The refugee relief program for overseas Chinese students and Sino-British relations during the Pacific War

After the outbreak of the Pacific War, some students from the University of Hong Kong (HKU) went to the mainland of China. The British government started a refugee relief program that was initially meant to help students from HKU, but gradually expanded the program to cover ethnic Chinese students from other British colonies as well. The program was strongly opposed by the Chinese government because it was perceived as serving the purpose of continuing British jurisdiction over their colonial subjects. The Chinese government saw helping those students as its exclusive responsibility because they were considered Chinese nationals. The fact that China and Great Britain fought over this issue in 1943 when they were engaged in negotiating a new treaty is indicative of both the changes in how extraterritoriality was exercised and of the attempt of the Chinese government to assert its sovereign rights as a major world power. Hence, issues regarding overseas Chinese are intimately connected to China’s war against Japan and the country’s struggle against imperialism and colonialism. Taking advantage of the multiplicity of their status as overseas Chinese, as college student, and as wartime refuge, the ethnic Chinese students managed to receive aid from both the Chinese and British governments. Their story illustrates the shared history between HKU and the mainland of China during World War II and reminds us of the need to reexamine the unequal relationship between China and Great Britain since the mid-19th century from the ethnic Chinese angle.