29课
One could only imagine how the Chinese must have felt at the turn of the century. Could any American imagine a scenario of the shoe being on the other foot (putting themselves in the place of the Chinese)? How would Americans have felt if Chinese gunboats patrolled the Mississippi River up to St. Louis, a major city in the heart of America? What if the Chinese could come and go anywhere in the United States, being completely immune to all American laws. Could Americans accept Chinatown in Boston of San Francisco being under Chinese law, and displaying signs with such captions as No Americans or dogs allowed? What if Manhattan Island and California were annexed by China? Would Americans tolerate their own officials being in collusion with, and being bribed by Chinese authorities, to let all of above to take place? One would think not. Is it any wonder that imperialism had become such an abominable term to the Chinese people? The Chinese have made some conscientious attempts to fight back, in efforts to defy foreign presence in China, but without much support during the slack reign of the Qing Emperor and the Dowager Empress. The Imperial family, for so long, had been extremely selfindulgent. It paid little attention to the realities of what was happening inside China. For so long, the nation's policies revolved around the whims of the Imperial Family. With reliance on its own resources, a secret society, called the Order of Literary Patriotic Harmonious Fists, made one last desperate attempt at revenge, to rid the country of foreigners. In 1900, these Boxers as they were called, stubbornly engaged the foreign powers in conflict. The former tore up railway tracks, attacked Chinese Christians, besieged foreign delegations, and eventually slaughtered over three hundred foreigners. The Americans collaborated with the Japanese, consolidated forces and easily overwhelmed the Boxers. The latter crumbled under the pressure of foreign superiority and its own deficiencies in equipment and organization. The victors placed severe controls on the crippled Chinese Government and imposed heavy indemnities of billions of dollars. The fact that the foreigners were interested, only in protecting their own interests, was abundantly clear. Aside from discriminatory immigration policy against Chinese, the U.S. had no official direct political or diplomatic relations with China until the Second World War. The United States took on a much cherished isolationist approach to world affairs following the First World War, after having established itself as a major world power. The United States did not even become a representative of the League of Nations, essentially the creation of its own then President, Woodrow Wilson. This organization was set up in 1919 to curb international conflict, which could, potentially, throw the world into a war again. The absence of this powerful nation was one of the major weaknesses of this organization and, consequently, a possible factor that actually facilitated the resumption of world conflict in 1939. The Second World War During the Second World War, the United States and China were allies against the common enemy, Japan. A coalition of the United States, British Commonwealth countries, and other allies dispatched supplies and other support to China by way of the Burma Road and by air over the hump (mountains), to close in on Japan from the rear. When war broke out in 1939, China was experiencing a civil war, the Nationalists versus the Communists. This civil war was put on hold while both the Nationalists and Communists joined forces to converge on Japan, which had, intermittently, hovered over China as a menace, or as an imperialist thorn in its side, for a good century before the war. The war brought the United States out of its splendid official isolation. Once the war was over, turbulent times continued to stalk China. The civil war picked up where it left off. The Americans lent its moral support to the Nationalists in their struggle against the Communists, whereby the United States began to formulate its Cold War policy of Containment (Containing the spread of Communism). |
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