China's Communist Youth League, Transnational Networks and Sino-European Interactions in the Early Cold War

Since the very early days of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), official youth organizations played a prominent role in both domestic politics and China’s outward strategy serving as a tool for the realization of the Chinese Communist Party’s goals. This chapter examines the political role of the Communist Youth League (CYL) in Mao’s China with a focus on external exchanges developed in the context of the relative peace and stability that followed the Korean War. After providing an overview of the CYL’s role and mission in the newly established PRC, the chapter delves into the analysis of the international dimension of ‘youth work’ and attempts to reconstruct the PRC’s engagement with Soviet-dependent international youth organizations. It shows that the World Federation of Democratic Youth provided the newly established PRC with precious opportunities to not only promote a peaceful and friendly image of China globally, but also to build contacts and develop exchanges with Western European representatives, allowing the development of Sino–European cultural and political dialogue at a time of intense Cold War.