-Abstract-
Chinese
Refugees in Hong Kong and US Cold War Propaganda
Speaker: Chi-Kwan Mark, Royal Holloway College, University of
London
After 1945, refugee migration and international politics were inextricably
linked. The founding of the Peoplefs Republic of China in 1949 propelled
hundreds of thousands of Chinese to flee from their homeland to the British
colony of Hong Kong. This massive refugee movement was to have significant
international ramifications. To decision-makers in Washington, the Chinese
refugees in Hong Kong were an important instrument in the Cold War struggle:
they were a symbol of anti-communism, a source of intelligence, and experts
in the production of Chinese-language propaganda material. The United States
administration thus provided financial support for the relief and resettlement
of Chinese refugees in order to demonstrate the American concern and sympathy
on the one hand, while finding opportunities to exploit the contrasting ways
of life between communism and capitalism on the other. Nevertheless, Washington
saw the Hong Kong refugee problem primarily as a British responsibility.
As a result, American assistance had to be selective and confined to a small
group of Chinese intellectuals and leaders who could contribute to the Cold
War cause. This is not to say that American refugee policy was all about
politics and propaganda, or that humanitarianism and realpolitik were mutually
exclusive. But to American decision-makers (if not American voluntary welfare
agencies), humanitarian concern was always subordinate to political, economic
and ideological considerations. The Hong Kong case thus shows that a number
of factors ? political, economic, ideological, racial, and humanitarian ?
were at work that helped shape the American attitude and policy towards the
refugee problem, both during the Cold War period and in the contemporary
age. It also explains why the United States, either unilaterally or collectively,
intervened in some refugee crises, but not in others.