The Chinese nationalists led by Sun Yat-sen shared with Zionists a commitment to national political and cultural renewal and the creation of a sovereign democratic nation-state. While historians have long known of Sun’s sympathy for Zionism, and even of a letter he wrote to a leading Chinese Zionist, the original document was long thought to be lost. But it was recently rediscovered in the collection of the National Library of Israel. Jessica Steinberg reports:
Sun was the first provisional president of the Republic of China, established in 1912 following the fall of the last imperial dynasty, prior to the Chinese Civil War and Communist Revolution.
In the letter, Sun said: “All lovers of democracy cannot help but support wholeheartedly, and welcome with enthusiasm, the movement to restore your wonderful and historic nation.” The letter’s recipient, N.E.B. Ezra, was a Jewish scholar, writer, publisher and activist who lived most of his life in Shanghai and was born in Lahore (modern-day Pakistan). In addition to founding the Shanghai Zionist Association, he edited its mouthpiece, Israel’s Messenger, for decades.
Sun and other members of the Chinese leadership had warm relations with local and international Jewish communities and figures, many of them cultivated during years of exile prior to the ultimate fall of the Qing dynasty. Their support of the Zionist movement stemmed from both ideological and practical considerations.
Read more on Times of Israel: https://www.timesofisrael.com/chinas-century-old-support-for-zionism-surfaces-in-letter/