Description
Asia in the late 1940s has been examined in terms of several national conflicts, for example the Chinese Civil War, Partition and independence wars in Southeast Asia. Little is known about the intention of major emerging countries like China and India to shape the future of post-war Asia. This paper examines China’s and India’s participation in the early Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East (ECAFE), a regional commission of the UN Economic and Social Council founded in 1947 and still functioning today (as the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific). Indian delegates demanded that ECAFE boldly launch developmental projects in areas like food supply and industrialisation. By contrast, China wanted to build ECAFE’s capacity gradually and expected it to help Asian countries rehabilitate and revive their economies. Yet both Chinese and Indian leaders ultimately believed that ECAFE should help Asia not only ‘reconstruct’ but construct to a level much higher than the pre-war period. Their efforts compelled international organisations to act beyond the Atlantic. Despite the Cold War and the emphasis on nation-building, these efforts inspired later attempts in promoting regional development such as the 1955 Bandung Conference and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
