While the Chinese government's decision to send contingents of workers to work alongside the Allies during the Great War may seem anecdotal, it was nevertheless the trigger for major political events in China as early as 1919. Frustrated in their claims to regain part of their national territory, many Chinese were revolted and their government refused to sign the Treaty of Versailles. Squadron leader Pierson shows us how, according to him, a Chinese political consciousness emerged from this little-known history, resulting in the awakening of nationalism and the announcement of communism.

Just over a century ago, in August 1916, the first contingent of Chinese volunteer workers landed in Marseille. They had been recruited within the framework of a contract, signed on 14 May 1916, between France and the Chinese company Huimin [1].

1] At that time, the war in Europe was getting bogged down: the human losses caused by this first world conflict were severe and able-bodied men were mobilized to go to the front. France, Great Britain and Russia therefore needed manpower to unload ships, run factories, maintain roads and railways located near the combat zone. The French were the first to call on Chinese labour. A little later, on January 18, 1917, the first coolies[2] recruited by Great Britain left China to work on the European continent within the Chinese Corps Labour (CLC).

In fact, China's participation in the First World War did not take the form of armed intervention, but rather of support for the war effort. Between 1916 and 1917, some 190,000 Chinese volunteers (about 40,000 for France, 50,000 for Russia and 100,000 for the United Kingdom) were grouped together near the front to be assigned to handling tasks or, as soon as the war ended, to the reconstruction of martyred cities. Despite the lack of precise figures, the majority of sources mention the death of about 2,000 Chinese.

China's participation in the First World War is little known, both on the Western side and on the Chinese side itself. Mired in the atrocity of the trenches and victim of an unparalleled all-out war, the West only belatedly recognised this Chinese war effort which was, it is true, limited in time and space. Similarly, in China, the memory of these workers is still experienced as a humiliation inasmuch as the peace agreements did not meet any of the legitimate expectations of the Middle Kingdom... FrustratedFrustrated in their claims to recover part of their national territory under Japanese rule, many Chinese people came out of it deeply revolted and their government refused to sign the Treaty of Versailles.

While peace was established in the West, indignation erupted in the Far East. On May 4, 1919, in Beijing, a student protest movement generated a powerful shock wave throughout the country: a Chinese political consciousness emerged, resulting in the awakening of nationalism and the announcement of communism.

The reasons that led the Duan Qirui government to participate in the world conflict in the limited form of a war effort are complex. First of all, it is necessary to grasp its multiple causes before describing its essential features and then to measure all its immediate and far-reaching consequences.

A divided and threatened country seeking recognition...

From the middle of the 19th ^century, China began one of the most tormented chapters of its history. This period, also called "the century of shame" by the Chinese, was characterized by a decline of imperial power, a retreat of Chinese power in Asia and the interference of foreign nations in the direction of its internal affairs. The two Opium Wars (1839-1842 and 1856-1860), the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the cutting up of Chinese territory by the Western powers, also known as the Break Up of China, in the years 1897-1898, and the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, weakened China permanently. The West and Japan imposed on this country trade to its disadvantage, the control of a significant part of its economy, free access to its ports, the privilege to use its ports, the privilege to use its territory and the right of access to its territory.China was forced to ratify what were called "unequal treaties".

At the dawn of the 20th ^{century, the} Middle Kingdom seemed to be the "sick man" of Asia. The Manchu dynasty of the Qing, mistress of China since 1644, had a system of government that was struggling to reform, and the Chinese elites were eager to modernize the country. In 1911, Emperor Puyi was overthrown and the Republic of China was painfully born in 1912, destabilized by political crises.

When the First World War broke out, China, still plagued by instability despite Yuan Shikai's authoritarian regime, asserted its neutrality. But Japan immediately rallied to the Allies and declared war on Germany on August 23, 1914. Its aim was twofold: to recover Germany's rights and interests in China's Shandong province and to oppose Russian influence in northeast China, the epilogue to the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-1905.

After the Japanese army took the city of Qingdao from the Germans on 7 November 1914, the policy of Chinese neutrality was no longer viable and China's participation in the world war resurfaced in many debates: Japanese claims to German possessions in China had to be countered. Yet the Germans formed one of the largest foreign communities in the country because of its dynamism and the weight of its commercial interests. Therefore, not wanting to alienate this group by sending soldiers to Europe, China opted for unarmed support for the Allies. It was not until 1 August 1917 that the Chinese government finally declared war on Germany and Austria-Hungary. On the international stage, China's position raised many questions and opposition. In the background, the United States was urging countries around the world to isolate Germany because of the submarine war that William II had been waging on neutral countries since September 1915. Then, on the one hand, France was in favour of the Chinese army taking part in the fighting in Europe as early as September 1917. On the other hand, Great Britain was opposed to this solution, believing that it would be an admission of weakness on the part of the Allied camp and would send the wrong signal to the colonies. Japan had also refused because it wished to appear as the only partner of the Westerners in East Asia. In the end, it agreed only after secretly obtaining assurances that the Allied powers would support its demands at the end of the conflict. As a result, plans for Chinese military intervention were definitively shelved in April 1918, much to the chagrin of the Chinese, who were counting on this commitment to carry more weight in future peace negotiations. After all, in addition to confronting Japanese imperialism, China wanted to make a place for itself on the international stage. It hoped to be in a position of strength at the peace conference to demand equal treatment from other major nations and to have the so-called "unequal treaties" abrogated.

Sweat, blood and illusions: Chinese workers on European soil

In response to the cruel shortage of labour, the Allied governments turned to China, officially neutral, as early as January 1916. On 14 May 1916, France and China negotiated a first agreement, and in October 1916, Great Britain followed suit by creating the CLC. Recruitment was based on an employment contract that excluded all military tasks. It was stipulated that Chinese workers were to work in industry and agriculture ten hours a day, seven days a week in exchange for good wages. Transport, food, clothing and housing were supposed to be paid for by the host country.

Contractual arrangements were different: Chinese working for France signed a five-year contract for a salary ranging from one franc fifty to six francs a day[3] depending on their qualifications. On the British side, workers were hired for three years with a salary of one franc per day for unskilled workers and one franc fifty per day for skilled workers.

Before creating a real ministry, called the "Bureau of Emigrant Workers' Affairs", the Chinese authorities had entrusted the private company Huimin with the recruitment of volunteers.

The effort focused on peasants from the north, reputed to be hard-working, physically strong and accustomed to climatic conditions equivalent to those in France. 85% of them came from Shandong province[4] and were between 20 and 35 years old. Most of them were landless and unemployed peasants, porters or labourers; but there were also a few literate people, including students, and some were from the Catholic minority.

The call for volunteers seemed to be well received by the Chinese population, who were attracted by the offer of a good salary and the assurance that part of it would go to the family back home. However, most Chinese were unaware of the situation in Europe and of this particularly deadly war.

Chinese workers were transported to Europe by sea. The journey, which took an average of three months, was very risky because of German submarine attacks. On February 17, 1917, the torpedoing of the liner Athos resulted in the death of 754 people, including 543 Chinese. For these men, who had never left their hometowns, the journey was extremely trying: The constant threat of attack was compounded by the discomfort of the hold, which they were never to leave, and the seasickness that sometimes caused madness.

As soon as they arrived in France, the Chinese were quarantined before being placed on a train bound for the camps ofinternment camps in Belgian Flanders, Pas-de-Calais and the Somme mainly, as well as in large industrial centres such as Dunkirk, Calais, Boulogne, Noyelles and Dieppe, but also the Renault factories and mines of La Machine (Nièvre) or the port of La Seyne-sur-Mer (Var). Often close to the front, the camps where the workers were housed were generally made up of tents and surrounded by barbed wire.

Their missions consisted of loading and unloading boats, maintaining roads, installing and repairing railway tracks, building shelters and airfields, running factories, especially armament factories, helping to dig trenches, supporting the health services and collecting the bodies of dead soldiers. At the end of the war, they were mainly employed in rebuilding destroyed cities such as Ypres. On the British side, the Chinese were used to clear mines and deliver military equipment, and then, at the end of the war, to clean up the battlefields.

Soon three types of difficulties emerged: the lack of interpreters, harsh disciplinary regimes and the danger of being close to the combat zones.

Freshly arrived in France, the many coolies suffered a real shock, so great was the gap between Chinese and European cultures at that time. They understood neither the language nor the customs of the inhabitants. The insufficient presence of 150 interpreters led to major communication problems. The Chinese workers did not understand or misunderstood the orders given and misunderstandings caused tensions and even revolts. For example, English officers sometimes shouted "Go!Go!"to speed up the pace, but in Mandarin it means "dog! dog! dog! ». The Chinese were outraged and went on strike.

They soon lost the illusion of freedom that their contract foreshadowed. They were not allowed to make contact with the local population and their movement was extremely controlled. Every day, only 10% of them were allowed to go out. Returning to the camp before sunset was mandatory.

In France, Chinese workers had a hybrid status. They were considered as civilians but also fell under martial law, which imposed severe penalties ranging from the simple withholding of wages to the death penalty. It seems that the condition of Chinese workers under British command was more difficult. They were subject to very strict military discipline and could be subjected to corporal punishment: humiliation by attaching the accused to a wooden pole, wheel or cross outraged the Chinese.

Despite the contracts they had signed stipulating that they were not to take part in the fighting or be on the front line, many were exposed to the rigours of the fighting. The work demanded was very varied: those assigned to the armament factories remained in the rear, but many workers were assigned to logistical and sanitary tasks near the front. In addition to the fact that these Chinese workers, mostly peasants, were ill-prepared for factory work - which led to fatal accidents - they were also directly exposed to German bombardments. On May 23, 1918, for example, at Noyelles-sur-Mer, Chinese fled from a British camp, terrorized by a bombing raid. Most of them were discovered several days later, some of them hungry, mad or dead from exhaustion.

At present, there are no precise figures for the number of Chinese who died during the war. Franco-British sources put the figure at 2,000 dead and sometimes specify the circumstances of the deaths: torpedoes, bombings, mine clearance operations, accidents... They are buried in 17 French localities, such as Saint-Omer, Pont-de-Brique, Boulogne sur-mer, Saint-Étienne-au-Mont, Sains-en-Gohelle, Ruminghem and Noyelles... But some Chinese specialists now dispute the number of deaths and point to the disappearance of about 27,000 people. They take into account the Chinese who died of disease, particularly those who were victims of the infamous Spanish flu of 1918-1919, which killed nearly 30 million people in Europe. It is also possible that Chinese workers in the area of the fighting were killed and then buried on the spot in mass graves.

From frustration to national awakening: the epilogue to a painful story

In Europe, Chinese workers welcomed the armistice of November 11, 1918. The next day, the survivors, including the sick and disabled, were repatriated by the Allies. Some went to the end of their contracts (1920 on the British side, and 1922 on the French side) working for post-war reconstruction, others - between 2.000 and 3,000 - were able to stay in France and constituted the first important Chinese community in the country [5].

In China, the Allied victory also gave rise to a great surge of demonstrations and celebrations. Chinese society as a whole placed great hope in the restoration, at least partially, of its national rights. The aim was twofold: the return of Shandong Province, a former German zone of interest and newly conquered by Japan, and the reduction of the privileges granted to the Western and Japanese powers by the "unequal treaties". Because of China's late and unarmed engagement in the war, the government wanted to present limited and pragmatic demands.

On 27 and 28 January 1919, at the peace conference, negotiations were held on the question of the former German colonies. Suddenly, the Japanese delegation demanded the direct transfer of German rights and interests to Shandong, brandishing secret agreements signed with the "Anhui clique", then in power in China [6].

Upon learning of these agreements, the Chinese camp, which thought it would be easy to regain full sovereignty over its territory, was astonished: the Japanese had never officially claimed interests in Shandong province! Nevertheless, China tried to defend its position. Despite the talent of some diplomats, such as Gu Weijun (Wellington Koo) or Lu Zhenxiang, the Chinese position remained very weak. Under pressure from Japan, which threatened to leave the Conference, following Italy, the big three (England, France and the United States) withdrew from the Conference.and on April 30, transferred all German rights and interests in the Shandong to Japan. Collapsed, the head of Chinese diplomacy passed on the news to Beijing in writing: "In sum, the peace conference continued to depend on warlike supremacy... Justice is far from being able to compete with force".

The indignation in China was immediate: more than 3,000 Beijing students gathered in front of the entrance to the legation quarter to express their anger. The unrest, known as the "May 4th Movement", spread to other major cities: demonstrations, school and trade strikes and boycotts of Japanese products followed one another for three months. In the face of immense public pressure, Beijing refused to sign the Treaty of Versailles.

In conclusion, the Chinese government's decision to send contingents of workers to the Allies' side may seem anecdotal in view of the bloody events of the Great War. But it is not excessive to argue that this decision was the trigger for major political events in China after peace. China was on the winning side of the war because it had provided the Allies with manpower. Moreover, it had placed great hopes in the statements of US President Woodrow Wilson (the "14 points"), confirming its desire for territorial independence. But the peace treaties bitterly contradicted her hopes by confirming the transfer to Japan of Germany's rights and interests in Shandong province.

Indignation was at its height, and while the "May 4 Movement" of 1919 had no immediate international consequences, this vast popular mobilization marked the awakening of a patriotic consciousness in China. This disappointment and frustration played a major role in the formation of the intellectual and political climate that not only stirred the awakening of nationalism, but also led to the establishment of the Chinese Communist Party between 1920 and 1921. As in the rest of the country, the political consciousness of the Chinese workers who remained in France was born in the aftermath of the peace conference. Some of them discovered Marxist and anarchist ideas through contact with thousands of young citizens who came to study in France in the 1920s, such as Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping.

We cannot help but turn this page without wanting to evoke one last time these Chinese workers who came to France. They had left behind a family, friends and a very different culture for a future they hoped would be better. After a trying and risky journey, they landed in a country they did not know, in a war context they had not considered or misjudged. From the cotton plains of Shandong to the arms factories of Le Creusot, adaptation was difficult. Some lost their lives, many returned home and some settled in France. But for all of them, and more broadly for all Chinese people, this episode is rarely mentioned. The Treaty of Versailles being the umpteenth humiliation for China, there is therefore little commemoration. Representatives of the Beijing authorities nevertheless take part in the ceremonies organised since the 2000s at the Noyelles cemetery. For its part, France belatedly recognised the role of these Chinese workers and in 1988 affixed a commemorative plaque in the 13th arrondissement of ^Paris, Place Baudricourt, in memory of the Chinese of the Great War.

[1] Benefit to the people.

2] Coolie is a term used in the 19th ^century to designate agricultural workers of Asian origin. In Chinese, it can refer to a brutal way of using labour, but also to the harshness of the work: the word 苦力 (pinyin transcription: kǔlì) is composed of one character meaning "painful" and the second "strength".

[3] In 1914, a kilo of bread cost 0.44 francs.

[4] Coastal province located in northern China.

[5] The last survivor died in 2002 in La Rochelle, at the age of 105.

6] At the time of Yuan Shikai's death on June 8, 1916, China was in the throes of civil war with two rival governments, one in Beijing under the authority ofone in Beijing under the authority of the military faction known as the "Anhui clique", the other in Canton under the presidency of Sun Yatsen, with a multitude of "warlords" who exploited certain territories and provinces.

Saint-cyrien of the promotion "Du bicentenaire de Saint-Cyr" (1999-2002), Squadron Leader PIERSON served in the artillery before branching off into human source intelligence. After his year of War School, he is currently a trainee in the "language-international relations" course at the EMSST.