Diplomatic struggle on the issue of the liberation of Burma from the Japanese invaders (1942-1943)

By the beginning of the Pacific War, Japan had occupied almost all the Chinese coastline with its major ports: Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou (Canton), cutting China off from the outside world, communication with which could now be carried out only through Burma. However, the Japanese occupation of Burma in the spring of 1942 completely broke the ground lines of communication between China and Western allies, resulting in its role as a base for the attack on the Japanese positions in East Asia, as it had been outlined in the Allied strategy, being called into question since the transfer of US arms and military equipment for the Chinese troops now became extremely difficult. Thus, the organization of major offensive operations against the Japanese from the Chinese territory was now dependent on resolving the issue of restoration of land communication with China. The situation had been aggravated by the fact that the British, then the owners of Burma, were alarmed by Chinese imperial ambitions, because some members of the Chinese ruling class openly advocated the transformation of Burma into a Chinese colony. That is why the official London had long resisted sending major Chinese troops to Burma. The recovery of vital communication lines passing through the Burmese territory became one of the main objectives of General Josef W. Stilwell, appointed chief of the Joint Staff to Chiang Kai-shek. Mutual distrust of the Chinese and the British had become one of the main difficulties that the general had to face in Burma. The urgency of this problem is determined by the value of the Chinese front in the Allied strategy at the beginning of the war in the Pacific, as well as by the role of the US-China cooperation in the plans of the administration of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt regarding postwar reconstruction in the Far East. The purpose of this article is to study the foreign policy issues related to the restoration of land communication between China and the outside world. Methodological basis is the principle of historicism. Results of the study reveal the presence of sharp differences between the US, China and Britain, whose interests were affected by the issue of the liberation of Burma. The most important condition for opening a land route for delivery of US military aid to China, which had a paramount importance for the continuation of the Chinese resistance to Japanese aggression, was to overcome the difficulties in the relationship between the allies. The article is based on an expanded range of sources, some of which have not been used by Russian researchers previously.

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