Chinese historian and diplomat
Tsiang Tingfu (; 17 February 1895 – 9 October 1965), was a historian and diplomat of the Republic of China who published in English under the name T.F. Tsiang.
Early life and education.
Tsiang was born in Shaoyang, Hunan. Tsiang's education from his teenage years had been Western and largely Christian, and he converted to Christianity at 11. Having been urged to study in the US by his teacher from a missionary school, he was sent in 1911 to study in the United States, where he attended the Park Academy, Oberlin College and Columbia University. His dissertation, "Labor and Empire: A Study of the Reaction of British Labor, Mainly as Represented in Parliament, to British Imperialism Since 1880," led him into issues in the relation of foreign relations and domestic politics, which would structure his scholarship after he returned to China. After obtaining a Ph.D., he returned to China in 1923, where he took up a position at Nankai University and then at Tsinghua University.
Academic career.
At Tsinghua, Tsiang became the head of the History Department, where he edited and published a number of works on Chinese history and edited the English-language journal "Chinese Social and Political Science Review". Using newly opened Qing dynasty archives and diplomatic publications, Tsiang argued that China should adopt Western approaches if it wanted to score diplomatic victories. Tsiang blamed China's unequal treatment by Western powers after the First Opium War (1839–42) on Chinese unequal treatment of Western powers before the war. During his tenure at Tsinghua, he mentored a number of historians in the study of Qing history, including John K. Fairbank.
Diplomatic career.
Following mounting tensions in China's relations with Japan, Tsiang left academia in 1935 and joined the Chinese Nationalist government, which he served in many different capacities throughout the Sino-Japanese War. Between 1947 and 1962, Tsiang served as the Permanent Representative of China to the United Nations. Following the establishment of the People's Republic of China on the Chinese mainland, Tsiang defended the exclusive right of the Taipei-based Republic of China to represent China in the United Nations and in the UN Security Council. In 1955 Tsingfu made use of China's veto power in the security council and placed the sole vote against Mongolia joining the UN, following which Mongolia did not become a member of the UN. It would be the only time, the ROC made use of its veto power. He also served as the ambassador of China to the United States. He died of cancer in New York City on 9 October 1965, at 69.
Political theories.
In 1938, Tsiang advocated for centralized authority which should override popular will when necessary. He argued that China had to modernize quickly given the multiple threats it faced. To Tsiang, the "iron rule of modern history" was that countries which used modernization to preserve national territory survived, while countries that did not were exterminated. In his view, natural science and mechanized agriculture were the essential elements of modernization. He wrote that such a focus for modernization was supported by the "left-wing, right-wing, imperialist, anti-imperialist, man, woman, white, yellow, old, young."
During the Second Sino-Japanese War, Tsiang advocated that China develop a "total defense state" along the lines of what Japan itself had. Tsiang viewed such a commitment as a necessity of the historical era, not solely one required by the current war. Consistent with the general views of the Nationalist Party, Tsiang believed that the war should be used to create a state based on principles of order rather than political liberties.
After spending time in the United States under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal, Tingfu's views on political freedom and modernization changed.
References.
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