japanese War Criminals and the Political Narrative of WWII
7. Imperialism: America, and the Sino-Soviet Relations
8. World Liberation and National Defence (1): Korean War, Vietnam, and India
9. World Liberation and Nation Defence (2): Ethnic minority regions, Taiwan and the Unification of China
10. Internationalism: the Bandung Conference, Cultural Revolution, and the Sino-Arab Relations
11. Concluding roundtable

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• MacFarquhar, Roderick and John K. Fairbank, ed. Cambridge History of China: The People's Republic, Part 1: Emergence of Revolutionary China, 1949–1966. Cambridge: CUP, 1987.
• MacFarquhar, Roderick and John K. Fairbank, ed. Cambridge History of China: The People's Republic, Part 2: Revolutions Within the Chinese Revolution, 1966–1982. Cambridge: CUP, 1991.

All the primary resource readings will be available in the first week of the term and will be in digital format.

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE – https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=6091
• http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/main_pop/ps/ps_china.htm
• http://www.eastwestcenter.org/
• http://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/index.asp

Indicative learning resources - Other resources

• Westad, Odd Arne. The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times. Cambridge: CUP, 2007;
• Perry, Elizabeth. Anyuan: Mining China’s Revolutionary Tradition. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012;
• Aydin, Cemil. Politics of Anti-Westernism in Asia: Visions of World Order in Pan-Islamic and Pan-Asian Thought. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007;
• Lattimore, Owen, and Alastair Lamb. Inner Asian Frontiers of China. New Impression edition. Hong Kong; New York: OUP China, 1989;

Key words search

Cold War, Sino-Middle East Relations, Chinese politics, Mao Zedong, International Relations, the Third World