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In the Name of Anticommunism: Chinese practices of ideological accommodation in the early Cold War Philippines

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 May 2019

CHIEN-WEN KUNG
CHIEN-WEN KUNG*
Affiliation:
University of the Pacific Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

This article builds on work by social and cultural historians of the Cold War such as Heonik Kwon and Masuda Hajimu by showing how three groups of Chinese actors helped create the locally specific reality of Chinese anticommunism in the Philippines during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It argues that, in a climate thick with Sinophobia and fears of communism, but largely devoid of actual Chinese Reds, anticommunism for the Chinese was only secondarily about rooting out subversives, ideological authenticity, and supporting Chiang Kai-shek's counterattack against mainland China. As a social phenomenon, it was primarily a diverse and flexible repertoire of practices, from crime to civic associationism, that Chinese elites and their challengers employed to bolster their reputations as anticommunists, enrich themselves, and pursue vendettas against their ‘communist’ enemies. By focusing on these practices of what I call ideological accommodation, the article intervenes in scholarship on the Chinese diaspora after the Second World War by showing that anticommunism was essential to how the overseas Chinese adapted to being resident ‘aliens’ in post-colonial Philippine society.

Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 53 , Issue 5 , September 2019 , pp. 1543 - 1573
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

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Footnotes

The author would like to thank Charles Armstrong, Chris Chang, Clay Eaton, Caroline Hau, Eugenia Lean, Michael Montesano, Taomo Zhou, and this Journal's two peer reviewers for commenting on earlier versions of this article. I also received valuable feedback from participants in the Unlearning Cold War Narratives workshop held at the National University of Singapore on 26–27 May 2016 and organized by Masuda Hajimu. Columbia University, the Sasakawa Young Leaders’ Fellowship Fund, and the Association for Asian Studies’ China and Inner Asia Council helped fund the research in Taiwan, the Philippines, and the United States of America that made the article possible.

References

1 As Chinese in the Philippines did not employ hanyu pinyin and sometimes not even Wade-Giles to Romanize their names, I have tried to locate in other dual-language or English primary sources their non-pinyin or English names, for example Shih I-Sheng rather than Shi Yisheng. In some cases where this has proven impossible, I have resorted to pinyin. Where alternative Romanized forms (for example Sy Yek Sheng) of the same name exist, I employ the most common form.

2 ‘Dear Mr. President’, The Bullseye, 28 January 1954, in Ramon Magsaysay Scrapbook, Vol. 2 (22 January–19 February 1954), p. 168, Asian Library, Ramon Magsaysay Center, Manila. The propaganda materials that Lim says were received through the mail were entitled ‘Appeal of Philippine Overseas Chinese Communist Party to All Chinese in the Philippines for Unity in Opposing U.S.-Sino-Philippine Reactionaries and for Fight of Liberation’ (dated 28 December 1953) and ‘Further Statement of Philippine Overseas Chinese Communist Party to All Chinese People Recommendation [sic] for Chinese Investment in National Construction’ (dated 1 January 1954). See ‘Chinese Communist Party Propaganda Documents’, 4 February 1954, CIA-RDP80-00810A003500700009-7, Central Intelligence Agency Records Search Tool [CREST], National Archives and Records Administration [NARA], College Park, Maryland. There is no indication in this brief report if the materials were authentic or forgeries.

3 Kwon, Heonik, The Other Cold War (New York: Columbia University Press, 2010), p. 7, 29CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The ‘global Cold War’ is most commonly associated with Westad, Odd Arne, The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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5 I make use of Jacques Amyot's definition of ‘Chinese’ as ‘those people in the Philippines who identify themselves with a group that is culturally Chinese and which is distinguishable by social behavior, speech, values, and to a lesser extent, dress, from the general indigenous population’. They could be Republic of China (ROC) or Philippine citizens. My definition excludes mestizos, who had long been re-categorized as Filipinos (an ethnic category) rather than Chinese. Amyot, Jacques, The Manila Chinese: Familism in the Philippine Environment (Quezon City: Institute of Philippine Culture, Ateneo de Manila University, 1973), p. 1Google Scholar.

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9 The best account of the decline of the Chinese left in the Philippines from 1945 to 1948 is Yuk-wai, Yung Li, The Huaqiao Warriors: Chinese Resistance Movement in the Philippines, 1942–1945 (Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1996), pp. 153–188Google Scholar. See also Tan, Antonio S., The Chinese in the Philippines during the Japanese Occupation (Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press, 1981), pp. 94–115Google Scholar, an older account upon which Yung Li's is based.

10 Former PKP Secretary General Jesus Lava mentions the Chinese Bureau in his memoirs. See Lava, Jesus B., Memoirs of a Communist (Pasig City: Anvil Publishing, 2002)Google Scholar.

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12 Recent scholarship suggests that the Soviet Union provided no such instructions. See Efimova, Larissa, ‘Did the Soviet Union Instruct Southeast Asian Communists to Revolt? New Russian Evidence on the Calcutta Youth Conference of February 1948’, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 40.3 (2009): pp. 449–469CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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14 Charge d'Affaires Thomas H. Lockett to Secretary of State, 21 October 1948; Record Group [RG] 84, Series: Classified General Records, 1946–1961, Box 6, Folder: 800.B Bolshevism—activities, NARA. On CUFA and how it was modelled after the notorious House Un-American Affairs Committee in the United States of America, see Colleen P. Woods, ‘Bombs, Bureaucrats, and Rosary Beads: The United States, the Philippines, and the Making of Global Anticommunism’ (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan, 2012), pp. 226–228.

15 File 002, Box 14, Folder 6: Interior, Department of the (Philippine Constabulary), Quirino Papers, Filipinas Heritage Library [FHL], Ayala Museum, Manila.

16 File 007, Box 5, Folder 7: National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (1948), Quirino Papers, FHL.

17 ‘Lü Fei buliang huaqiao’, Vol. 4, p. 21, 020-010708-0019, 30 May–27 November 1951, Academia Historica [AH], Taipei. The 230,000 figure is from G. William Skinner, ‘Report on the Chinese in Southeast Asia’, Southeast Asia Program, Department of Far Eastern Studies, Cornell University (December 1950), p. 73.

18 Chu, Richard T., Chinese and the Chinese Mestizos of Manila: Family, Identity, and Culture, 1860s–1930s (Leiden: Brill, 2010), pp. 328–330CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

19 On the pre-war Chinese left, see Yung Li, The Huaqiao Warriors, pp. 60–69.

20 File 006, Box 5, Folder 7, Quirino Papers, FHL.

21 File 007, Box 5, Folder 7, Quirino Papers, FHL.

22 On retail trade nationalization, see Remigio E. Agpalo, The Political Process and the Nationalization of the Retail Trade in the Philippines (Diliman: University of the Philippines, Office of Coordinator of Research, 1962).

23 Political Secretary Edward E. Rice to Charge d'Affaires Vinton Chapin, 24 November 1950, RG 84, Series: Classified General Records, 1946–1961, Box 33, Folder: 370 Public Order and Safety, NARA.

24 ‘Lü Fei buliang huaqiao’, Vol. 3, p. 98, 020-010708-0018, 5 March–27 May 1951, AH.

25 Yung Li, The Huaqiao Warriors, pp. 153–188.

26 Amyot, The Manila Chinese, p. 46. The controls were put in place in response to the country's foreign exchange crisis of 1949, not the CCP's victory in the Chinese Civil War. See Bekker, Konrad and Wolf, Charles Jr, ‘The Philippine Balance of Payments’, Far Eastern Survey 19 (1950): pp. 41–43CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

27 R. A. Spruance to State Department, 1 April 1952, RG 84: Series: Classified General Records, 1946–1961, Box 32, Folder: 350.21 Chinese Communists, NARA.

28 ‘Philippine-Chinese United Organization in Support of Anti-Communist Movement’ was its official English title. A more literal translation of Feilübin huaqiao fangong kang'e houyuanhui is ‘Philippine-Chinese Association in Support of Anticommunism and Resistance to Russia’.

29 Masuda, Cold War Crucible, p. 274.

30 ‘Feihua fangong kang'e zonghui’, Vol. 1, p. 25, 062.2/0004, December 1950–December 1959, Institute of Modern History [IMH] Archives, Academia Sinica, Taipei; Charter of the Philippine-Chinese United Organization in Support of Anti-Communist Movement, RG 84, Series: Classified General Records, 1946–1961, Box 32, Folder: 350.21 Communism in the Philippines, January 1950–June 1951, NARA.

31 On this committee, see Yung Li, The Huaqiao Warriors, p. 43.

32 ‘Feihua fangong kang'e zonghui’, Vol. 1, p. 25, IMH Archives.

33 Again, this is how the organization referred to itself in English, rather than a literal translation from Chinese.

34 James Blaker, ‘The Chinese in the Philippines: A Study of Power and Change’ (Ph.D. diss., The Ohio State University, 1970), pp. 131, 195. For a typology of overseas Chinese political behaviour, see Gungwu, Wang, China and the Chinese Overseas (Singapore: Eastern Universities Press, 2003), pp. 144–162Google Scholar.

35 ‘Feidao fangong kang'e zonghui’, Vol. 1, pp. 13–14, IMH Archives.

36 Feilübin Minlila zhonghua shanghui wushi zhounian jinian kan (Manila: Feilübin Minlila zhonghua shanghui, 1955), p. 24Google Scholar.

37 Akashi, Yoji, The Nanyang Chinese National Salvation Movement, 1937–1941 (Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Press, 1970), p. 92Google Scholar.

38 Feilübin Minlila zhonghua shanghui wushi zhounian jinian kan, Chinese section, p. Jia (11).

39 Myron M. Cowen, ‘The “Philippine-Chinese United Organization in Support of Anti-Communist Movement”’, RG 84, Series: Classified General Records, 1946–1961, Box 32, Folder: 350.21 Communism in the Philippines, January 1950–June 1951, NARA.

40 ‘Feihua fangong kang'e zonghui’, Vol. 1, pp. 81–82, IMH Archives.

41 Qiaowu tongji (Taipei: Qiaowu weiyuanhui tongjishi, 1964), p. 68Google Scholar.

42 The Fookien Times Yearbook 1952 (Manila, September 1952), pp. 73, 75Google Scholar.

43 The Fookien Times Yearbook 1953 (Manila, September 1953), p. 81Google Scholar.

44 ‘Feihua fangong kang'e zonghui’, Vol. 1, pp. 115–118, IMH Archives.

45 ‘Businessman Chosen to Represent Local Chinese in China's Assembly’, Manila Times, 22 April 1946, p. 1.

46 Yung Li, The Huaqiao Warriors, p. 144.

47 ‘Shi Yisheng huanqiu lüxing’, United Daily News, 18 October 1951, p. 1; ‘Shi Yisheng fan Fei’, United Daily News, 8 April 1952, p. 1.

48 ‘Feidao dangwu ji qingnian yundong’, pp. 5–9, 11, 020-010799-0081, 19 July 1950–7 February 1952, AH; Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2, Headquarters Philippine Command Clifford L. Sawyer to US Military Attaché, 29 January 1949, RG 165, Series: Security Classified Correspondence Relating to Military Attaches, 1938–1949, Box 189, Folder: MA Philippines: 080, Philippine China Cultural Association, NARA.

49 Cowen, ‘The “Philippine-Chinese United Organization in Support of Anti-Communist Movement”’; 1135th Counter-Intelligence Corps Detachment to Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2, 29 January 1948, RG 165, Series: Security Classified Correspondence Relating to Military Attaches, 1938–1949, Box 189, Folder: MA Philippines: 080, Philippine China Cultural Association, NARA.

50 ‘Feidao dangwu ji qingnian yundong’, pp. 185–187, AH.

51 On the KMT's role in collaborating with the Philippine military against and suppressing the Chinese left from 1945 to 1948, see Yung Li, The Huaqiao Warriors, pp. 159–168.

52 ‘35 Unsolved Murder Mysteries’, Philippines Free Press, Vol. 37, No. 12 (11 May 1946), p. 7Google Scholar.

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54 Ibid., p. 6.

55 ‘Feidao dangwu ji qingnian yundong’, pp. 25–28, 186, AH.

56 Shih I-Sheng to First Secretary Edward Earl Rice, June 5, 1950; Edward Lim to Rice, 9 June 1950, RG 84, Series: Classified General Records, 1946–1961, Box 32, Folder: 350.21 Communism in the Philippines, January 1950–June 1951, NARA.

57 ‘Feidao dangwu ji qingnian yundong’, p. 186, AH.

58 ‘Feidao dangwu ji qingnian yundong’, pp. 186–187, 205, AH.

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63 Sawyer to US Military Attaché, 29 January 1949, RG 165, Series: Security Classified Correspondence Relating to Military Attaches, 1938–1949, Box 189, Folder: MA Philippines: 080, Philippine China Cultural Association, NARA.

64 Philippines-China Cultural Journal, Vol. I, No. 1 (February 1947) and Vol. I, No. 11 (December 1947), RG 165, Series: Security Classified Correspondence Relating to Military Attaches, 1938–1949, Box 189, Folder: MA Philippines: 080, Philippine China Cultural Association, NARA.

65 ‘Feidao dangwu ji qingnian yundong’, p. 71, AH.

66 File 001, Box 6, Folder 3: National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (January 1951), Quirino Papers, FHL.

67 ‘Feidao dangwu ji qingnian yundong’, pp. 211–212, 215, AH.

68 ‘Lü Fei buliang huaqiao’, Vol. 5, pp. 70–71, 020-010708-0020, 18 November 1951–13 August 1952, AH; ‘Lü Fei buliang huaqiao’, Vol. 6, pp. 58–59, 020-010708-0021, 19 September–13 December 1954, AH.

69 ‘Lü Fei huaqiao gongxian’, Vol. 1, pp. 41–42, 062.6/0002, December 1952–May 1953, IMH Archives.

70 ‘Lü Fei buliang huaqiao’, Vol. 5, pp. 71–75, AH; ‘Continued Intervention of Ranking Philippine Officials in Case of Chinese Gangsters Held for Deportation’, 21 January 1952, CIA-RDP82-00457R010000290003-0, Central Intelligence Agency Records Search Tool [CREST], NARA.

71 ‘Lü Fei buliang huaqiao’, Vol. 5, p. 73, AH.

72 ‘Cai Binqing ni fadong Fei jizhetuan lai Tai’, pp. 10–12, 020-010702-0021, 3 May–6 July 1951, AH.

73 ‘Continued Intervention of Ranking Philippine Officials in Case of Chinese Gangsters Held for Deportation’, CREST, NARA.

74 ‘Lü Fei buliang huaqiao’, Vol. 5, p. 75, AH.

75 ‘Lü Fei buliang huaqiao’, Vol. 6, pp. 96–97, AH.