The more open archives we have in the world, the more we all will learn and benefit: China and Eastern Europe during the Cold War

Author(s): Bernd Schaefer

Source: CSSN

A brief interview with Bernd SchaeferBernd Schaefer

CSSN reporter Chen Mirong interviewing Bernd Schaefer (R). (Photographed by Liu Yu)

Q: Would you please give us a brief introduction to the Woodrow Wilson International Center?

A: The Woodrow Wilson International Center is one of the major think tanks and research institutions in Washington D.C., the capital of the United States. It was established by U.S. Congress and constitutes a so-called “living memorial” to President Woodrow Wilson who was the only American president with a doctoral degree. The Woodrow Wilson International Center therefore is a center for scholars, hosts experts from all over the world, and fosters scholarship in the humanities and social sciences. It has departments covering and studying major regions of the world and pertinent issues of global and current affairs. The Wilson Center organizes numerous public events receiving coverage in American and foreign media.

Q: Would you say something about the Cold War International History Project?

A: The Cold War International History Project (CWIHP) is the major clearinghouse for documents collected from all over the world on the Cold War period between 1945 and 1990. We have troves of documents from former communist archives, but also from the Western sources. We try to translate as many as possible of them into English and make them available to scholars worldwide for free. We are publishing those documents on our website, in special bulletins, document collections, and working papers. Please check out our website where you will find a huge selection and an overview of our activities and events all over the world (http://www.wilsoncenter.org/program/cold-war-international-history-project).

Q: Does the Wilson Center have any cooperation with Chinese universities or research centers?

A: Yes, it does. The Wilson Center signed several memoranda with the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and received document collections from its archive on the Geneva Conference, the Bandung Conference, or the Chinese-American Ambassadorial Talks. CWIHP itself closely cooperates with East China Normal University in Shanghai where there exists a Cold War Research Center directed by Professor Shen Zhihua. The Shanghai center publishes a journal on the Cold War history in Chinese, and they are having many students working on Cold War issues. The Wilson Center is supporting fellowships and offers to host Chinese scholars who come to Washington to research in American archives on topics of their interest. Constantly some Chinese scholars are in residence at the Wilson Center for temporary stays. Also, the Wilson Center hosts the “Kissinger Institute on China and the United States” dedicated to promoting greater understanding of the issues in the U.S.-China relationship and its impact on both countries and the world.

Q: Are there any differences and similarities between researches in the Cold War history in China, America and Germany?

A: Similarities are that in all those countries, there are now significant numbers of scholars who are very interested in the Cold War topics and do high-quality research. Chinese scholars are now fully integrated in international dialogues and communication on the Cold War research topics. It is remarkable what has been achieved over the last twenty years due to contributions by Chinese scholars.

A difference lies in the fact that Chinese scholars have less access to materials on the Cold War in their own country than foreign scholars in most of their countries. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and some provincial archives are partially open, but overall still far less so than in Europe or in the United States. Many other important Chinese archives are completely closed or only accessible to party researches. Therefore, Chinese scholars also have to collect material in foreign countries about China. If you go to American or European archives, you can learn important facts about China itself. Yet in China proper there are still not enough openings yet. So we hope there will be more open archives in China in the future. This would benefit scholars interested in Chinese Cold War history worldwide and also further improve the image of the People’s Republic of China: If Chinese scholars attend international meetings and conferences about the Cold War and can present their own research based on the archives in China itself, it will create a strong and positive impression about the country as well. I hope the Chinese government would significantly improve archival access in the future.

Q: As the theme of the conference is “New Archives, New Views,” what new archives did you apply when writing your paper?

A: With regard to this conference, we were mostly thinking of the archives in Eastern Europe from former communist countries holding valuable information about China. Myself I primarily used the East German archives in Berlin and interviewed former East German officials. The name of the conference testifies to the fact that there exist archives outside China where you can find important information about the events regarding China and the relations between Eastern Europe and China before 1990.

Q: As to your lecture, in the 1980s, East Germany made great efforts for the Sino-Eastern European Rapprochement, so what do you think is the major motive of East Germany to do so? Was it to defy the Soviet Union or to assert leadership in the socialist bloc?

A: At that time, East Germany (GDR) had the feeling that the Soviet Union did not exercise wise leadership and followed an incorrect policy with regard to China. Moscow’s course was considered inflexible and dogmatic. But for the GDR, China was still a socialist country like the countries in Europe and the Soviet Union itself. Therefore, one ought to have a rapprochement and cooperation when you have a similar political system. If socialist countries in Europe don’t work together with China, then China will work exclusively with capitalist countries: It cannot be allowed that China is “left to the imperialists and the capitalists.” East Germany thought China has to work with us socialist countries since we have so many things in common: We have the same system of governing, we have communist parties in charges of all mechanisms and society, so we should work together. Yet the Soviet Union did not want smaller countries like the GDR to take the lead on this issue. Moscow wanted every country to wait until the Soviet Union is ready to change course some day. Yet East Germany defied this and went against it; the GDR just moved ahead with rapprochement with China what led to major frictions between the Soviet Union and East Germany. So the GDR was very courageous in starting this process as a pioneer for the socialist camp to bring China back in good standing with the socialist camp. China was interested in this as well, because it thought once the Eastern European begin to establish good relations, the Soviet Union will have to follow. And it was true, the Soviet Union was the last country in this entire process to re-establish relations with China quite late in May of 1989.

(Bernd Schaefer is a Senior Research Scholar of the Cold War International History Project at the Woodrow Wilson International Center in Washington D.C.)