Latin American Studies in China during the Cold War

The Preparatory Phase (1949–1960)

As the Cold War division between the socialist and the capitalist camp was developing in June 1950, the Korean War broke out, and because China was threatened, in October of that year China‘s People’s Volunteer Army marched into Korea. An Asia-Pacific conference calling for peace in Korea was held in Beijing October 2–13,1952, under the leadership of Song Qingling and others, together with a number of peace-loving persons from various countries in the region. There were 378 participants from 37 countries, including Chile and Mexico. Communication between the Chinese hosts and the Spanish-speaking guests was difficult because of a shortage of Spanish-speaking Chinese to serve as interpreters. Some of the Spanish- speaking guests who could also speak English or French were asked to act as interpreters, translating Spanish into English or French for a Chinese interpreter to translate into Chinese. After the conference Premier Zhou Enlai instructed the Beijing Institute for Foreign Languages to create a Spanish department and start training Spanish-speaking personnel (Huang, 2004: 18, 23). At the same time, after the national reorganization of colleges some institutes of higher learning established world history divisions within their history faculties, and these divisions began offering lectures on the history of the national liberation movements in Asian, African, and Latin American countries. Toward the end of the 1950s, Spanish-language students who had finished their courses were dispatched to work in units that required communication with foreigners. Graduates of the history faculties with some knowledge of Latin America also gradually moved into society. Although there were no Latin American studies to speak of during this phase, research cadres were being trained for Latin American studies to follow. Looking back at this phase, we must point out that in this Cold War period the Chinese were reminded to pay more attention to Latin America by a hot war.

China’s fundamental diplomatic orientation was “leaning to one side,” the side of socialism, world peace, and democracy. Not only did China develop relations with countries in this camp but the Communist Party of China (CPC) also made use of the influence of the Soviet Union to develop relations with the communist parties of many countries. For instance, in 1956 the party invited delegates from parties in 59 countries, including 11 Latin American ones, to attend its Eighth Congress (Zhu, Mao, and Li, 2002: 314). China’s party and government departments were already conducting research on the international communist movement, and some of their work had been published. One example is the series Documents of Communist Parties in Various Countries, published by the Foreign Ministry’s World Affairs Press. That series included The Courageously Struggling Latin American Communist Parties, which assembled important documents published by the communist parties of 8 Latin American countries. Ding Xi’s Brazil, from the same publisher, was the first in a series of guides to Latin American countries published in New China.

The Pioneering Phase (1961–1965)

At the end of the 1950s, liberation movements in Latin America became increasingly active, and Chinese leaders and ordinary people welcomed the victory of Cuba’s revolution in 1959. Conflict between the CPC and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), which the Chinese considered revisionist, intensified. China saw its political task as combatting revisionism and supporting the revolutionary struggle of the peoples of the world, including Latin America, but most people knew little about the Latin American situation. Chairman Mao Zedong determined that people had to be organized to study Latin America (ILAS, 2006: 361), and accordingly, on July 4, 1961, the Institute of Latin American Studies (ILAS) was established. Because the supply of Spanish-language graduates needed for the development of China’s foreign affairs work was insufficient, the ILAS had to be staffed with university graduates in closely similar disciplines. It set up a three-year program that included assembling materials related to Latin American studies, assigning professionals to study Spanish, and hiring experienced English-speaking professionals. Just as the ILAS was developing, the Cultural Revolution swept the country in May 1966 and its work had to stop. In 1969 its staff was sent to the countryside to engage in physical labor, and it was allowed to come back only in 1974.

Until April 1966 the most important research projects of the ILAS had been the writing of a guide to Venezuela and two other countries, the compiling of a series of books about Mexico and two other countries, and the provision of articles for the World Affairs Almanac. Preliminary drafts had been written of The Fundamental Situation of Cuba’s Economy: A Preliminary Study of the Perspectives of Cuba’s Self-Reliance Policies, A Concise History of Cuba, and The Characteristics of the Hacienda and the Land Problem, and The Republic of China had reached final proofs. Six research papers had been written on landownership and other problems in particular countries. A translation had been published of Philip S. Foner’s History of Cuba and Its Relations with the United States, Vol. 1 (1492–1895), and the translation of a collection of papers on the land problem in Latin America was ready for printing. The institute had also started publishing a journal titled Reference Material on Various Latin American Countries, which mainly contained translations of foreign material. In addition, the researchers of the institute had published dozens of articles in journals of other institutions, including “Support the Patriotic and Just Struggle of Panama’s People against the USA,” published in the CPC’s journal Red Flag.

During this phase, Peking University and other institutions of higher education had introduced courses in Latin American history, and some universities had set up research facilities in Latin American history. Peking University and Fudan University had recruited China’s first graduate students in Latin American studies (Guo, 2016: 88–89). The academic world had produced more than 60 research papers and some translations, and academic symposia had been held on the hypothesis of the discovery of Latin America by the Chinese, Latin American independence movements, and U.S. Latin American policy (Wang and Lei, 2000: 152–154).

This phase coincided with the Great Polemic between the CPC and the CPSU (September 1963–July 1964) (see Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, 1965), and the Central Committee of the CPC organized a group of researchers (including some engaged in Latin American studies) to provide it intellectual support. In these debates the CPC expressed its views on important problems such as war and peace, the proletarian dictatorship, and modern revisionism. Nowadays it seems that not all of these views were correct (Deng, 1994: 319). Research in this period focused on the land problem, Cuba, U.S. policy, and basic information about Latin America.

The Cultural Revolution Phase (1966–1976)

With the Cultural Revolution, all research activities were stopped and research materials were destroyed. Researchers were first immersed in political movements and then sent to work in the countryside. At the same time, trade between China and Latin America was rapidly developing, and the declaration of independence of countries in the Caribbean area provided the opportunity for China to establish diplomatic relations with them. In response, the government assembled foreign-language specialists to translate and publish a series of foreign books on the history of Latin America, including Alfred Barnaby Thomas’s Latin America: A History (four volumes) and books on the histories of 20 Latin American countries. Li Chunhui’s Manuscript of the History of Latin American Countries (two volumes), published in 1973, was the first general history of Latin America written by a Chinese.

The Recovery and Development Phase (1977–1988)

In the mid-1970s China’s situation underwent further change. The Fourth People’s Congress, held in 1975, set forward the great goals of socialist modernization. The United Nations restored China’s membership in 1971, and in 1972 U.S. President Richard Nixon visited China, relaxing the relations between the two countries. Many countries wanted to establish diplomatic relations with China, causing an unprecedented improvement of its international position. In 1974 Chairman Mao formulated the theory of “the three worlds,” providing a theoretical basis for the strategic idea of a united international front against hegemonism (Mao, 1994: 600–601).To help satisfy the need for communication outside of the country, in February 1977 the ILAS was officially restored. Its main achievements in this period were A Handbook of Latin America (1978), Political Parties of Latin American Countries (1980), and The Economy of Latin America (1981). The institute also took part in the compiling of the World Economy Almanac (1979–1988).

After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the CPC in December 1978, China began reforming and opening up the country, thereby welcoming the “spring of science,” and Latin American studies entered a period of vigorous development. During the 1980s, the ILAS achieved fruitful results from its scientific research and educated and trained the first generation of Latin American researchers, thus building a strong foundation for the further development of Latin American studies. The main academic achievements during this period were seven books on the economy of the main countries in Latin America (1983–1987), Concise History of the Relations of China and Latin America (1986), Post-World War II Politics in Latin America (1987), Economic Development Strategies of Latin American Countries (1987), and Latin America: Entering the Nineties (1988). Translations included Celso Furtado’s La economía latinoamericana: Desde la conquista ibérica hasta la revolución cubana (1981), Documentos de Simón Bolívar (1983), an abstract of V. V. Vorsky’s Latinskaya Amerika: Entsiklopedichesky spravochnik (1987), José Carlos Mariátegui’s Siete ensayos de interpretación de la realidad peruana (1987), E. Bradford Burns’s Latin America: A Concise Interpretive History (1989), and Leslie Bethell’s Cambridge History of Latin America (1991–2013). In 1979 the institute began publishing its bimonthly Journal of Latin American Studies (before 1986 called Collections of Latin American Studies), which for the moment is China’s only internally and externally published comprehensive academic journal dealing with Latin American issues (Research Group of ILAS, 2006: 3–33).

During this period, the main books published by other units were Some Heroes of the Latin American War of Independence (1977), Mexico (1979), Historical Stories of the Indians (1981), Mexico City: The Ancient City on the Plateau (1981), Brief History of the Indians (1982), The Maya Culture of Ancient Latin America (1983), The Inca Culture of Ancient Latin America (1983), Wandering through the Countries of the Indians (1983), The Agriculture of Latin America (1984), A Study of the Malvinas Island War (1984), Brief History of Argentina (1984), A Short History of Latin American Literature (1985), In the Land of Eagles and Cactuses (1986), Aztec Culture (1986), Latin America’s Magical Realism (1986), The Boom Literature of Latin America (1987), Political Ideological Trends in Contemporary Latin America (1988), Collection of Latin American Papers (1988), The Riddle of the Discovery of Latin America by the Chinese: A Collection of Articles about the Historical Connections between China and America (1988), A Civilization of Blood and Fire: Carving Art of Ancient Indians (1988), and The University of Cordoba (1988).

The 1970s and 1980s were years of significant development for Latin American studies in China. Three academic associations were established: the Chinese Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin American Literature Research Society (October 1979), the Chinese Latin American History Research Society (December 1979), and the Chinese Latin American Research Society (May 1984). These three organizations together had almost 1,000 members. During this period, the five major systems of Latin American studies in China were initiated: the social science system, with the relevant research institutes of the Chinese Academy of Social Science as its main force; the system of the Education Commission, involving institutions of higher education; the relevant ministries and commissions of the State Council (the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Economy and Commerce, the Ministry of Security, and others); the departments of the CPC (the International Department of the Central Committee and others); and the Military Commission (the National Defense University and other institutions) (Xu, 1998: 12–23). These institutions all set up units or employed professionals for the development of Latin American studies, education, and work in the region. Under the unified leadership of the CPC, these five systems formed a strong Latin American studies contingent.

The Renormalization of Relations Phase (1989–1991)

In 1989 there were two notable events with regard to China’s foreign relations: the visit to China in January of Cuba’s foreign minister, Isidoro Malmierca, and the visit in May of Mikhail Gorbachev, chairman of the CPSU. The first event marked the beginning of the “all-round development phase” of the relations between China and Cuba (Qian, 1989), and the second marked the end of the Great Polemic. Since the late 1950s the conflict between China and the Soviet Union had been gradually intensifying both with regard to ideology and with regard to party relations. The CPSU adopted a patriarchal attitude toward the world’s other communist parties, demanding that the CPC follow its strategy for world domination (PHRO, 2016: 544). These open and intense debates could have been avoided or at least prevented from escalating as they did. The ideological differences could certainly have been resolved through internal comradely discussions, and the CPSU could have softened its patriarchal style. However, because the CPSU always took its own interests as a starting point, made all differences public, and constantly pressured the CPC, the latter was compelled to fight back. The Great Polemic caused a split in the socialist camp and the breakup of communist parties in many countries. Most of the parties that split off supported the CPC. The Great Polemic also influenced the relations between socialist countries; because Cuba supported the CPSU, its relations with China cooled. It also profoundly influenced the CPC’s evaluation of the national and international situation and thus exerted a negative influence on its domestic policies (PHRO, 2016: 544). In 1982 the CPC pointed out that the principles of communist parties’ international relations should be autonomy, complete equality, mutual respect, and mutual noninterference in internal affairs. These principles were realized in Sino-Soviet and Sino-Cuban relations in 1989. Not long after that the Soviet Union disintegrated, and so the Cold War also ended.

Since then the world order has undergone great changes. The strengthening of the independence of the Latin American countries and China’s peaceful rise have brought about a dramatic development of Sino–Latin American relations in the new era. Interaction and cooperation between China and Latin America in multiple spheres have opened broad perspectives for Latin American studies, and after thoroughly eliminating remnants of Cold War thinking China’s researchers will surely contribute significantly to the people of the world.

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The authors with a copy of Latin American Perspectives (photo Chen Mingwen).