US-China economic cooperation during the war against Japan (1941-1942)

During the war with Japan, the US policy toward China was based on the need for close political, military and economic cooperation with China. The business elite of the United States sought to capture a dominant position in the domestic market in China which seemed very capacious, thus creating the possibility of huge profits in the postwar years. In general, the economic motives played an important role in formulating the American policy toward China in the period under review. By the beginning of 1942 the economic situation in China was difficult. Chinese regions most advanced in terms of economy as well as most of the sea coast with the major trading ports were under Japanese occupation. As a result, China was almost entirely cut off from the outside world. State regulation of the economy led to unprecedented corruption at all levels of the Kuomintang vertical of power, taking the form of bribery and misappropriation of public funds. The solution could only be the recovery of land communications with the Allies, that is the recon-quest of Burma. In May, 1941, Washington recognized China's defense as vital to US security, resulting in the issue of increasing military and economic aid to China to become one of the key aspects of US-China relations. American aid to China was in the form of direct military supplies, the provision of loans, sending experts in various fields to support China. Aware of its importance for the Western allies, the Chiang Kai-shek government tightened its tone against the United States, making the increased activity at the front dependent on the amount of American aid. Having chosen the tactics of "cheap war", the Chinese leadership made a stake on the use of US equipment and weapons as the main factors in the fight with the enemy on the Chinese front. The urgency of this problem is determined by China's role in the Allied strategy in the initial period of the Pacific War, as well as by the role of the US-Chinese cooperation in the plans of the administration of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt regarding the post-war reconstruction in the Far East. The aim of the research is to examine the issues related to the expansion of economic cooperation between Washington and Chungking. The methodological bases are the principles of historicism and objectivity. Research novelty is the use of an extended range of sources, some of which have not previously been used by domestic researchers, as well as bringing together the US-China economic cooperation in the initial period of the war. The results revealed sharp disagreements between the US and China, which led to a clash of different points of view in the US establishment for economic cooperation with the government of Chiang Kai-shek. The conflict between Washington and Chungking on military-economic cooperation, which was revealed in the initial period of the Pacific War, had a major negative impact on the relations between the two countries not only in economic but also in other areas, contributing to the emergence of sharp differences on the Chinese policy within the American leadership, which is even more apparent in conditions of a radical change in the course of the Second World War.

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