In recent years, the government in Beijing has taken an offensive attitude in regard to the territorial claims in Asia. China has disputes in the East, South and West of the country that the pursuit of these geopolitical objectives has come at the expense of its neighbors. And even though we cannot pass everything off as Chinese expansionism, since every dispute is unique in its origin, but what may appear as aggressive posture by China can be explained by examining the country's early modern history that shaped the national mindset.
In Chinese writing, China meant the Middle Kingdom, which reflects the historical position of the country as a central power that wielded great political influence throughout the region. In a way China's influence and legacy in East Asia was not too different from ancient Rome in Europe, and as its custom with historical powers, rulers attributed their dominance to ethnic religious and cultural superiority. The same principle was true for the Emperors of the Middle Kingdom. This sino centric perception of the world continued well into the early modern age. The refusal to recognize the changing geopolitical landscape was eventually met with misery and humiliation. In the 18th century, Chinese commodities enjoyed great demand in Europe, both continents prospered in trade. However, since the Qing government mandated that goods could only be traded in exchange for silver a large portion of the British silver reserve flew into China. To rectify the trade deficit,The British East India Company introduced opium nowadays known as heroin to Chinese consumers in exchange for silver. The idea was to redirect the flow of precious materials back to the British and for officials in London. The policy worked. However, over the course of the century, the influx of opium dramatically increased from an annual 200 chests in 1790 to 40,000 chests by 1838 with each chest accounted for 63 kilograms of opium. The Series of Unfortunate Events proved to be catastrophic for China. Not only was the Treasury drained and silver was in short supply, but the number of opium addicts have greatly increased. with too many people simply loafing around industrial output decreased considerably .By 1839 Emperor Daoguang had enough He prohibited the trade of opium and directed his agents to drive away the foreign merchants that imported the narcotic, which resulted in the removal and destruction of tons of opium. At the time, it seemed like a straightforward solution. However, the emperor's plan backfired, as it caused a political uproar in London, where upon Britain responded by sending its navy to China and demanded compensation for the loss of goods. In the ensuing conflict. Now known as the Opium War, the Chinese navy was decisively defeated, and Hong Kong Island was ceded to the British Empire. What's more, is that the import of opium actually skyrocketed to an annual 70,000 chests. To put this in perspective. In the mid 19th century, China's import of opium was equal to the global production of the drug between 2002 1010 .
As the mighty Chinese realm was humiliated by merrily 44 armed British ships, other powers sought to exploit the circumstances as well. In the subsequent second Opium War, the British, the French, and the Americans gained a dozen additional trading ports that allowed them unrestricted access throughout all of China. Furthermore, Christianity, along with opium was legalized. Meanwhile, Russia annexed the northeastern territories of China, which is present day Vladivostok and Sakhalin island in a remarkably short span of time, European nations which were once perceived as distant visitors had carved up a regional coalition in Asia and now threatened to subjugate the Middle Kingdom. The unfavorable terms of surrender were a painful embarrassment for the ruling elite of China. By 1887. Additional concessions were made, the Qin government ceded the port city of Macau for perpetual occupation by Portugal. Furthermore, in the same year, the Yellow River flood claimed the lives of roughly 900,000 people, while an additional 2 million were left homeless as famine and Pandemic spread across the land and for the encroachment closed in China experienced a period of severe social unrest in 1894 and 1895. The Qing dynasty lost influence over the Korean peninsula and the island of Taiwan, Japanese force of 240,000 troops dealt the 650,000 strong Chinese army a devastating blow .By the end of the Chinese Japanese war, the former seated Korea and Taiwan in perpetuity. Eventually in 1899, the situation reached its peak, a group of civilians formed the boxer militia, and sought to end the colonization of China and halt the spread of Christianity, that latter became analogous to foreign presence .Empress cixi watched as the militia converged to Beijing in support of her. Feeling emboldened and eager to demonstrate her resolve, She took her weight behind the boxer militia and declared war on the United Kingdom, Russia, France, Japan, Germany, Austria, Netherlands Italy, and the United States, all of which threatened the Chinese dynasties control of the realm. However, the emphasis measures fell short. The nine nations responded in kind, and deployed an army of 20,000 troops on the outskirts of the Chinese capital. Of the sophisticated militaries swiftly defeated the Chinese Imperial Army as well as the boxer rebels in 1801. The final result was dramatic. Major cities such as Tianjin and Beijing were occupied and pillaged for over a year. The atrocities that were committed against the local population were exceptionally ruthless. The turn of events transpired so rapidly that it exceeded the grasp of the ruling dynasty. Then in 1911, the final Imperial dynasty of China was overthrown in a revolution, the emperor was forced to abdicate power and the country transformed to a democratic republic. There was a brief moment of optimism when Sun-Yat Sen was declared the president of the New Republic. However, contrary to popular expectations, over the next 30 years, China experienced mass unrest from within regional warlords rose up in arms and undermine the authority of the central government. Sun who led the ruling party, the Kuomintang, managed to unify the minor revolutionary groups into a single coalition, who shared the same ideals and this included the Communist Party.
When Sun passed away in 1925, the alliance between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party fell apart and the vicious civil war broke out. As China focused in words, Russian and Japanese forces violated China's sovereignty by invading the Manchuria region in the 1930s. In the same period, a series of floods occurred in China, which left a devastating death toll of nearly 4 million people, China in a sense was in utter chaos. By 1934, the Communist Party and its leader Mao Zedong, were nearly defeated and forced to retreat east. However, for much of the time the Kuomintang had tried to crush the communists. A large portion of the country was left unattended. Then in 1937, Japan invaded the remainder of China . The Kuomintang suffered defeat after defeat. In the city of Nanking, Japanese forces abused and killed up to 300,000 soldiers and citizens, the atrocities became known as the Nanking massacre, and marked a turning point and the relations between Beijing and Tokyo. By the 1940s. The circumstances had reversed the Communist Party led by Mao took advantage of the economic disparity between the wealthy coastal cities and the poor eastern provinces, he recruited peasants to fill the ranks of the army and set March for the coastline. For the first time. In a long time, a Chinese military force was able to successfully stand up to foreign aggression. Eventually, the Communist Party drove the Japanese as well as the Kuomintang the mainland of China. The leaders of the Kuomintang left with approximately 2 million people to the island of Taiwan, where they still maintain the Republic of China. Meanwhile, in the mainland of Asia, Mao declared the People's Republic of China, but so entangled his country in the Korean War. In 1958, Mao introduced the Great Leap Forward policy, which sought to restructure the economy by industrializing the rural areas of China as such, all private farms were confiscated and placed under the care of the government. Millions of people were relocated from the agricultural sector to work in various factories, officials of the Communist Party who were under pressure to perform exchanged crops for heavy machinery from the Soviet Union, and overstated the production output. The ultimate result was a widespread famine that lasted from 1959 to 1961 and claimed the lives of roughly 55 million people. The failure of the Great Leap Forward resulted in a steady economic decline that lasted more than 20 years. As Mao's leadership abilities were called into question, he was marginalized from the ruling elite and practically stepped down as the stage chairman of the People's Republic of China. Mao still remained the official and symbolic leader but he took a backseat in the government. True power lay with the general secretary Deng Xiaoping , who set out to rectify the failures of the Great Leap Forward policy. In 1966, Mao mounted a political comeback and sought to retake control from the political elite. He believed that in order to eliminate his rivals within the Communist Party, he had to introduce a state of perpetual revolution. In this framework, Mao launched the Cultural Revolution. The chairman galvanized the lower class of the society, which included frustrated students, farmers, soldiers, workers and more and advocated them to denounce and challenge the authorities. paramilitary movement known as the Red Guards mobilized throughout the country and targeted anything that was traditional, such as buildings and artifacts, but they also subjected teachers, employers and intellectuals to humiliation and violence. Millions more were effectively exiled to the remote areas of China for "Re- education" purposes. Consolidation of power under the guise of the Cultural Revolution worked, he retained full control of the state and party until his death in 1976. However, the legacy of his decisions are still felt to this day. It took two succeeding rulers decades to undo his work, although for most of the 20th century China has been shaped and designed according to the will of the communist government, in terms of the perception of the Communist Party is rooted in the post Opium War era, which is recognized as the century of humiliation as such, the timeframe between 1839 and 1939 played a fundamental role in shaping the modern geopolitical mindset of China. In fact, in modern times, Beijing counts 21 agreements that were signed during the century of humiliation as the unfair treaties.Hardened by the pas,t for China, there is no valid reason to trust outside forces or international commitments. In fact, the majority of policymakers in Beijing believe that international law is merely an instrument to keep China in check and vulnerable. Most of the Chinese decision making body adheres to the idea that their country was defeated because of its defensive geopolitical orientation. And so to overcome this, Beijing has come to the belief that it must become more like the West and take a militarily aggressive posture in regard to geopolitical objectives. Thus, in a way, China seeks to emulate the Monroe Doctrine by establishing exclusive control in the eastern hemisphere, and thereby return the country to the forefront of the world.
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