China and Iran: Ancient Partners in a Post-Imperial World

Notes

Notes 1 / the spirit of sino-iranian relations: civilization and power 1. Iran, “land of the Aryans,” has always been known as “Iran” by its own inhabitants . The Iranians were part of the great Indo-European migration and began moving into Iran circa the second millennium bce. Westerners came to know the land as “Pars” from Greek historians. Pars is a region of southern Iran. But Iranians also came to call themselves “Persians”—a word derived from Pars. Iran became the favored term in the 1920s, perhaps under the influence of the racialist philosophies popular in that era. In 1935 the government specified that Iran should be used as the formal name of the country, but use of Persia was allowed until 1949. Thus, Iran is the formally correct name. Since the country includes many non–Persian-speaking people (Kurds, Azeris, Arabs, and Turkomans), Iran oªers a more inclusive appellation. Of course, by the same logic, one could not use the name China since many people living in China do not speak Chinese (Tibetans, Uighurs). Nor are Iran’s Semitic Arabs “Aryans.” This study uses Iran and Persia interchangeably as a matter of style. 2. Ann-Marie Brady, Making the Foreign Serve China: Managing Foreigners in the People’s Republic of China (Boulder, CO: Rowman and Littlefield, 2003). 3. Jose Manuel Garcia, The Persian Gulf: In the 16th and 17th Centuries (Tehran: Center of Documents and Diplomatic History, Publishing House of the Foreign Ministry, 2002). Percy Sykes, A History of Persia, 3 vols. (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1969). 4. “Premier Chou En-lai Gives Banquet in Honor of Her Royal Highness Princess Ashraf Pahlavi,” Xinhua, April 14, 1971, China Mainland Press—Survey of China Mainland Press (hereafter cmp-scmp), no. 71–17, April 26–30, 1971, 32–34. 5. “Jen-min Jih-pao Editorial: Greeting Establishment of Diplomatic Relations 327 between China and Iran,” Xinhua, August 19, 1971, cmp-scmp-71–35, August 31–September 3, 1971, 60–61. 6. “Speech by Premier Chou En-lai at Banquet in Honor of Shahbanou of Iran Farah Pahlavi,” cmp-scmp-72–39, September 25–29, 1972, 209. 7. “Chairman Hua Kuo-feng’s Speech, (Excerpts),” Peking Review (hereafter pr), September 8, 1978, 8–9. 8. “Iran’sRafsanjaniMeetsprc Leaders,EndsTour,”Xinhua,June28,1985,Foreign Broadcast Information Service—China (hereafter fbis-chi), July 1, 1985, I-1. Rafsanjani was then speaker of the Majlis, the Islamic Consultative Assembly, the iri’s parliament. 9. “Iran’sRafsanjani,DelegationContinueprc Tour,”Xinhua,June27,1985, fbischi , June 28, 1985, I-1. 10. “PresidentKhameneiAccordedWarmWelcomeinChina,”TehranTimes(hereafter tt), May 10, 1989. 11. “Chinese President Hails Iran’s Important Role in Mid-East Peace,” tt, October 28, 1991. 12. “Iran: President Khatami Stresses Implementing Agreement with China,” Tehran Islamic Republic News Agency (hereafter irna), June 23, 2000, via Dialog, at http://wnc.dialog.com/. 13. “Xinhua Carries ‘Full Text’ of prc, Iran Joint Communiqué,” June 22, 2000, Dialog. 14. “Wu Yi Says Iran, prc to Further Develop Friendship, Cooperation Ties,” Xinhua, March 17, 2002, Dialog. 15. RouhollahK.Ramazani,Iran’sForeignPolicy,1941–1973:AStudyof ForeignPolicy in Modernizing Nations (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1975), 439. 16. Rouhollah K. Ramazani, “Iran’s Foreign Policy: Both North and South,” Middle East Journal 46, no. 3 (Summer 1993): 393–412; emphasis added. 17. “Address by Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, President of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” November 20, 1988, at Conference of Center for Persian Gulf Studies, Institute for Political and International Studies, Tehran. Translation in Middle East Journal 44, no. 3 (Summer 1990): 463. 18. Ibid., 465. 19. Zhu Jiejin, Zhongguo he yilang guanxi shigao [Draft History of China-Iran Relations] (Urumqi: Xinjiang renmin chubanshe, 1988), 2. 20. The English word magic comes via Greek and Medieval French from the Old Persian word magus (plural Magi). Magi were Zoroastrian priests, among whose several skills was sorcery. 21. EdwinG.Pulleyblank,“Chinese-IranianRelations:Pre-IslamicTimes,”inEncyclopaedia Iranica, http://www.iranica.com/articlenavigation/alphabetical/bodya.html. 22. Liu Yingsheng and Peter Jackson, “Chinese-Iranian Relations in the Mongol 328 notes to pages 10–15 Period,” and J. M. Rogers, “Chinese-Iranian Relations in the Safavid Period,” both in ibid. 23. Zhu, Zhongguo he yilang guanxi shigao, 1. 24. Ibid., 95. 25. Sen.AbbasMassoudi,China: A Land of Marvels (Tehran:IranChapPress,1973). 26. Ibid., 7. 27. Ibid., 76. 28. Ibid., 12. In an Islamic cultural context in which dogs are considered unclean...