Snow’s book, based on his observation in 1936 in the northeastern Chinese area held by Communist forces, was especially helpful to Mao’s reputation. And Lovell’s description of its author makes a fascinating story in itself. But she is careful to point out that it was based on an agreement that gave Mao and Party authorities a great deal of editorial authority over its production. So it clearly involved reporting on what in part was an international marketing effort for Mao and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The other major influence on Western perceptions of China that she describes was the publicity over Chinese “brainwashing” of American prisoners of war in the Korean War. The 1962 film The Manchurian Candidate gave a dramatic portrayal of this allegedly potent method of sinister manipulation. (1) A journalist, Edward Hunter, successfully popularized the concept in articles and a book. Coercive persuasion is real and is a key process used by cult groups. But the concept of “brainwashing” in the early Cold War was basically pop psychology that was nevertheless taken very seriously. Still, it helped created a particularly sinister image of the Chinese Communists, whose forces had fought the US during the Korean War.
China’s experience and the “Maoist” ideology connected with it was most influential initially in the context of the decolonization in Asia and Africa which followed the Second World War. This included not only the end of formal colonial relationships like in India, Indonesia, and African colonies like French Algeria and the Belgian Congo. It also included guerrilla struggles in formally independent countries dominated by wealthy countries in what was often described as neoimperialism. The Vietnamese and Cuban revolutions were examples of the latter, though Chinese influence in Vietnam itself was significant but marginal in practice. Cuba after the Revolution of 1959 also advocated a form of “people’s war” in such cases.
As Lovell notes elsewhere:
In 1950, ... the CCP took another important step in organizing the world revolution by setting up the International Liaison Department, which was responsible for coordinating interactions with other Communist parties and insurgencies. The first cohort of trainees came from Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Burma, Malaya, and India, and it included men like Mohit Sen, who in subsequent decades would become a lynchpin Indian Communist leader. The curriculum was dominated by the theoretical study of Mao’s essays and by observation of the ongoing Chinese revolution.
This early program of outreach influenced the course of one of the earliest post-Second World War anticolonial revolts and hot conflicts of the Cold War: the Malayan Emergency. (2) [my emphasis]
Lovell stresses in her book that the People’s Republic from early on also used the more conventional methods of economic development assistance and loans on favorable terms as a way to build its influence in the Global South. She emphasizes that though there is a wide impression that China took a more isolationist position in foreign policy during the Cultural Revolution, in fact those types of assistance continued during that period and up until today, when Chinese development projects like the Silk Road Initiative draw particular attention.
Coming in Part 4: Maoism in the Global North
Notes:
(1) Boissoneault, Lorraine (2017): The True Story of Brainwashing and How It Shaped America. Smithsonian Magazine 05/22/2017. <https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-brainwashing-and-how-it-shaped-america-180963400/> (Accessed: 2024-28-02).
(2) Lovell, Julia (2021): Maoism as a Global Force. In: Pieke, Frank N. & Iwabuchi, Koichi (eds): Global East Asia: Into the Twenty-First Century, 44. Oakland: University of California Press.
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