The First Nanjing Protocol to the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Alliance was a bilateral executive agreement between the Republic of China and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics affirming closer economic relations effective January 1st 1949. It primarily organized the Liandong Purchase, as well as a new Soviet commitment to the territorial integrity of China. This was negotiated and assented to by Soviet Ambassador Nikolai Roshchin and Minister of Foreign Affairs T.V. Soong in a low-key meeting at Moscow.
Background
Discontentment with the United States
The United States had provided hundreds of millions of dollars worth of military and financial aid to the Republic of China from the Second Sino-Japanese War to the Chinese Civil War. The U.S. also provided new equipment and training for the armed forces of China, however President Sun Fo was dissatisfied with the level of support shown by Washington. After the initial failure of the Marshall Mission, the U.S. began withdrawing their troops on January 29th 1947. The 1947 Chinese Revolution seemed to be the death knell for the Kuomintang government, and a time-table for a graceful evacuation of American assets was enacted with drastic reductions of aid. Relations remained frosty during the tenure of the Revolutionary Committee for Constitutional Protection in Nanjing, especially with Chiang Kai-shek's imprisonment and possible death in the National Military Tribunal for China.
After the situation stabilized to some extent, the U.S. authorized the China Aid Act of 1948 and helped President Sun Fo train military divisions in line with the Stronger Defense Reform. However, the United States did not increase personnel on the ground or offer to lend their assistance in preserving the ROC's territorial integrity. The Joint Chiefs of Staff did not view China as a top military priority, and insisted on parlaying a confrontation with the Soviet Union. President Sun stated in October 1948: “China is a bulwark for freedom in the world, having valiantly fighting with the Americans against Japanese imperialism despite grave costs. However, for every Yuan the United States government is giving to China, they are giving two to Japan, despite the fact that we were the ones suffered the most as a result of that war .Why have we been forsaken for what was once a mutual enemy?”
Threats and Offers from the Soviet Union
General Secretary Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union took great stock in the Republic of China's potential for an exclusive arrangement with the United States, and the ROC Armed Forces' vastly superior troops and equipment over both the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and the National Salvation Volunteer Army (NSVA). However, Stalin used the threat of increased Soviet support for not only Communist insurgents but also the Second East Turkestan Republic to attain leverage in negotiations with the Kuomintang. Soviet Ambassador Nikolai Roshchin conveyed demands for joint economic projects in Manchuria and continued access to strategic ports in the Liaodong Peninsula on the threat of a“buffer zone” bolstered by the PLA for territory north of the Yangtze.
President Sun could not afford a resumption of the Chinese Civil War for a protracted period. The seating of the Chinese Constituent Assembly meant that there would no longer be two budgets from the RCCP in Nanjing and the KMT in Chongqing. The cost of prior and current military expenditures would be considerable and liable to negatively impact the solvency of the Chinese People's Central Bank, and attempting to increase spending on the armed forces would only compound this problem. This was not even considering the possibilities of rebellion from regional independence movements in Xinjiang, Taiwan and Tibet, warlords opposed to the Stronger Defense Reform, or the possibility of a united PLA-NSVA offensive that took advantage of any of these opportunities.
The Kuomintang thus brought their own demands to the negotiating table for the Soviet Union to cease its support of insurgent groups within their borders and provide assistance both fiscally as well as military. In the words of T.V. Soong, one of the chief negotiators for the future agreement: “We wanted to convey how a united China would be beneficial for the Soviet Union.” Stalin, who had repeatedly delayed meeting with Mao Zedong, met with President Sun Fo secretly in the waning months of 1948.
Provisions
Protocol I was signed on December 28th 1948, after the Chinese Constituent Assembly had been elected and approved the Constitution of the Republic of China. It was a low-key meeting of Foreign Minister T.V. Soong and Ambassador Nikolai Roshchin in Moscow, intended to address the immediate concerns of the budget deficit and a possibly imminent Communist insurgency following their loss in the elections.
Liaodong Purchase
The Republic of China waived its joint administration rights to ports of Lüshun and Dailan, as well as the China Far East Railway and the South Manchuria Railway, which would be under Soviet control as the Lüda Military District and the Soviet Changchun Raliway respectively until 1975. In exchange, the Soviet Union would provide $300,000,000 and commercial credits. However, these areas would still be considered sovereign Chinese territory, and Soviet administration would be revoked immediately upon documented disruption of the ROC's territorial integrity. This entailed that any Soviet aid to the Chinese Communist Party and the satellite state of the Second East Turkestan Republic would cease immediately.
Border Agreements
The residents of the Mongolian People's Republic outside of the original Mongolian Area (or Mongolian province) in China and living within the provincial borders of Xinjiang, Gansu, Ningxia, Siuyuan, Chahar and Xing'an would be permitted to have Chinese citizenship with the right to participate in national elections. However, the international border between China and Mongolia would remain the same.
The final portion of the Protocol had the Republic of China renounce all claims to Tannu Uriankhai, which had been effectively out of its hands since 1921 and a part of Soviet territory as the Tuvan Autonomous Oblast since 1944. The Soviet Union meanwhile recognized all Chinese claims in Xinjiang and the Sixty-Four Villages East of the River.
Secret Alliance
Minister Soong and Ambassador Roshchin also secretly agreed to several points for a later second Protocol. In the meantime, the Republic of China would to submit to the United Nations a resolution for greater involvement of itself and the Soviet Union in the occupation of Japan, as well as an expansion of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration to stymie the effects of the Marshall Plan. China would also consider further negotiations for closer military cooperation.
Aftermath
The first budget of the Republic of China had a reduced deficit through the funds provided by the Soviet Union, which helped to keep the expected inflation in check. However the Protocol had no immediate impact on the Chinese Communist Party's bellicose behavior against the central government who, undeterred by a lack of foreign support, authorized the 1949 Winter Offensive against the ROC on February 9th. The United States meanwhile requested a renegotiation of the Protocol to refuse further Soviet assistance, making its further financial and material support to China conditional on this. American military advisers were reduced, and Washington refused to make any promises for deploying ground personnel or using its air force, which became increasingly clear as month after month passed without their help in the resumed Chinese Civil War.
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