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Chen Mengzhao's storeroom in Park Street, Calcutta. Wartime India-China smuggling, 1942–1945
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 April 2022
Abstract
This article is about the experiences of three Chinese men who were involved in smuggling between India and China during the Second World War. Chen Mengzhao's rise as a leading figure in India-China smuggling in Calcutta uncovers the hidden links between the black markets in India and China during the Second World War. Gao Wenjie disguised himself as a Chinese army officer and utilized this fake identity to facilitate his smuggling business. Wang Li-an was sent to Calcutta to undertake smuggling for a Chinese government department. In telling these stories, this article argues that most smuggling in modern India and China was undertaken in transnational contexts that resulted in transnational effects. Ironically, the Nationalist government's state-building project to contain India-China smuggling ended by facilitating it. This project was further perceived by the British authorities as a Chinese conspiracy against India's sovereignty. The misunderstanding between the Chinese and British authorities led to the end of Chinese immigration to India in 1945. Overall, this article provides a new perspective to make sense of the tensions between the Chinese, Indian, and British governments during the Second World War.
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- Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press
References
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19 Yasmin Khan, The Raj at War: A People's History of India's Second World War (London: The Bodley Head, 2015).
20 Jyoti Bose, The Man-Made Famine (Cambridge: B. Rajan and D. Sen, 1943); Famine Inquiry Commission, Report on Bengal (Delhi: Government of India, 1945).
21 Information Department, India Office, India at War, Rising Flood of Vast Resources (London: Ministry of Information, 1941).
22 Janam Mukherji, Hungry Bengal: War, Famine and the End of Empire (London: Hurst, 2015).
23 Philip Thai, China's War on Smuggling: Law, Economic Life, and the Making of the Modern State, 1842–1965 (New York: Columbia University Press, 2018), pp. 365–368.
24 Airborne transportation between India and China during the war was given the name ‘the Hump’. This route over the Himalayas was largely used by the American Tenth Air Force and the Chinese National Aviation Corporation for transporting supplies into China and ferrying personnel between China and India. For details of the Hump, see John Plating, The Hump: American Strategy for Keeping China in World War II (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2011).
25 For the inflation in wartime China, see Chou Shun-hsin, The Chinese Inflation, 1937–1949 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1963); Arthur Young, China's Wartime Finance and Inflation, 1937–1945 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1965); Zhou Chun, Zhongguokangrizhanzhengshiqi wujiashi (A history of the commodity prices in China during the War of Resistance) (Chengdu: Sichuandaxue chubanshe, 1998); Parks Coble, Chinese Capitalists in Japan's New Order: The Occupied Lower Yangzi, 1937–1945 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003); Frederic Wakeman, ‘Shanghai Smuggling’, in In the Shadow of the Rising Sun: Shanghai under Japanese Occupation, (eds) Christian Henriot and Wen-hsin Yeh (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), pp. 116–149.
26 National Archives of India, New Delhi (hereafter NAI), Home Political_NA_1939_NA_F-41-29_39, ‘Finance Department (Central Revenues), NOTIFICATION, Customs’, 26 August 1939.
27 NAI, Home Political_NA_1939_NA_F-41-30_39, ‘Finance Department (Central Revenues), NOTIFICATION, Customs’, 4 September 1939.
28 AH, 002-060100-00156-001, Jiangzhongzheng zongtong wenwu, 1 September 1941.
29 ‘Zhongyinhangkongxian zhi zousizhe’ (Smugglers in the Sino-India Air Route), Minguoribao, 28 January 1943.
30 NAI, External Affairs 572-X/42 (Secret), from Lu Ken Chun, Kunming to Y. T. Hia, Calcutta, 25 June 1942.
31 AH, 020-991100-0024, Waijiaobu, Xianzhifuyin caigouwuzi 1, from Jiaotongbu to Waijiaobu, 5 October 1942.
32 In October 1942, the British military attaché in Chongqing reported that almost all Chinese passengers travelling between Calcutta and Kunming brought contraband goods with them. He also indicated that some of the smuggling was practised on a personal level, while others were guilty of gang smuggling. See Foreign Office Records, The National Archives, London (hereafter FO) 371/31627, from Major Winterborn to P. Broad, 27 September 1942. The British observation was credited by the US Army Criminal Investigation Department of the Theater Corps of Military Police. Between 1942 and 1944, 87 major smuggling cases and 213 minor smuggling cases, with a total value estimated at $4,156,000, were reported. See ‘Hump Smuggling Ring Exposed by Army’, Roundup, 21 December 1944.
33 FO 371/31679, from Sir H. Seymour to Mr Eden, 21 October 1942.
34 Ibid.
35 AH, 020-991100-0025, Waijiaobu, Xianzhi fuyin caigou wuzi 2, from Junshiweiyuanhui to Waijiaobu, 24 November 1942.
36 NAI, External Affairs 572-X/42 (Secret), from Chang Tzu-tsai, Kunming to Mr M. C. Chen, Calcutta, 25 June 1942.
37 For the activities of the CNAC during the war, see Yao Jun, Zhongguo hangkongshi (A History of China's Aviation) (Zhengzhou: Daxiangchubanshe, 1998); Jiang Changying, Zhongguohangkongshi: Shihua, Shiliao, Shigao (A History of Chinese Aviation: Stories, Primary Sources, and Drafts) (Beijing: Tsinghua University Press, 2000); Li Jun and Lin Minghua, Zhongguo minyonghankongshi (A History of the Chinese Civil Aviation) (Beijing: Zhongguo minhanghang chubanshe, 2019).
38 FO 371/46194, from Governor of Assam to Acting Viceroy, 19 April 1945.
39 NAI, Home Political, E_1943_NA_F-3-11, from A. E. Porter to the Secretary, 15 January 1943.
40 ‘Hump Smuggling Ring Exposed by Army’, Roundup, 21 December 1944.
41 The exemption from customs checks of Allied officers, including American pilots working for the CNAC, was recorded in the Indian Army Order No. 1816/42, dated 10 December 1942.
42 AH, 020-011904-0021, Waijiaobu, Lü Yindu qiaoshang Chen Mengzhao an, from Waijiaobu to Bao Junjian, 11 March 1943.
43 There were two Chinatowns in Calcutta in the 1940s, one in Bowbazar and the second in Tangra, both of which were far away from the Park Street. The reason why Chen Mengzhao chose to settle in Park Street is probably down to the fact that he tried to stay under the radar of the Chinese and Indian authorities, which had been focusing on the crime and unrest in the Chinatowns throughout the war.
44 AH, 020-011904-0021, Waijiaobu, Lü Yindu qiaoshang Chen Mengzhao an, from Deputy Commissioner of Police, Security Control, Calcutta to Mrs M. S. Gregory, 22 February 1945.
45 AH, 020-011904-0021, Waijiaobu, Lü Yindu qiaoshang Chen Mengzhao an, from Bao Junjian to Waijiaobu, 7 January 1943.
46 AH, 020-011904-0021, Waijiaobu, Lü Yindu qiaoshang Chen Mengzhao an, from Chiang Kai-shek to T. V Soong, 20 December 1942.
47 AH, 020-991100-0024, Waijiaobu, Xianzhifuyin caigouwuzi 1, from the British Embassy to Foo Ping-sheung, Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs, 28 August 1942. Portable commodities such as jewellery were popular in India-China smuggling because they were easy to carry on flights.
48 FO 371/35753, from Secretary of the Government of India to Foreign Office, 10 November 1943. Details of the regulation can also be found in Section 19 of the Sea Custom Act, 1878.
49 AH, 020-011904-0021, Waijiaobu, Lü Yindu qiaoshang Chen Mengzhao an, from Waijiaobu to Bao Junjian, 11 March 1943.
50 For Sino-American relations before and during the Second World War, see van de Ven, Hans, China at War: Triumph and Tragedy in the Emergence of the New China, 1937–1952 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2017)Google Scholar; Rana Mitter, Forgotten Ally: China's World War II, 1937–1945 (Boston: Mariner Books, 2014).
51 For British concern over a Sino-American alliance in post-war Asia, see Andrew Whitfield, Hong Kong, Empire and the Anglo-American Alliance at War, 1941–45 (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2001); Mark Stoler, Allies and Adversaries: The Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Grand Alliance, and US Strategy in World War II (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000); Liu Xiaoyuan, A Partnership for Disorder: China, the United States, and their Politics for the Postwar Disposition of the Japanese Empire, 1941–1945 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996); Xiang Lanxin, Recasting the Imperial Far East: Britain and America in China, 1945–1950 (London: Routledge, 1995).
52 The Ramgarh Training Center had been a colonial internment camp that was used to house Italian and German citizens. After negotiations between both the Chinese and American authorities, the Government of India agreed to turn the internment camp into a training centre for the Chinese Expeditionary Force. See Cao, Yin, ‘Establishing the Ramgarh Training Center: The Burma Campaign, the Colonial Internment Camp, and the Wartime Sino-British Relations’, TRaNS: Trans-Regional and -National Studies of Southeast Asia (2020), pp. 1–10; doi: 10.1017/trn.2020.7Google Scholar.
53 An ordinary Chinese soldier in India could earn Rs 15 to 30 each month: see Li Shoutong, ‘Zhongguo yuanzhengjun zhuyinshenghuojianwen’ (The daily life of the CEF in India), Jianghuai Wenshi 2 (1993), p. 75.
54 The National Archives, London (TNA), WO 106/3547, ‘Yunnan: Low Morale of the Chinese 5th Army’, 1 December 1942.
55 AH, 002-080200-00620-007, Jiangzhongzheng zongtong wenwu, from Chen Cheng to Chiang Kai-shek, 17 September 1943.
56 AH, 020-011903-0015, Waijiaobu, Soubu Zhuyindu guojun taobing 1, from Waijiaobu to Chiang Kai-shek, 6 November 1944.
57 AH, 020-011903-0003, Waijiaobu, Wozai yindu jiaergeda sheli hangjiansuo yujian huiguojunmin, from Bao Junjian to Junshiweiyuanhui, 9 May 1944.
58 AH, 002-060100-00160-002, Jiangzhongzheng zongtongwenwu, shiluegaoben, 2 January 1942.
59 AH, 020-011903-0021, Waijiaobu, Zhanshi wojun churu yinjing youguan shixiang, from Junzhengbu to Waijiaobu, 8 October 1942.
60 For army involvement in smuggling in wartime China, see Qi Chunfeng, ‘Kangzhanshiqi guotongquyu lunxianqujian zousimaoyi shulun’ (A study of the smuggling between occupied China and the Nationalist rule areas during the War of Resistance), Minguodangan 1 (1999), pp. 3–5; Qi Chunfeng, ‘Kangzhanshiqi guotongqu de tongyouzousimaoyi’ (The smuggling of tung oil in the Nationalist rule areas during the War of Resistance), Kangrizhanzhengyanjiu 1 (2012), pp. 123–130; Chang Yunping and Zhang Ge, ‘Lunzhuanmaishiqi kangzhandahoufangde shitangzousi: Yichuanyudiquweili de kaocha’ (The sugar smuggling in the home front during the War of Resistance: A case study in Chongqing and Sichuan), Lishijiaoxue 6 (2016), pp. 40–46.
61 ‘Guzhangguan gaojiegejiguanzuo yanjingzousiyingshang’ (General Gu prohibited all officers from smuggling), Fujianribao, 3 December 1942.
62 AH, 002-090106-00016-007, Jiangzhongzheng zongtong wenwu, from Luo Zhouying to Chiang Kai-shek, 16 November 1942.
63 AH, 020-011903-0018, Waijiaobu, Zhuyin yuanzhengjun canmo fuzejun an, from Bao Junjian to Waijiaobu, 16 March 1943.
64 AH, 020-011904-0001, Waijiaobu, Zhangyongzhang an, from Bao Junjian to Waijiaobu, 30 July 1943.
65 AH, 020-011903-0018, Waijiaobu, Zhuyin yuanzhengjun canmo fuzejun an, from Bao Junjian to Waijiaobu, 31 March 1943.
66 Kuomintang Archives, Taipei (KMTA), Te 13/14.17, ‘Wang Tianxiongzhi Wu Tiecheng dian’ (Telegraph from Wang Tien-hsiung to Wu Tieh-cheng), 20 April 1943.
67 Ibid.
68 NAI, Home Political, E_1945_NA_F-16-49, from Lt. Col. A. Napier to External Affairs Department, New Delhi, 14 June 1945.
69 AH, 020-011908-0001, Waijiaobu, Liuyiling bei yindu poling lijing, from Chiang Kai-shek to Bao Junjian, 10 July 1944.
70 The business of producing fake identity documents for Chinese travellers was rampant in Calcutta during the war. See AH, 020-011903-0015, Waijiaobu, Soubu zhuyindu guojun taobing 1, from Waijiaobu to Junshiweiyuanhui Bangongting, 16 October 1945.
71 AH, 020-011904-0021, Waijiaobu, Lü Yindu qiaoshang Chen Mengzhao an, from Junshiweiyuanhui Bangongting to Waijiaobu, 19 April 1943.
72 AH, 020-011904-0021, Waijiaobu, Lü Yindu qiaoshang Chen Mengzhao an, from Bao Junjian to Waijiaobu, 7 January 1943.
73 For the shortage of medicines in wartime China, see Zhang Wangqing, ‘Luelunhuaqiao duizuguokangzhan de yiyaozhiyuan’ (The support of medicines from overseas Chinese during the War of Resistance), Jiangxishehuikexue 9 (2010), pp. 167–170; Jing, Yang, ‘Qianxikangzhanshiqi sichuanxiyao jinquedezhuyaoyuanyin’ (A brief study of the shortage of medicines in Sichuan during the War of Resistance), Bianjiangjingjiyuwenhua 2 (2016), pp. 126–127Google Scholar; Shi Xiaotong and Tao Xinxin, ‘Kangrizhanzhengqijian zhongguojundui de yaopinglaiyuantanjiu’ (A study of the supplies of the medicines for the Chinese troops during the War of Resistance), Kejiaodaokan 1 (2017), pp. 160–161.
74 NAI, Home Political, EW_1939_NA_F-21-161, from Secretary to the Government of India to the Department of Commerce, 25 September 1939.
75 Unlike the attitude of the Government of India, the Indian National Congress was keen to provide medical support to the Chinese during the war. A medical mission of five Indian doctors was despatched by the Indian Congress to China in 1938. For the story of the Indian medical mission to China, see B. K. Basu, Call of Yanan: Story of the Indian Medical Mission to China, 1938–43 (Beijing: Foreign Language Press, 2003).
76 ‘Yinduyaopingyuanhua’ (The supplies of Indian medicines to China), Zhongyangribao, 3 July 1942.
77 AH, 020-991100-0026, Waijiaobu, Xianzhi fuyin caigou wuzi 3, from the British Embassy to Waijiaobu, 9 December 1944.
78 ‘Kunmindahunluan: Eyimanyan’ (The chaos in Kunming: the epidemic spreading), Dongyachengbao, 24 May 1942; ‘Kunming eyimanyan’ (The epidemic is spreading in Kunming), Dashubao, 24 May 1942.
79 ‘Yinduzengwokuikuining’ (The viceroy donated quinine to China), Shengbao, 1 August 1942.
80 AH, 020-011904-0021, Waijiaobu, Lü Yindu qiaoshang Chen Mengzhao an, from Weishengshu to Waijiaobu, 22 June 1943.
81 During the Pacific War, most Chinese government departments and organizations looked to India for resources and materials. Some of these institutions even had their own agents in India for procuring commodities. The Government of India, overwhelmed by the large numbers of procurement requests from the Chinese, repeatedly expressed its concern about addressing these in a timely manner. See AH, 020-991100-0024, Waijiaobu, Xianzhi fuyin caigou wuzi 1, from Shen Shihua to Waijiaobu, 4 March 1943.
82 AH, 020-011904-0021, Waijiaobu, Lü Yindu qiaoshang Chen Mengzhao an, from Lu Guofan to Bao Junjian, 28 May 1943.
83 AH, 020-011904-0021, Waijiaobu, Lü Yindu qiaoshang Chen Mengzhao an, from Wang Zhanqi to Waijiaobu, 9 August 1943.
84 AH, 020-011904-0021, Waijiaobu, Lü Yindu qiaoshang Chen Mengzhao an, from Chiang Kai-shek to T. V Soong, 20 December 1942.
85 Ibid.
86 ‘Chen Mengzhao Ge Zunxian zousihuoli gechusixing’ (Chen Mengzhao and Ge Zunxian were sentenced to death due to smuggling), Zhongyangribao, 20 October 1943.
87 AH, 020-011904-0021, Waijiaobu, Lü Yindu qiaoshang Chen Mengzhao an, from Chiang Kai-shek to T. V Soong, 20 December 1942.
88 AH, 020-011904-0021, Lü Yindu qiaoshang Chen Mengzhao an, from Chiang Kai-shek to Waijiaobu, 12 December 1942.
89 AH, 020-011904-0021, Waijiaobu, Lü Yindu qiaoshang Chen Mengzhao an, from Bao Junjian to Waijiaobu, 6 January 1943.
90 Since Gao Wenjie and Wang Li-an both claimed to be Chinese army officers, the Calcutta police did not arrest them but asked the Chinese consulate to check their identities. After checking with the ADCYP, the Chinese consulate found that Gao Wenjie's identity was fake and repatriated him back to China in March 1943 where he was arrested in Kunming on 5 March 1943: see AH, 020-011904-0021, Waijiaobu, Lü Yindu qiaoshang Chen Mengzhao an, from Waijiaobu to Junshiweiyuanhui bangongting, 2 March 1943. Although Wang Li-an's identity and assignment in India were confirmed by the ADCYP, Chiang Kai-shek ordered a more detailed investigation into his activities in India. It was not until September 1943 that Wang Li-an was repatriated to Kunming: see AH, 020-011904-0021, Waijiaobu, Lü Yindu qiaoshang Chen Mengzhao an, from Waijiaobu to Zhuyunnan tepaiyuan gongshu, 8 September 1943.
91 AH, 020-011904-0021, Waijiaobu, Lü Yindu qiaoshang Chen Mengzhao an, from Bao Junjian to Waijiaobu, 6 January 1943.
92 NAI, Home Political, E_1943_NA_F-32KW, ‘Summary of suspicious activities of Jewish traders in Bombay’, 1943.
93 NAI, Home Political, E_1944_NA_F-3-25, from H. T. Sorley to the Secretary to the Government of India, Home Department, 25 July 1944.
94 Allied officers’ exemption from customs checks were recorded in Indian Army Order No. 1816/42, dated 10 December 1942. The Allied Forces Ordinance 1942, dated 26 October 1942, ruled that the Allied officers enjoyed extraterritoriality in British India during the war. See AH, 020-011903-0017, Waijiaobu, Zhuyindu guojun faquan guanxia wenti, Government of India, Legislative Department, New Delhi, Ordinance No. LVI of 1942, 26 October 1942.
95 AH, 020-011903-0003, Waijiaobu, Wozai yindu jiaergeda sheli hangjiansuo yujian huiguojunmin, from Junshiweiyuanhui bangongting to Waijiaobu, 29 May 1944.
96 The agreement was included in the Indian Army Order No. 1816/42, dated 10 December 1942, which ruled that Allied service personnel into or out of India were to be granted exemption from customs and censorship examination. See AH, 020-011903-0021, Waijiaobu, Zhanshi wojun churu yinjing youguan shixiang, from Waijiaobu to Junshiweiyuanhui waishiju, 29 April 1943.
97 AH, 020-011903-0003, Waijiaobu, Wozai yindu jiaergeda sheli hangjiansuo yujian huiguojunmin, from Bao Junjian to Junshiweiyuanhui bangongting, 19 May 1944.
98 Chiang Kai-shek's nationalist ideas have largely been summarized in his book, China's Destiny, in which he asserted that one of the most important tasks for China's nationalist revolution was to end the unequal treaties and rebuild China into a modern great power: Chiang Kai-shek, China's Destiny (Westport: Praeger Publisher, 1985).
99 AH, 020-011903-0003, Waijiaobu, Wozai yindu jiaergeda sheli hangjiansuo yujian huiguojunmin, from Bao Junjian to Junshiweiyuanhui bangongting, 19 May 1944.
100 AH, 020-011903-0003, Waijiaobu, Wozai yindu jiaergeda sheli hangjiansuo yujian huiguojunmin, from Bao Junjian to Waijiaobu, 26 May 1944.
101 AH, 020-011903-0003, Waijiaobu, Wozai yindu jiaergeda sheli hangjiansuo yujian huiguojunmin, from Junshiweiyuanhui bangongting to Waijiaobu, 24 June 1944.
102 IOR (India Office Records, British Library, London): L/ PS/ 12/ 2320, from Viceroy to the Secretary of State for India, 12 October 1942.
103 NAI, Home Political, E_1945_NA_F-16-49, from Mr Lovatt to J. R. de Chazal, 23 March 1945.
104 For the history and development of the Chinese communities in India, see Ellen Oxfeld, Blood, Sweat, and Mahjong: Family and Enterprise in an Overseas Chinese Community (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993); Jennifer Liang, ‘Migration Patterns and Occupational Specialisations of Kolkata Chinese: An Insider's History’, China Report 4 (2007), pp. 397–410; Tansen Sen, ‘Kolkata and China: Some Unexplored Links’, China Report 4 (2007), pp. 393–396; Ellen Oxfeld, ‘Still Guest People: The Reproduction of Hakka Identity in Kolkata, India’, China Report 4 (2007), pp. 411–435; Jayani Bonnerjee, ‘Neighborhood, City, Diaspora: Identity and Belonging for Calcutta's Anglo-Indian and Chinese Communities’, PhD thesis, Queen Mary University of London, 2010; Zhang Xin, Preserving Cultural Identity through Education: The Schools of the Chinese Community in Calcutta, India (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2010); Zhang Xin and Tansen Sen, ‘The Chinese in South Asia’, in Routledge Handbook of the Chinese Diaspora, (ed.) Tan Chee-Beng (London: Routledge, 2013).
105 NAI, Home Political, E_1945_NA_F-16-49, ‘Extracts of Notes from Home Department File No. 16/123/44-Poll. (EW), regarding grant of a visa for India to Mr. Chu Hung-Li, a Chinese national’, 30 January 1945.
106 Richard Aldrich, ‘Britain's Secret Intelligence Service in Asia during the Second World War’, Modern Asian Studies 32:1 (1998), pp. 179–217; Christopher Murphy, ‘“Constituting a Problem in Themselves”: Countering Covert Chinese Activity in India: The Life and Death of the Chinese Intelligence Section, 1944–46’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 44:6 (2016), pp. 928–951.
107 NAI, Home Political, E_1945_NA_F-16-49, from A. Napier, Indian Agency-General, Chungking to External Affairs Department, New Delhi, 14 June 1945.
108 NAI, Home Political, E_1945_NA_F-16-49, from A. Napier to H. E. Richardson, 7 April 1945.
109 For the case of He Manyuan, see AH, 020-011908-0010, Waijiaobu, Yindu yasansheng magang qiaoling hemanyuan an, from Xianbing silingbu to Waijiaobu, 13 December 1944. For the case of Liu Yiling, see AH, 020-011908-0001, Waijiaobu, Liuyiling bei yindu poling lijing, from Cai Weiping to Waijiaobu, 1 November 1947.
110 AH, 020-011904-0021, Waijiaobu, Lü Yindu qiaoshang Chen Mengzhao an, from Waijiaobu to Junshiweiyuanhui Bangongting, 9 January 1943.
111 AH, 020-011904-0021, Waijiaobu, Lü Yindu qiaoshang Chen Mengzhao an, from Acting Consul-General, British Consulate-General, Chungking to General Ho Kuo-kuang, Commander of Gendarmes, Chungking, 16 January 1943.
112 ‘Kongzhongzousi’ (Smuggling by air), Xijingribao, 20 October 1943; ‘Toushuizousizhesi: Chen Mengzhaodeng fufa’ (The smugglers should be executed: The death penalty of Chen Mengzhao and others), Zhongyangribao, 20 October 1943; ‘Toulouguanshui zousimouli, Chen Mengzhao Ge Zunxian beichusixing’ (To obtaining profit by smuggling: Chen Mengzhao and Ge Zunxian were executed), Saodangbao, 20 October 1943.
113 ‘Chen Mengzhao Ge Zunxian zousihuoli gechusixing’ (Chen Mengzhao and Ge Zunxian were sentenced to death due to smuggling), Zhongyangribao, 20 October 1943.
114 ‘Qiankunmingjianchazhangzhang Zhujiyishouhuichusi’ (Ex-chief inspector of the Kunming customs, Zhu Jiyi was sentenced to death), Zhongyanribao, 30 December 1942.
115 To address the smuggling problem, Chiang Kai-shek instructed that any army officers and government officials found guilty should be executed at once, and civilian merchants and traders involved should be prosecuted by the court according to the law. See AH, 020-011904-0021, Waijiaobu, Lü Yindu qiaoshang Chen Mengzhao an, from Chiang Kai-shek to T. V Soong, 20 December 1942.
116 Fung, Edmund, ‘The Chinese Nationalism and the Unequal Treaties, 1924–1931’, Modern Asian Studies 21:4 (1987), pp. 793–819CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Robert Bickers, Britain in China: Community, Culture and Colonialism, 1900–1949 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1999); Dong Wang, China's Unequal Treaties: Narrating National History (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2005). Anne Reinhardt argues that even local warlords in modern China harboured their own anti-imperialist agenda and took action to try to end foreign privileges: see Reinhardt, Anne, ‘“Decolonisation” on the Periphery: Liu Xiang and Shipping Rights Recovery at Chongqing, 1926–38’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 36:2 (2008), pp. 259–274CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The national humiliation at the hands of Western powers became a powerful discourse for nationalists to initiate their state-building project across Asia: see Shane Strate, The Lost Territories: Thailand's History of National Humiliation (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2015).
117 Wesley Fishel, The End of Extraterritoriality in China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1952); Stephen Halsey, Quest for Power: European Imperialism and the Making of Chinese Statecraft (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2015).