2016年CRI Dr. Ma Haide, First Foreigner Obtaining Chinese Citizenship

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In the 1937 bestseller "Red Star Over China", American journalist and author Edgar Snow introduced the Communist Party of China to the world. Snow painted a vivid description of the Long March as well as biographical accounts of leaders

including Zhou Enlai, Peng Dehuai, Lin Biao, He Long and Mao Zedong. With the leaders was an anonymous¹ western-trained doctor who had examined Mao and dispelled² the rumors³ that he was dying of diseases. He was George Hatem, later

determined⁴ to be called Ma Haide, and is better known by his Chinese name.

Former president of Yan'an City Writers' Association, Bai Li(白黎), is the first few people to discover this secret when he worked as a reporter.

"Once, I went to Beijing to interview He Qinghua, who was Chairman Mao's bodyguard⁵. I asked him, 'Do you know the chairman's doctor in Yan'an?' And he said, 'that was Dr. Ma Haide.'"

But how did a foreign-educated doctor came to be here? And how did he become a confidant of one of the leaders of the Communist Party?

Born in Buffalo⁶, New York on September 26, 1910, Shafick George Hatem was the oldest son of Lebanese immigrants. Despite his family's poverty, Hatem's bright mind and optimistic though sometimes rebellious⁷ spirit won him recognition as a

superior student.

He attended pre-med classes at the University of North Carolina and medicine at the American University in Beirut and the University of Geneva. According to Hatem's widow Zhou Sufei, it was at Geneva where he became fascinated with

China.

"After his graduation from medical school in Geneva, he and his two friends planned to come to China because an article they read had said Shanghai is a playground for explorers. He thought this 'playground' must be exciting."

Former Vice-president of the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, Lin Qing, has a different opinion as to why Hatem landed in China.

"From 1929-1933, the United States was in a state of economic depression. This has also affected⁸ other capitalist countries. On the other hand, in the Soviet⁹ Union, the condition was better. They completed their five-year plan in four

years. At the time, many came to China to pursue socialist¹⁰ or communist ideals."

Whether it was in pursuit of idealism or on an impulse, 23-year-old George Hatem arrived in Shanghai on September 5, 1933. He set up a medical practice and delivered medical care to the needy¹¹.

As he came to know Shanghai and its inequalities, he also came to know three people who shaped the ideas he used to interpret what he saw: the well-known journalist, Agnes Smedley, the New Zealand activist¹² Rewi Alley¹³, and the presiding

figure among left-wing sympathizers, Soong Ching-ling, the widow of Sun Yat-sen.

By 1936, disgusted by the corruption¹⁴ of Shanghai and alarmed by the world drift towards fascism, he decided¹⁵ that he would either go to Spain to support the Republican government or join the communist movement in Northeast China.

According to close friend Sydney Shapiro and Hatem's wife, a letter from Mao Zedong helped Hatem make up his mind.

"At that time, Yan'an, the headquarters for the Communist Party, was surrounded. So Chairman Mao wrote to Soong Ching-ling requesting two Americans – a journalist and a doctor."

"For the journalist, she suggested Edgar Snow. For the doctor, the first name that came to mind was Ma Haide."

In the summer of 1936, the two Americans travelled to Bao'an, the then temporary capital of the Communist-controlled Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Region. After three months, while Snow left to write his best-seller, Hatem's wife said he decided

to stay.

"He was assigned by Chairman Mao to survey the medical conditions of his troops. In reality, there was only one doctor who had medical training. The conditions were very poor. He found that the army was desperately¹⁶ in need of doctors."

In 1937, George Hatem changed his name to Ma Haide and became the first foreigner to join the Communist Party of China.

That year also marked the start of the War Against Japanese Aggression¹⁷. Dr. Ma sent requests to Soong Ching-ling, Agnes Smedley and other notables to organize recruitment of foreign medical personnel for the troops.

Ma Haide remained a doctor with the troops until the establishment of People's Republic of China in 1949. Afterwards, he became a public health official. He was the first foreigner granted citizenship¹⁸ in 1950. However, his medical

efforts were also recognized internationally when he received the Lasker Medical award in 1986.

He passed away in 1988 at the age of 78 and was buried at the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery¹⁹.