ABSTRACT
Despite leadership changes and political turmoil, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has remained one of the most important institutions of Beijing's foreign affairs establishment. The origin of the Peoples' Republic of China's (PRC's) foreign affairs cadres' corps can be traced back to the period between 1938 and 1946 when the Chinese Communists established a representation in Nationalist-controlled Hankou and later Chongqing headed by Zhou Enlai. Factionalism in the MFA was more characteristic of the special historical period during and immediately after the Cultural Revolution. The more enduring feature of the Foreign Service corps is perhaps what is known in Western literature as the patron-client relationship. The Third Field Army (TFA) Group refers to those generals who were recruited in 1949 to serve overseas as MFA's first generation of ambassadors. A high proportion of them came from the Third Field Army under the command of Chen Yi, who in 1958 succeeded Zhou Enlai as Foreign Minister.
