Hostage Diplomacy

Britain, China, and the Politics of Negotiation, 1967–1969

Bibliographic Data

ID12257546
AuthorsChi-Kwan Mark (corresponding author)
Year2009
Volume20
Issue3
Pages473-493
Publication date2009-11-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueDiplomacy and Statecraft (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0959-2296 • E-ISSN: 1557-301X
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/09592290903293803
OpenAlexW2068974734
LanguageEN
Citations received5

During the radical phase of the Cultural Revolution in 1967–1969, China's violation of the diplomatic norms of the international community reached an unprecedented level. Two dozen British diplomats and private citizens on the mainland became de facto hostages of their host government. In response to China's hostage-taking, the British government preferred quiet diplomacy to extreme retaliation such as a rupture of diplomatic relations and economic sanctions. It focused on negotiations through minimal publicity and reciprocal gestures. But in China, the British found a culturally different negotiating partner that was obsessed with principles rather than details. Through a step-by-step negotiating approach recommended by the Sinologists in the British Mission, London was finally successful in securing the release of its detained nationals. The lesson of Britain's quiet diplomacy was a culture-sensitive approach to negotiation and the ability to separate the hostage question from the wider political and economic relationship that would facilitate the resolution of future hostage crises. Notes 1. The Office of the British Chargé d'Affaires was the formal title of the British representation in China recognised by Beijing, for the two countries did not exchange ambassadors until 1972. But for the sake of convenience, and as is common in the British archives, the terms "British Office," "British Embassy" and "British Mission" are used interchangeably in this essay. 2. On other cases, see Raymond Cohen, Negotiating across Cultures: International Communication in an Independent World, revised edition (Washington, DC, 2007). 3. Zhou Enlai, Zhou Enlai waijiao wenxuan [Selected Works of Zhou Enlai on Diplomacy] (Beijing, 1990), pp. 48–57; Chen Jian, China's Road to the Korean War: The Making of the Sino–American Confrontation (New York, 1994), pp. 9–30. 4. On the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, see G. R. Berridge, Diplomacy: Theory and Practice, third edition (Basingstoke, 2005), pp. 115–118. 5. Philippe Ardant, "Chinese Diplomatic Practice during the Cultural Revolution," in Jerome Alan Cohen, ed., China's Practice of International Law: Some Case Studies (Cambridge, MA, 1972), pp. 86–128. 6. See Anne-Marie Brady, Making the Foreign Serve China: Managing Foreigners in the People's Republic (Lanham, MD, 2003). 7. Mao Zedong, Mao Zedong on Diplomacy, English version (Beijing, 1998), p. 101; Zhou, Zhou Enlai waijiao wenxuan, pp. 79–86; Wang Taiping et al., Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo waijiaoshi, 1957–1969 [The Diplomatic History of the People's Republic of China, 1957–1969] (Beijing, 1998), pp. 386–394. 8. Pei Jianzhang et al., Xin Zhongguo waijiao jengyun [Winds and Clouds in New China's Diplomacy], Volume 3, (Beijing, 1994), p. 149. 9. J.E. Hoare, Embassies in the East: The Story of the British Embassies in Japan, China and Korea from 1859 to the Present (Richmond, Surrey, 1999), pp. 69–72. 10. See Paul H. Kreisberg, "China's Negotiating Behaviour," in Thomas W. Robinson and David Shambaugh, eds., Chinese Foreign Policy: Theory and Practice (Oxford, 1995), pp. 453–477; Yang shengqing et al., Zhongguo gongchandang tanpan shi [A History of Negotiations by the Chinese Communist Party], Part 2, (Beijing, 2005), pp. 1–12. 11. Unlike "covert diplomacy," which conducts exchanges in secrecy, "quiet diplomacy" can be defined as practice that involves "developing contacts, ideas and taking formal initiatives in the public domain but without directly seeking high levels of public press attention." R.P. Barston, Modern Diplomacy (Harlow, 2006), p. 91. 12. On the Cultural Revolution within the Foreign Ministry, see Barbara Barnouin and Yu Changgen, Chinese Foreign Policy during the Cultural Revolution (London, 1998). Quotation from Barbara Barnouin and Yu Changgen, Zhou Enlai: A Political Life (Hong Kong, 2006), p. 261. 13. On Zhou's role in the Hong Kong disturbance, see Yu Changgen and Ma Jisen, Zhou Enlai yu Xianggang "Liuqi Baodong" Neimu [An Inside Account of Zhou Enlai and Hong Kong's "67 Riot"], pp. 1–55; and Ma Jisen, Waijiaobu Wenhua Dageming Jishi [The Cultural Revolution in the Foreign Ministry of China] (Hong Kong, 2004), pp. 155–163. 14. According to the 1954 Anglo–Chinese Agreement, which raised their relationship to chargé d'affaires level, British representation in Shanghai was accorded the title of "the Office of the British Chargé d'Affaires, taking care of British Nationals in Shanghai." Beijing did not recognise it as a "consulate" in the Western sense. 15. Hopson to Brown, 30 May 1967, FCO [Foreign and Commonwealth Office Archives, National Archives, Kew, London] 21/63; Hopson to Brown, 12 and 26 June 1967, both FCO 21/64. 16. Gore-Booth to Brown, 26 May 1967, FCO 21/63. 17. Ibid.; Samuel minute, 30 May 1967, FCO 21/79. 18. Hopson to Foreign Office [hereafter FO], no. 847, 8 July 67, FCO 21/79. 19. Ma, Waijiaobu Wenhua Dageming Jishi, pp. 161–162; Barnouin and Yu, Zhou Enlai, pp. 262–263. 20. Commonwealth Office [hereafter CO] to Hong Kong, no. 1782, 25 August 1967, FCO 21/64; John Dickie, The British Consul: Heir to a Great Tradition (London, 2007), pp. 191–197. 21. Harold Wilson, The Labour Government 1964–1970 (London, 1971), p. 425. 22. de la Mare to Thomson, 23 August 1967, FCO 21/80. 23. Xiaohong Liu, Chinese Ambassadors: The Rise of Diplomatic Professionalism Since 1949 (Hong Kong, 2001), p. 116; Special Report by Metropolitan Police, Special Branch, 29 August 1967, PREM [Prime Minister's Office Archives, National archives, Kew, London] 13/1458. 24. Beijing to FO, no. 26, 30 August 1967, FCO 21/64. 25. See CRE 4, "China Trade with the United Kingdom," 4 September 1967, BT [Board of Trade Archives, National Archives, Kew, London] 241/1870; Webb to MacMahon, 12 September 1967, Ibid. 26. Memorandum by Foreign Secretary for Defence and Overseas Policy Committee, OPD(67)67, 4 September 1967, CAB [Cabinet Archives, National Archives, Kew, London] 148/33; Bolland to Private Secretary, 6 September 1967, FCO 21/64. 27. FO to Beijing, no. 813, 19 September 1967, FCO 21/65; Bolland to Samuel, 28 September 1967, Ibid. 28. Murray to de la Mare, 2 November 1967, FCO 21/80. 29. Brown to Prime Minister, 7 November 1967, PREM 13/3180; Bolland to de la Mare, 13 September 1967, FCO 21/80. 30. Beijing to FO, no. 240, 14 November 1967, FCO 21/65; Beijing to FO, no. 272, 27 Nov. 1967, Ibid. 31. Li Ping et al., Zhou Enlai Nianpu, 1949–1976 [The Chronicle of Zhou Enlai, 1949–1976], Volume 3 (Beijing, 1997), pp. 181–182, 183–184; Barnouin and Yu, Zhou Enlai, pp. 262–263. 32. Barnouin and Yu, Chinese Foreign Policy during the Cultural Revolution, pp. 25–26; Harry Harding, "The Chinese State in Crisis, 1966–9," in Roderick MacFarquhar, ed., The Politics of China 1949–1989 (Cambridge, 1993), p. 216. 33. Beijing to FO, no. 72, 25 January 1968, FCO 21/65. [My emphasis] 34. Beijing to FO, no. 74, 25 January 1968, FCO 21/65. 35. The first parliamentary question on Grey was not asked until 20 December 1967. By the end of February 1968, four more questions were being raised. Denson to Wilkinson, 18 January 1968, FCO 21/144; Murray to Samuel, 1 February 1968, Ibid.; Murray to Parliamentary Office, 8 October 1968, FCO 21/498. 36. Murray to Wilkinson, 31 January 1968, FCO 21/66; FO to Beijing, no. 132 and 133, 6 February 1968, Ibid. 37. Beijing to FO, no. 159, 4 March 1968, FCO 21/66; Murray to Crowe and Allen, 7 March 1968, Ibid. 38. Beijing to FO, no. 176, 8 March 1968, FCO 21/66. 39. Beijing to FO, no. 84, 28 January 1968, FCO 21/65; Murray to Allen, 22 February 1968, FCO 40/64. 40. Murray minute, 12 March 1968, FCO 21/66. 41. Barnouin and Yu, Chinese Foreign Policy, 30; Ma, Waijiaobu Wenhua Dageming Jishi, pp. 205–212. 42. Maitland minute, 26 March 1968, FCO 21/67. 43. Percy Cradock, Experiences of China (London, 1994), p. 80. 44. Wilson, Labour Government, p. 66. For a comparison between Brown and Stewart, see John Young, The Labour Governments 1964–70, Volume 2: International Policy (Manchester, 2003), pp. 6–8. 45. Murray minute, 12 March 1968, FCO 21/66; FO to Peking, no. 330, 4 April 1968, FCO 21/67. 46. Beijing to FO, no. 302, 15 April 1968, FCO 21/67. 47. Hong Kong to CO, no. 528, 26 April 1968, FCO 40/66. 48. See Anthony Grey, Hostage in Peking (London, 1988), pp. 234–239. 49. Beijing to FO, no. 526, 5 June 1968, FCO 21/68. 50. Murray to Wilkinson, 20 May 1968, FCO 21/217; Beijing to FO, no. 487 and 488, 27 May 1968, ibid. 51. Murray to Wilkinson, 22 June 1968, FCO 21/68; Beijing to FO, no. 558, 13 June 1968, ibid. 52. Murray to Wilkinson, 23 July 1968, FCO 21/68. 53. Beijing to FO, no. 691, 27 July 1968, FCO 21/69; Beijing to FO, no. 718, 5 August 1968, Ibid.; Beijing to FO, no. 739, 12 August 1968, ibid. 54. Cradock to Murray, 13 August 1968, FCO 21/69; Murray to Cradcock, 22 August 1968, Ibid. 55. Harding, "Chinese State," pp. 218–220; Ma, Waijiaobu Wenhua Dageming Jishi, pp. 215–219. 56. Murray to Hughes, 4 December 1968, PREM 13/2523; Foreign and Commonwealth Office [hereafter FCO] to Youde, 20 May 1969, Ibid. 57. Irving to Galsworthy, 21 November 1968, FCO 40/145; Hopson to FO, 29 July 1968, FCO 21/465. 58. The FCO was formed on 17 October 1968. For the sake of convenience, I continue to use the Foreign Office for the rest of this essay. 59. Grey, Hostage in Peking, pp. 252–258; Brighty to Dawe, 6 February 1969, PREM 13/2523. 60. Note of meeting, attached to Dawe to Brighty, 7 February 1969, PREM 13/2523. 61. FCO to Youde, 20 May 1969, PREM 13/2523. 62. Murray to Private Secretary, 16 July 1969, FCO 21/488. 63. Denson to Murray, 15 July 1969, FCO 21/488; Murray to Moreton, 6 May 1969, PREM 13/2523; Shepherd to Stewart, 8 May 1969, Ibid. 64. Grey, Hostage in Peking, pp. 298–300. 65. Murray to Private Secretary, 16 July 1969, FCO 21/488. 66. Boyd to Wilson, 31 October 1969, FCO 21/489; Grey's Hostage in Peking. 67. Liu, Chinese Ambassadors, pp. 116–117. 68. Lu Ning, The Dynamics of Foreign-Policy Decisionmaking in China, second edition (Boulder, CO, 2000), p. 64. 69. Webb to Sharland, 18 February 1969, FCO 21/476, Webb to Dales, 13 November 1969, FCO 21/475. 70. Wilson to Moreton, 13 November 1968, FCO 21/451; Murray to Youde, 4 November 1968, FCO 21/450

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