China is an ancient country and the first with a centralized government that influenced political and military power throughout East Asia. However, over the centuries, China has experienced misery and humiliation from both internal and external factors such as conquest, assimilation, occupation and absorption.
Although China is geographically diverse, it’s population is not multi-ethnic as other countries are and shares an ethnic unity with over 90% of its population taking national pride in being Han. This gives China a different political value of unity as compared to western countries that are divisive and multi-racial. And, in fact, China’s state governance has not been challenged until recently for over 1000 years.
In the 18th century, Chinese products were in great demand in Europe and China followed a mercantile approach of trading Chinese goods for silver from European countries. Due to the excess of silver China had accumulated, England introduced opium to China in exchange for silver returning back to England. This introduction of opium in China was catastrophic for China in that it depleted Chinese reserves of silver and increased opium addiction over a great number of Chinese people.
In 1839, the Chinese government attempted to drive away opium merchants and destroy opium supplies; however the backlash from England, whose “commercial expansion became dependent on opium” led to the first opium war with the Chinese military defeated and Hong King ceded to Britain as part of war reparations (Freund Larus 26). China attempted to fight a second opium war with England, France and America; however they lost again and ceded many ports across China to the colonial powers. At the same time, Russia invaded and annexed to northern territories of China. All of these events humiliated the central government of the Chinese empire.
On the other hand, Japan who in 1853 were forced to open their borders, expanded multilaterally. During this time, “while China lost thirty valuable years to misuse of government authority and thousands of Chinese died in rebellions and famines, Japan largely succeeded in meeting its goals” (Freund Larus 28). In 1894-1895, Japan delivered a devastating military blow to the Chinese military and China lost influence over Korea and Taiwan. Japan was able to end “the centuries-long Sino-centric system in East Asia and allowed Japan to also annex Taiwan (1895)” (Ku, Lee and Woo 12). In 1899 the Boxer rebellion attempted to halt the colonization of China by the colonial powers; however the Chinese were once again defeated and the colonial powers occupied China.
China’s last imperial dynasty came to an end in 1912 with an internal rebellion that lead to a brief democratic republic; however, regional warlords that did not follow the centralized government caused the fledgling democracy to falter. During the Warlord era between 1916 and 1928, “the government of the Republic of China (ROC) only nominally governed China; the warlords were the true powers throughout the country” (Freund Larus 31). The lack of unification across the warlords caused the peasants of China excessive taxes and further destruction to the country.
As China looked forward from these disasters, Japan aggression invaded Manchuria and caused utter chaos in China. In 1937, the second Sino-Japanese war began when Japan invaded the rest of China and in the 1940’s the initial Communist party formed and for the first time in recent history, China was able to overcome foreign aggression and pushed Japan off of China by the end of WW2. The Japanese, “regarded their country’s involvement in China as sanctioned by economic need. They considered it their destiny to create a new order in Asia that would expel Western influence and establish a new structure based on Asian concepts of justice and humanity” (Hayes 28). Out of response for Japan’s invasion, despite the loss of many civilians, people continued to join the CCP to help fight off the Japanese. The war came to an end when the U.S. bombed Japan in 1945, but officially ended in 1946 when Japanese troops were forced to surrender. In fact, most of the 20th century China was shaped by the Communist party and policies in response to what is called the Century of Humiliation (1839-1939) where China’s military was defeated time and again and China was forced to sign unfair treaties. Thus, leading to a lack of trust with outside nations and international commitments that kept China in check and vulnerable.
In 1949, Mao Zedong announced The People’s Republic of China which would be controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. Due to the intensification of the Cold War, China was determined to revolutionize the country by building their military capacity and reconstructing their broken economy. While doing so, China didn’t want help from the Soviet Union and The U.S. was unwilling to help the country, while South Korea and Japan received aid. The Cold War helped South Korea transition into a democracy and Japan would be occupied by the U.S. during this time. U.S. occupation in Japan led to a democratization of the country and a complete demilitarization strategy that would become permanent.
In China, Mao Zedong embraced a Soviet model and introduced the Great Leap Forward plan by industrializing rural areas of agricultural China which led to the great famine of 1958-1962. Although Mao’s goal was to improve the economy, he subsequently killed millions of people due to famine and hurt the economy. In return, he was pushed out of the chairmanship of the Communist party but later retook control of the Communist party in 1966 by denouncing the current Communist party via the Cultural Revolution and held on to power until his death in 1976.
Following Mao’s death, China’s economy was in tatters and the new Chairman Deng Xiaoping began to turnaround the economy by opening up diplomatic relations with the US and the rest of the world and embraced capitalism and encouraged private business in contrast to Mao’s poorly run state enterprises. This triggered 40 years of reform that turned a developing country into a world superpower with the world’s 2nd largest economy. Socially under Deng Xiaoping, the chairman introduced the one-child policy in 1979 that would have social implications for years to come. Not only will there be an enormous gender imbalance, but China will continue to have an aging population that will eventually impact their economy.
Today, China once again leads key economic and military power in the Asia Pacific area and influences countries like Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar. Controlled by President Xi Jinping Although China is considered a communist country, the capitalist mindset has pushed China to grow their economy.
In future years, China will face problems socially, economically and politically. They will be forced to stop subsidizing businesses and compete on their own merit in order to join the free markets in the world. China will be pressured to enforce environmentally safe policies to continue production at their current rate. The country will not only have to focus on the economy in future years, but also the Chinese society. There will be big prices to pay for the urban-rural divide, the emotional instability of millions of children left behind by their parents due to the Hukou system, and the mass migration into overcrowding cities that will continue in upcoming years.