'Beware of the Bloody Hands of the Chinese Communists': Mexican Chinese Reactions to the 1964 Exposition of the People's Republic of China

• In Event: La Huella Asiática en América Latina: Agency, Transnational Politics, and International Identities

Abstract

The People's Republic of China (PRC) made headlines throughout the Americas when it announced its intention to hold an Economic and Commercial Exposition in Mexico City, its largest ever exposition in the Americas. Beyond merely an economic showcase, it promised to demonstrate the political and cultural progress which the Beijing government had made since 1949. The fact that the Mexican government had tacitly approved such an exposition was profoundly disconcerting to the official Chinese representative in Mexico, Republic of China (ROC) ambassador He Feng-Shan, as well as to the Chinese community in Mexico. Ambassador He feared that the exposition would result in the establishment of diplomatic relations between the PRC and Latin America, and ultimately threaten the status of the Republic of China in the United Nations and, by extension, its international legitimacy. To help counter the positive press of the PRC exposition, Ambassador He cooperated with the Chinese Mexican community to write prominent editorials encouraging Mexican wariness of the PRC government, as well as to picket the exposition venue. This paper argues that the 1964 exposition gave Chinese Mexicans the opportunity to become active participants in the East Asian Cold War, which affected them and their relatives in mainland China.

Author

• Fredy González, University of Colorado Boulder