Creating America's China

by Jolin Chan

Meiling Soong’s trips to the United States were glamorous, enchanting, and a spectacle—but they were also a tactic. Her tours were larger game plans that, for the most part, succeeded. 

In 1943, Wellesley-educated Soong walked down the aisle of the chamber of the House of Representatives, with a sea of clapping congressmen standing on both sides. Dubbed the “Chinese Joan of Arc” and “the most powerful woman in the world,” Soong made her way to the rostrum to address her audience:

“In speaking to Congress, I am literally speaking to the American people….The one hundred and sixty years of traditional friendship between our two great peoples, China and America, which has never been marred by misunderstandings, is unsurpassed in the annals of the world.”[1]

Those were just a couple of lines from her famous, heart-rendering speech. “Madame Chiang had me on the verge of bursting into tears,” one congressman said.[2] As she portrayed herself as “literally speaking to the American people,” this moment was just a small part of her and Chiang Kai Shek’s plan to win the hearts of the American public.[3]

As Chiang continued to fight for more power, threatened by both Japan and Mao Zedong, he and Soong turned to the United States for support. Chiang needed this support to continue funding his dream of ruling all of China one day. His wife—with her excellent English skills and natural charm—was perfectly poised to lead this project of getting American sympathy.


The husband and wife had a long relationship with America, especially with Soong’s family background and education in the States. Henry Luce, founder of Time, Life, and other major magazines, and his wife, Clare Boothe Luce, were close friends with Chiang and Soong. Luce was born in Shanghai to a missionary family, Soong’s father was first a missionary and then a publisher of Bibles in China, and Chiang converted to Christianity after marrying into the Soong family. It was no surprise that Luce felt a deep connection to them.


More than just friends, Soong, Chiang, and the Luces were also strategic partners. As they developed a friendship, they also developed a tactic to win America through the press. Luce believed in the United States’ ability—and responsibility—to Christianize and Westernize China, and Chiang and Soong as leaders, would do just that, or so he believed.[4] With his power in journalism, Luce set out to romanticize a “Christian” China, to praise Chiang as a savior, and to idolize Soong as what a Chinese person “should” be. In reality, however, most of China was far from Christian, and there was little to romanticize about Chinese life. Despite the reality-fantasy gap, the American public loved and celebrated an idealized China and its Nationalist leaders.


Just as Luce worked hard to cultivate an American vision of China, the Soongs and Chiang did as well for the Luces. Henry Luce and his wife Clara Booth Luce visited. In 1941, they visited Chunking and were housed in Ailing’s Western-style home. The Luces followed a strict schedule, all controlled by the Soong sisters. Not only did they meet American university graduates and attend banquets, but they also saw actual fighting—at least, what they believed to be actual fighting. In reality, what Henry Luce reported, such as bombings and air raids, was never actually seen by him. Furthermore, when they visited Xian to witness more fighting, Luce reported that Chiang had three million soldiers and that he saw a Japanese soldier.[5] However, it is more likely that Luce was unaware that what he was witnessing was a performance done by Chiang and his team. This was only one noteworthy part of the flourishing Soongs-Chiang-Luce relationship.


In 1937, out of a wide pool of possible candidates, Time chose Generalissimo and Madame Chiang Kai-Shek as their People of the Year. And several years before that, in 1933, Chiang appeared on the cover of the magazine. The two of them would have more covers of Time than anyone else.


But their plan also entailed articles and China Lobby propaganda. The American Committee for Non-Participation in Japanese Aggression sent out pamphlets with titles such as “America’s Share in Japan’s War Guilt.”[6] The American public, government officials, leaders such as President Roosevelt, and more often received a one-sided view of what was happening in China. The New York Times described China as “our loyal ally.”[7] When Chiang and his team established the Flying Tigers, an American volunteer group of pilots dedicated to fighting the Japanese, the newspaper spared no praise nor faith:


“If there is one force which the United Nations, and especially the United States, should equip with modern pursuits, with bombers and with ammunition, it is General Claire Chennault’s. His men must be kept flying.”[8]


The reality, however, was that China was divided and struggling. Nationalists and Communists clashed as they fought for control over the country, and though they had a common enemy, the Japanese, they disagreed about how to handle them. During the Chinese Civil War for example, Chiang launched a series of five Bandit Extermination Campaigns from 1930 to 1933 against Chinese Communists. Another truth was that America had little idea of what China really was as a country. Very few had ever visited—and many did not want to believe those who actually did have a more accurate understanding. President Roosevelt’s family has a deep history involving trade with China, but he had never met an Asian person before meeting Chiang.[9] The Chinese people that government officials determining the fate of Nationalist China did meet, such as Western-educated T.V. Soong, were far from the typical Chinese commoner. Yet, their lack of knowledge did not deter them from offering aid and friendship.


In response to a telegram sent by Chiang to President Roosevelt after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the president’s words reflected America’s unwavering—and delusional—support: “China is now being joined in her resistance to aggression… I take pride in my country’s association with you and the great nation which you lead.”[10]


The image of America’s China hid the fighting between Chiang and Mao, a weakening Nationalist government, and the pressure of Japanese invasion. By presenting flawless stories and images to high-ranking Americans, Chiang and the Soongs worked hard to cover up the fact that China was far from democratic and that they were unprepared to defeat the Japanese and slowly lose China to the Communists. What America saw was a unified country open to Westernization and democracy, which meant more funding from Washington, the China Lobby, organizations, and even the film industry.[11]


Just as the United States intervened in and shaped China, Chiang and Soong likewise shaped America’s perception of China. They, along with other prominent Americans, crafted an image of China specifically catered to the United States. This image presented a place open to United States influence, Christianity, and Westernization. The idea of America’s China, however, was filled with miscommunication and illusions, which meant failed diplomacy and unsuccessful foreign policy. In the end, while Chiang and the Soongs may have succeeded for the time being, their cultivated image ultimately led to disaster.
1. Meiling Soong, “Addresses To The House Of Respresentatives And To The Senate,” February 18, 1943, Congress, Washington DC, United States, Transcript.
2. James Bradley, The China Mirage (New York, NY: Little Brown and Company, 2015), 304.
3. Soong, “Addresses To The House Of Respresentatives And To The Senate.”
4. Bradley, The China Mirage, 112.
5. Bradley, 252–254.
6. Bradley, 185.
7. “UNITED WE STAND,” The New York Times (New York, NY), December 9, 1941.
8. “FLYING TIGERS,” The New York Times (New York, NY), March 30, 1942.
9. Bradley, The China Mirage, 307.
10. “U.S., BRITAIN, CHINA EXCHANGE PLEDGES,” The New York Times (New York, NY), December 13, 1941.
11. “Film Industry Aids China,” The New York Times (New York, NY), December 15, 1941.