Abstract

This article analyses China’s refugee policies from 1949 to 1982 through a text and discourse analysis of 382 articles from People’s Daily, the official mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party. We focus on People’s Daily reports regarding five key cohorts of displaced migrants: from Malaya (1949-1953), Indonesia during two distinct periods (1959-1961 and 1966-1968), India (1962-1963), and Vietnam (1978-1980). Employing frequency counts, keyword rankings, and thematic coding, we identify four primary discursive models employed by the Chinese state to narrate displaced migrants: diaspora, diplomatic tool, ideological sanctuary, and legal duty. These models fluctuated and intersected over time, adapting flexibly to evolving state interests and geopolitical transformations. From the 1950s to the 1970s, China emphasised both the diasporic return and overseas persecution of displaced migrants to bolster its international legitimacy while discrediting rival governments. In the mid-1960s, amid the Cultural Revolution, displaced migrants were framed as Maoist returnees seeking ideological redemption. The most remarkable shift occurred in 1978, when China began highlighting its legal duty toward “refugees,” which marked Deng Xiaoping’s pragmatic embrace of global humanitarian conventions. By critiquing the rigid categorisations in migration debates, we argue that the distinctions between voluntary return and forced displacement are politically constructed and historically malleable. Our sociological approach offers nuanced insights into an overlooked chapter of refugee politics in Western-centric Cold War narratives.

About the Speaker

Jiaqi Liu is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Singapore Management University. His research lies at the intersection of political sociology, international migration, global sociology, and digital technologies. In an ongoing book project, “The Diasporic State: How Migrants and Small-town Bureaucrats Reshape Global China,” Liu examines how Chinese migrants navigate the rising political tensions between their homeland and host countries in the context of China’s global rise. His work has been recognised with five Best Article Awards and two Honourable Mentions from the American Sociological Association. Liu holds a PhD from the University of California San Diego, a JD from the University of Arizona, and a Master of International Affairs from Sciences Po.