13.2.5, 2.6: summary:
. free-trade Globalists have 2 main threats:grudges from the Chinese, N.Korea, communists, ...
over who controls global capital's culture;
and, rivalries from the Islamic empire
over who controls global social's culture .
. if the USA-europe-Israel-India alliance
ever massively attacks one of these threats
they will likely have to face the other;
because, both Iran and China, when 3rd worlds,
had be quite abused by USA-european imperialism .
. Nostradamus . WWIII .
. Obama's intentions are good but not heeded,
the Navy acts headlessly to offend Iran;
then the Eastern powers intervene .
. if USA tries to protect Taiwan,
that could be an act of war on communism;
such a war might involve WMD's
(weapons of mass destruction);
because China could feel confident
that USA would never nuke China
since the insiders that actually
control USA's use of WMD's
have all their assets there in China,
and would never waste their own capital .
summary/background:
. the Chinese Han owned nice southern properties;while the Manchu were left with North icelands
and they would invade in lean times;
so, the Han built the Great Wall
to keep them out the "barbarians" .
. the Han ruled by the feudal system
which was a sort of capitalism
where the only capital was farm land,
and workers had limited human rights .
. in good times labor was treated well,
and they were happy working like children;
but, in hard times when only the lords ate,
the labor class rises against the lordship .
. In 1644, when labor was pushing hard,
the Han rulers were about to be toppled
so, they turned to their northern enemies,
and agreed to give them power
if only they could preserve the feudal system
and prevent communism (rule by the labor class).
. so now the Manchu rule over the Han,
but at least labor doesn't rule over capital .
. in the 1770s,
European imperialism comes to east Asia:
they conquered India and Burma,
and funded it by growing opium there
with the intention of selling it to Chinese
in a smokable form that is very addictive
(while giving their own people
only the drinkable tincture form).
. the Manchu rulers had 3 choices:
# ignore the moral majority,
and actively endorse opium use;
# pay for police to limit abuse;
# ban the importing of opium .
. they chose a ban, and this meant war;
that turned down the economy,
and turned up the heat on labor,
which rekindled the communist dream .
summary/Taiping Rebellion:
. now the communists took a new tact:# nationalism: . only Han should rule over Han,
foreigners should be dethrowned .
# christianity: . true christianity means equality;
therefore, property should be shared
(and, of course, profits should be shared,
even in times of famine! )
. that was the crux of the
Taiping Rebellion (1851-64):
nationalistic (anti-racist)* communism
with mormon-style** christianity .
*:
. nationalism is equated with racism,
but these nationalists were anti-racist:
against being ruled by racist foreigners
(the foreigners who used racist policies
in order to maintain their own power).
**:
. Mormon's are a distinct Christianity;
because, their founder claimed to have
found another New Testament bible
that proved Jesus Christ's visit to USA,
and inspired a unique culture
that was said to be Christ's own will .
. the Taiping Rebellion was inspired by
Hong Xiuquan, who after a fever,
was convinced that he was a
Younger Brother of Jesus Christ,
the rebel for social change .
. he fought for better treatment of
women and for the labor class .
. while Xiuquan Christianity's main message
was about promoting universal equality,
true christianity, too, is about equality:
Jews believed that the key to perfect luck
was in following g-d's commandments;
but then Jews of Christ's day were saying
any family struck with misfortune
(such as disability or mental illness)
must have been punished by g-d;
therefore they are not to be allowed
to enter the community center
where all good Jews worship g-d .
. this is where Christ's healings came from:
it was a conspiracy among pretenders
and the mentally ill (it's all in your head)
to expose the Jewish clergy's lies:
how can this disability be the will of g-d,
when this simple Rabbi can heal them ?
. they promptly hung him with the criminals
and the world was set on fire .
. so,
how is Xiuquan Christianity mormon-like?
other christians don't agree on their details:
# you found more word from Jesus?
you didn't write that yourself?
# you are the younger brother of Jesus?
I didn't know he had a younger brother!
. but Younger Brother is a symbolic phrase,
just as "Son of" means apprentice or servant of,
"Younger Brothers" are emulating an Elder Brother .
. however,
Xiuquan Christianity was indeed
following the traditional christianity,
in that the use of force was seen as justified
to best serve the will of Jesus Christ .
. he was also more Christ-like
than European Crusaders
in that he fought only his own leadership,
rather than invade other countries .
--
. the most Christ-like position
would be to avoid the use of force,
seeking instead to serve as an example,
"our way is the path to wealth",
offering wealth in exchange for obedience;
this is why wealth is Christian:
without force, wealth is your only tool .
. it is also why most of Christianity
is practically the anti-christ:
by breeding poverty,
they are the source of Satan's finest .
(then again, from darkness comes light:
lucifer, the morning star,
causes war only for evolving technology
that we will need for physical eternity).
. the Manchu represented economic slavery;
the European smokable opium pushers were
moral slavers, the snakes of FreeTrade .
. if only FreeTrade had not helped the Manchu,
China might be Christian today!
but not to despair:
. Western Christianity turned out to be
one impoverishing hyperbreeder:
trying to save the fetus,
and spread the news by Crusading,
by out-populating the pagans,
they are no different than godless free love,
turning every city into slumming war zones
filled with child neglect and abuse
-- smart move, one-child China!
12.12.20: intro:
1850 to 1864, Taiping_Rebellion:. China's collosal civil war
happened near the same time as USA's;
and, both were throwing off a slavery system .
. 20th century, Sun Yat-sen,
founder of the Chinese Nationalist Party,
looked on the rebellion as an inspiration,
and Chinese leader Mao Zedong
glorified the Taiping rebels
as early heroic revolutionaries
against an enslaving feudal system.
The rebels believed in communalism
(shared "property in common")
and encouraged a Mormon-style Christianity
in place of the existing Chinese folk religion
and the cultures of Confucianism & Buddhism .
. they were communal christian totalitarians
fighting an opium-addicting globalized capitalism .
was first seen here:[13.2.5: edited]
. in Revelation 9:16 and 16:12:
a vast army of 200 million soldiers,
kings from the East .
...:
The [expected] confederacy in this age,
which looks very much like
the KINGS OF THE EAST (16:12),
is the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation.
We wonder about hidden plans for
Asia, South East Asia and Australasia?
Maybe some for the US?
Could the equipment for 200 million soldiers
already be manufactured?
...:
why China is concerned about this [2012 fever]
is due to the Taiping Rebellion,
the costliest civil war in human history .
...:
There were many rebellions in China
against the Manchurian rule.
Manchurians were considered to be
in the same category as the Mongolians:
both were barbarians (literally, "foreigners");
their invasions into China were the reason
the Great Wall was built .
Americans, Europeans conveniently ban and censor
that crucial fact about history because
they are still by and large censoring
any accurate rendition of Chinese history
in the western psyche,
to whitewash how the bulk of wealth
garnished in Europe and America in the 1800s
and all the way until the end of WWII,
was from the pushing of [smokable] Opium
illegally into China,
by the use of military power
to enable, support, and sustain
the forced drug trade into China.
There are a few who chronicled the
size of wealth looted from Asia,
before which, America and Europe
were not any richer than China.
In fact, Europe was held back for centuries
by its own constant fighting among
principalities, countries and empires .
...:
. it most certainly did occur against
the backdrop of the Manchu's failing to
successfully address the opium problems
which Europeans forced upon them.
[. being subjugated by a racist elite,
and addiction-pushing foreigners
should have raised some Christian eyebrows,
and it did: ]
Hong Xiuquan, the leader of the Taiping Rebellion,
considered himself [a follower] of Jesus Christ,
and the Taiping Rebellion was organized by
[followers of this Mormon-style christianity .]
13.2.4 ... 2.6: web: what exactly happened?:
Chinese History Chart:
Qing Dynasty (1644-1912) (Manchu rulers)Under Kang Xi and Qian Long Emperors,
Chinese Empire reached its greatest extent.
1840-42:
The First Opium War forced China to
accept Opium from British merchants.
Later treaties opened many ports to Western powers.
1850-1864: Taiping Rebellion
1894: Japan defeated Chinese navy
1900: Boxer Rebellion
1908: Ci Xi and Guang Xu Emperor died
1911: Manchu rulers overthrown
who the Taiping Rebellion targeted:
The last dynasty of China was led byan elite of Manchu foreigners from northern China,
. how did the Manchu people manage to
subjugate China for 250 years?
The fact that they were foreigners
[ barbarian = Greek`barbaros: foreign ],
few in number (about 120,000),
and that the Great Wall had been built
exactly to prevent any contact with them
must have made being ruled by them
all the more humiliating to the Hans.
Numbering fewer than a quarter of a million,
the Manchus conquered the Chinese empire,
establishing the Qing dynasty in 1644.
The Manchus' were a racial mixture of
Jurchen, Mongolian, Han Chinese and Korean;
but what set them apart was their culture
(a required uniform was having hair in a braid).
. Manchus prided themselves on their
horsemanship and archery,
the foundations of their culture
and the reason for their military strength.
Bannermen:
[13.2.5:. the basic unit of society is tribal,
where community often seems like family;
to fend off invasions by foreigners,
we need to form states or nations,
another term for a military-oriented nation
is a banner .]
Most Manchu men aged between 15 and 60
served in the army under some banner .
The bannerman had, on the surface,
a slave-master style relationship with his ruler
(as opposed to the Confucian
son/father model of the Hans);
[ but, soldier and unit do need each other,
and the rulers kept that in mind .]
They had the strengths of discipline, unity,
military readiness and brilliant strategy,
but the decline of the Han's Ming dynasty
was just as important to their success.
The Ming's glory had diminished to near collapse
in the space of a few decades,
and in the early 1600's,
the dynasty faced political in-fighting,
threats from foreigners on all sides,
rebellion throughout the country,
and low levels of morale in the military.
In 1644,
the Manchus took advantage of the rebellion
and, forming an alliance with a
Ming loyalist general,
they entered Beijing in June
and almost immediately took power for themselves.
[13.2.5:
. the "foreigners" were assisted
by a "loyalist"?
apparently what is going on here
is that when times are easy,
the labor class is happy being enslaved;
but, in hard times when only the lords eat,
then the labor class rises against lordship .
. a "loyalist" would be loyal to feudalism,
which was a sort of capitalism
where the only capital was farm land .
. a feudal loyalist faced with a communist mob
would get help from the foreigners
in exchange for maintaining feudalism
and keeping out communism .]
. the Manchus cleverly consolidated their power
by preserving the status quo of land ownership ...
[13.2.5: ah yes,
that is why they were invited:
to preserve the slaving feudal system .]
. perhaps more importantly [later],
the Manchus maintained their power by
winning over the scholar/official class.
In fact Han culture did well under the Manchus,
as the emperors came to appreciate
Han Chinese learning and arts .
. they continued to expand
well into the next century,
engulfing also Xinjiang and Taiwan .
While eager to learn Han culture,
the Manchus maintained control
as a society within a society.
In every government department
Manchus were in a superior position
working alongside Han officials.
. and alongside every Han city
was a resented Manchu police station,
taxing the people to oppress them .
Marriage between Manchus and Hans was forbidden,
and the Han were obliged to adopt Manchu dress
and wear the pigtail as a sign of their subjugation.
Manchu women were perhaps less oppressed
than their Han counterparts.
Female children were not despised,
and did not have their feet bound
-- one of the things that perpetuated
Han contempt for the 'barbarian' Manchus.
The Manchus, like the Hans,
prized chaste widowhood,
although the suicide of loyal widows
was strongly disapproved of.
. in the 1700's to 1800's,
economic situation went into a serious decline;
rebel movements sprang up,
that aroused Han nationalist feelings.
Secret societies were dedicated to
getting rid of the foreign rulers
and restoring a Han Chinese dynasty.
1851-64:
That situation resulted in the Taiping Rebellion .
The feeling among the Han Chinese was that
the interests of the European imperialists
and the Manchus were the same;
[13.2.5: ie,
the bows of the Manchu were fiercely out-powered
by the guns of the Europeans;
yet their idea of controling the
smokable opium addiction
was to start a war with the Europeans,
throwing the Han -- and their economy --
into a hopeless morass of bloodletting .
todo:
. further study might find that the Manchu
were a victim of their own success:
they had so stabilized the economy
that the Han numbers swelled;
and, even without a drought,
the economy could have been brought down
by overpopulation .]
Imperialist free trade of smokable opium:
. in the 1770s, when England conquered India and Burma.Britain needed large sums of money to
colonise these two vast tracts of land,
and smokable opium was the answer.
Taxes levied on the product
brought in the much needed revenue
while Britain's merchant ships carried it to the
most convenient market: China.
where were British christians? not smoking!
It may seem surprisingthat the British conscience was not stirred
by the Chinese opium problem.
To understand why the anti-opium campaigners
(High Church moralists, Chartists,
and the newly established Temperance Society)
were so ineffectual,
it is necessary to look briefly at the role of opium
in English society at that time.
In the West in the mid-18th century,
opium and heroin were considered
relatively safe drugs,
and openly available for self-medication.
It was quite normal and fashionable
to use heroin as a cough mixture;
It was, however, usually ingested as
tincture of opium (laudanum),
neither heroin nor opium were ever smoked,
[and likely not available in smokable form .]
. laudanum was used as a sleeping tonic
-- many even sedated their infants with it!
in the 1830s,
The almost universal medical opinion
was that opiates themselves
produced no toxic effects
and that addiction was not a
physically damaging condition.
The China lobby in London was of course
well aware of the harmful effects of
opium smoking in China,
and did its best to conceal this
from the British public
(also hidden was the fact that the traders had
handed out free samples to induce addiction).
Since the British did not have an opium problem,
the distant and unapproachable Chinese
could not, therefore, have one either.
It was consequently powerful economic interests,
not moral considerations,
that influenced the debate on opium and war.
also,
many in Britain took the view that
it was all to do with the East India Company
and not the government.
People could conveniently hide behind
this purely 'commercial' arrangement.
The 'Canton system' and the opium trade:
It is often said that the 'Opium War'was not fought over opium
but in the name of free trade,
as well as diplomatic and judicial equality .
Since the 1700's,
the Chinese government had imposed
severe restrictions on foreign trade,
and foreigners were regarded with
both suspicion and contempt .
At Guangzhou (Canton),
which was the only port open to foreign commerce,
the exclusive right to deal with Westerners
was held by a group of licensed merchants
known as the Co-hong.
On the British side,
the East India Company (E.I.C)
under a charter from the Crown,
likewise had a monopoly
of trade with India and China.
The E.I.C. purchased silks and tea from the Chinese
but had little to offer in return except silver.
Two developments in the 1830s
undermined this relatively stable 'Canton system':
the significant expansion of opium smuggling
and the rise of free-trade imperialism.
Opium poppy cultivation had long been
established in India
and had provided an important source of
revenue to the Moghul Emperors.
In 1761 the E.I.C. obtained a monopoly
over the opium production of British India,
and soon afterwards the drug began to be shipped to China
as part of the Company's triangular trade
between India, Guangzhou and Britain.
Since the Chinese government had
repeatedly banned opium smoking,
the E.I.C. preferred to sell to
licensed private firms
at annual auctions in Calcutta
so as not to jeopardise its legal trade in tea.
The 'country traders' shipped the drug
in heavily armed opium clippers
to fortified receiving ships permanently stationed
off the coast of southern China.
[. like Taiwan ? .]
From these floating warehouses
the illicit cargoes were transferred to
multi-oared 'fast crabs' and 'scrambling dragons',
crewed by Chinese pirates
who took the opium to shoreside depots
where bribed officials permitted the drug
to be unloaded for distribution
along extensive smuggling networks
run by gangsters and Triads.
The opium traffic was of considerable
economic importance to the British.
The profits from the E.I.C.'s auctions
contributed significantly to the
revenue of the government of British India,
to the British government itself
via tax on imported tea from China,
and of course to the traders themselves.
From the 1820s onwards
British trade with China was in surplus,
as the huge outflow of silver used to buy opium
greatly exceeded the money the traders paid
for Chinese tea.
In 1834
the E.I.C. monopoly of trade with China ended
and all mercantile activities were
now in the hands of more aggressive private firms
(British, Parsee*, and American),
Jardine Matheson & Co being the most important.
This was in line with the laissez-faire thinking
that underlay the Industrial Revolution
and the general expansion of British commerce.
*:
Parsee is an adherent of Zoroastrianism,
esp. a descendant of those Zoroastrians who fled to India
from Muslim persecution in Persia
during the 7th–8th centuries.
. to the private merchants at Guangzhou,
as well as the industrial capitalists back home,
China was viewed as a vast potential market
with boundless economic opportunities,
if only the Chinese government were to remove
their deliberate obstructions.
Commissioner Lin's opium suppression:
. the Emperor Dao guang (1821-1850)ordered that Guangdong (Canton),
the only port then open to foreigners,
be closed to all opium traffic.
But British captains evaded the edict
by smuggling opium into China
with the help of local pirates.
. by 1838, Opium became so widespread
that officials in Guangdong and Fujian
were notifying the Imperial government
that 90% of their people were addicts.
. so, the increasing influx of opium
in defiance of all Chinese prohibitions,
naturally alarmed the Manchu leadership .
. in late 1838,
Lin Zexu heads their drug enforcement agency
to deal with opium problem in Guangzhou.
detaining foreigners in their warehouses
and confiscating their wares .
In due course he had over 21,000 chests,
worth some 6 million silver dollars,
destroyed in public as evidence of
the government's firm intentions.
At the same time,
Lin wanted the foreigners to sign a bond
agreeing to cease the drug trade on pain of death,
but rather than submit to Chinese justice
the British traders abandoned Guangzhou.
Lin retaliated by stopping all foreign trade
while instructing his naval patrols to
prevent Westerners acquiring food and water.
On 4th September 1839
the British responded with fire .
On 3rd November another, more serious clash
occurred near the Bogue forts
at the mouth of the Pearl River.
Lin wrote in his Journal:
[. wishing Queen Victoria could hear this:]... so long as you
do not take it (opium) yourselves,
but continue to make it
and tempt the people of China to buy it,
you will be showing yourselves careful of your own lives,
but careless of the lives of other people,
indifferent in your greed for gain
to the harm you do to others:
such conduct is repugnant to human feelings ...
the Opium War officially begins:
. it was called the Opium War by the Chinese,an epithet bitterly resented by the British,
who piously maintained that the war's purpose
was to teach the Chinese a lesson in free trade.
Just what kind of trade was meant
was obvious from the swarm of opium boats
which followed the Royal Navy upstream to Nanjing,
where the Qing Dynasty was forced to sign a treaty
opening China to trade.
1839, London's decision for war:
When news of the crisis reached Londonrepresentatives of the British opium traders
lobbied for coercive measures against the Qing government.
They were supported by industrial capitalists
who wanted to open the China market to their products.
The Whig government was, indeed,
receptive to a more forceful China policy.
Lin's blockade of factories and the confiscation of opium
was the pretext for settling
the commercial and diplomatic relations with China
on Britain's terms.
Thus, on 1st October 1839
the Cabinet decided to send out a punitive expedition.
In the mid-1800's, Britain was starting to
think of itself as an Empire
rather than just an international hub of
ever-burgeoning free trade.
Up until the governments of Disraeli,
Britain was a somewhat reluctant military power.
If China was to follow the model of India
then great fortunes were there to be made.
Others saw it differently.
None less than William Gladstone was
'in dread of the judgement of God upon England
for our national iniquity towards China'.
In one of his first great Commons speeches (1840)
he spoke passionately against the enterprise:
“I do not know how it can be
urged as a crime against the Chinese
that they refused obedience to their laws
whilst residing in their own country.
I am not competent to judge
how long this [opium] war may last,
nor how protracted may be its operations,
but this I can say,
that a war more unjust in its origin,
a war more calculated in its progress to
cover this country with disgrace,
I do not know and I have not heard of.”
The military campaigns 1840-1842
on 20th January 1841,the draft Chuanbi convention
was finally concluded;
The Qing negotiators promised several things:
# an indemnity of 6 million silver dollars
for the confiscated opium,
# to reopen Guangzhou,
# to cede Hong Kong Island
(Zhoushan to be evacuated by the British),
# to grant the right to communicate
directly with the Chinese officials in Guangzhou.
However, in late May 1841,
the subsequent repudiation of the agreement
by both governments
caused the resumption of armed conflict,
culminating in the full-scale attack on Guangzhou .
In desperation,
the local Qing officials signed the
convention of 27th May 1841,
agreeing to 'ransom' the city
for 6 million silver dollars.
With the arrival of reinforcements from Britain
in the summer of 1842
the British were in a position to
launch their final campaign
into the heart of mainland China.
Zhoushan Island was reoccupied
as well as a number of coastal cities.
When Nanjing itself was threatened
the Qing government decided to sue for peace.
The British victory was due in the main
to superior technology:
they had better ships, artillery, rifles,
and better tactics; in particular,
the shallow draught iron paddle-steamer Nemesis .
history brief:
1840-42: The First Opium War1850: Taiping Rebellion begins
(inspired by Hong Xiuquan's christianity)
1856-60: second Opium War begins
-- free trade & smokable opium addiction wins .
1864, Gordon's end to Taiping Rebellion:
Hong Xiuquan, a humble schoolteacher,lived in the city of Guangzhou
(also known as Canton or Kwangchow
— the capital of Guangdong,
a southern province of China),
. after a probable dose of smallpox
he hallucinated from the fever,
received a mystical experience,
and thereafter referred to himself as
Jesus Christ's Younger Brother
[ a devoted disciple of Equality4All ].
. he attempted to implement Christ's will by:
# better treatment for all: forbidding the use of smokable opium .
# better treatment for women: forbidding foot-binding, and prostitution .
# better treatment for workers: overthrow the feudal system
(dethrone the landlords),
and institute communism;
defy the elite's required uniform:
forbid the wearing of the queue,
(a braid of hair worn at the back).
. the masses were attracted by communism .
after eleven years, and 20 million casualties,
most of southern China was in his control
from the Taiping capital at Nanjing.
This was one of the bloodiest Civil Wars
in human history .
At one point it looked as if
christian Equality4all might win.
To the Western powers,
this provided something of a quandary.
Here was a 'Christian' movement
that already controlled southern China,
should they support it?
Alternatively should they support
the faltering Qing dynasty
that they knew would accede to any demand
given sufficient pressure?
It was not a clear-cut decision.
Western mercenaries were employed on both sides.
It was in 1860,
the tail end of the 2nd Opium War,
that Captain Gordon at the age of 27
first set foot in China.
A driven man, who like Hong Xiuquan,
had had a religious experience
that gave him an unbending Christian duty
to all less fortunate than himself.
In 1863, General Charles Edward Gordon
fought against anti-opium christians:
. China was embroiled with the
Taiping rebellion (1850-1864).
a strange mixture of peasant revolt
[ a communist uprising ]
nationalist feeling against Manchu rule
and [mormon-style] Christianity .
. the rebel leader sent a curious message
to his fellow Christian [Gordeon]
“Foreign younger brother from the Western Sea,
heed my royal proclamation:
Let us together serve God
and our Elder Brother [Jesus]
and destroy the hateful insects [Qing empire].
All that happens on Earth
is controlled by God,
our Elder Brother, and myself.
My brother, join us joyfully,
and earn incalculable rewards.”
. the invitation was not taken up
[by Gordon, the FreeTrade port defender]
It was as an opportunity for diplomacy
that might have led to a very different
course of history.
[13.2.6: indeed!
imagine a christian communism in China:
would it find a clean, moral way
to control population growth?
or would they wallow in poverty,
like the other Younger Brothers ? ]
Shanghai was a flourishing port
now open to foreigners,
by 1852 it handled at least half
of the trade between Britain and China.
The Taipings sought to capture it.
[. what would they do with it?
they had no use for smokable opium! ]
. Shanghai was receiving a deluge of refugees
from the areas controlled by the Taiping.
Hong's land reforms were not working,
he had been unable to deliver his promises
and the ordinary people had turned against him.
[13.2.6:
. interesting what 11 years of war will do!
. stay tuned, though:
Taiping was basically fighting for communism
and as we all know,
communism won over China;
in fact, one-child communism will be
the source of Chinese supremacy .
. if they can hold onto population control,
they will become a roaring tiger,
the wealthiest power on earth .]
1842, The Treaty of Nanjing:
. Hong Kong Island became a British possessionas a direct result of the Opium War,
starting around 1847 .
All Chinese, regardless of political ideology,
have condemned this armed confrontation
as an unjust and immoral contest.
As far as they are concerned,
Britian's waging a war for the sake of
selling a poisonous form of a "harmless" drug
constitutes the most shameful leaf of human history.
In the hindsight provided by
subsequent events in China,
it is, perhaps, easy to condemn
this act of British aggression,
but it is less certain that the event was
seen in the same condemnatory light
a century and a half ago.
29th August, 1842 the Treaty of Nanjing:
(1) Hong Kong Island to be ceded to Britain in perpetuity;(2) China to pay an indemnity of 21 million silver dollars
to pay for the confiscated opium and the cost of the war,
(3) five ports to be opened to foreign trade;
(4) a tariff agreement entailing China's loss of tariff autonomy;
(5) right of extraterritoriality
(loss of Chinese jurisdiction over foreigners in China); and
(6) Britain to enjoy most favoured-nation status.
The question is, however,
whether the significance of this event
was apparent to the Chinese at the time.
Recent research has shown that
the first treaty arrangement
was still largely perceived as part of
traditional Chinese tributary diplomacy.
In any case,
the violent conflict with the West
was confined to the maritime periphery,
and the resulting treaty
did not immediately undermine
the notion of Chinese cultural superiority.
Nevertheless,
it is now clear that the Opium War
initiated further acts of foreign aggression
and the imposition of more 'unequal treaties'
accelerating the process of dynastic decline
which eventually led to
the collapse of the Qing Empire in 1911.
during and since the Opium War,
the Chinese have struggled to expunge
the humiliations of impaired sovereignty.
When Hong Kong ceases to be a colony,
the last reminder of that unpleasant encounter
will have been eliminated.
[13.2.6:
. only Taiwan is still an imperial eyesore .]
Gordon's legacy:
On 10th May 1864 he wrote to his mother:"I shall leave China as poor as I entered it,
but with the knowledge that
through my weak instrumentality
80 to 100,000 lives have been spared.
I want no further satisfaction than this."
With Gordon's knowledge of China
and close relations with leading Qing courtiers,
he was invited back to China in 1880
to aid the Qing in their negotiations with Russia.
The Qing knew that the British feared
Russian expansion into
Afghanistan, Siberia, and Mongolia.
Gordon might prove useful;
so, Li Hongzhang welcomed him back to China;
and, war with Russia was indeed averted.
Gordon's influence is now considered
unimportant in Chinese history;
dismissed as yet another foreign mercenary
who exploited the era's weakness.
. credit for the defeat of the Taiping rebels
now goes to Zeng Guofan 1811-1872
and Li Hongzhang 1823-1901 .
Although Gordon's British FreeTrade efforts
may have clinched victory in the Rebellion,
the effect on Chinese politics was far-reaching.
. from 1860 to 1900,
about two thirds of all foreign trade
was between these two countries
(chiefly opium and cotton).
. by 1880,
China was importing more than
6,500 tons of opium a year.
Cultivation of the poppy had also begun in China.
By the early 1900s, the national crop had increased
to more than 22,000 tons a year,
making China the world's foremost opium producer.
. Li Hongzhang not only defeated Taiping rebels
he also sought to challenge the Manchu,
yet he failed to modernise quickly enough
to meet the foreign threats
that would result from more civil war .
. the Sino-Japanese War was disastrous;
and, lead to the fall of the Qing Dynasty,
history marks Li out as a villain .
First Sino–Japanese War
(1 August 1894 – 17 April 1895)was fought between Qing Dynasty China and Meiji Japan,
primarily over control of Korea.
The humiliating loss of Korea as a vassal state
sparked an unprecedented public outcry.
Within China, the defeat was a catalyst
for a series of revolutions
led by Sun Yat-Sen and Kang Youwei.
. this lead to the 1911 communist Revolution.
With the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1911
and the growth of drug addiction in China,
drug traffic went on unabated not only in China,
but as far away as the United States,
where Shanghai heroine
was being distributed by the Mafia.
The Republic of China:
. the Republic of China was founded in 1912and its government was located on mainland China until 1949,
when it lost the Chinese Civil War
and withdrew to Taiwan.
As an era of mainland Chinese history,
the republic was preceded by the Qing Dynasty
and followed by the People's Republic of China.
Its first president, Sun Yat-sen only served briefly.
His Kuomintang (KMT, or "Nationalist Party"),
then led by Song Jiaoren,
won a parliamentary election held in December 1912.
However, army leaders of the Beiyang clique,
led by President Yuan Shikai,
retained control of the central government.
After Yuan's death in 1916,
various local military leaders, or warlords,
asserted autonomy.
In 1925, the KMT established a rival government,
referred to as Nationalist China,
in the southern city of Canton, now Guangzhou.
The economy of the North,
overtaxed to support warlord adventurism,
collapsed in 1927–1928.
In 1928, Chiang Kai-shek,
who became KMT leader after Sun's death,
defeated the warlord armies in the Northern Expedition.
Chiang's National Revolutionary Army
was armed by the Soviet Union
and was advised by Mikhail Borodin.
The Beiyang army was backed by Japan.
Once Chiang established a unified central government in Nanjing,
he cut his ties with the communists
and expelled them from the KMT.
There was industrialization and modernization,
but also conflict between the Nationalist government in Nanjing,
the Communist Party of China, remnant warlords, and Japan.
Nation-building took a backseat to war with Japan in 1937 – 1945.
Japan occupied coastal areas and cut off China's access to seaports,
while the KMT retreated to Chongqing.
The Burma Road, and later the Ledo Road, were built to
allow US "lend-lease" aid to reach the Chinese army.
during a May–June 1944 offensive,
the Nationalists' Y Force drove back the Japanese in Yunnan
but otherwise military results were disappointing.
After Japan surrendered,
the Cold War between the U.S. and Soviet Union
led to renewed fighting between
the KMT and the communists.
In 1947, the Constitution of the Republic of China
replaced the Organic Law of 1928
as the country's fundamental law.
In 1949, the Communists established the
People's Republic of China on the mainland,
while the Nationalists retreated to Taiwan,
and despite its vastly reduced territory,
the Nationalist government continued to be
recognized as the government of China
by non-Communist states well into the 1970s.
opium's legacy:
In 1937, when Japan invaded China,the Guomindang retreated to
Chongqing in Sichuan province.
Although to all appearances
Chiang and the Japanese militarists were at war,
a great deal of trade took place between
the invaders and the Nationalist Government;
much of this traffic involved opium.
opium was Japan's basic source of revenue
in the occupied territories.
Chiang (with the help of Du Yuesheng)
supplied the drug to Japan.
. great opium shipments travelled down the Yangzi to Shanghai,
or over the Burma road to Southeast Asia.
After the Japanese defeat,
civil war between the Guomindang
and the Communists resumed.
As the Communists swept south to Shanghai,
the Green Gang and other criminal syndicates
fled to Hong Kong;
the Guomindang escaped to Taiwan.
People's Republic of China was founded
The Chinese Civil War (1927–1950)was between forces loyal to the
government of the Republic of China
led by the Kuomintang (KMT)
and forces of the Communist Party of China (CPC).
The war began in April 1927,
amidst the Northern Expedition,
and essentially ended when
major active battles ceased in 1950.
The conflict eventually resulted in
two de facto states,
the Republic of China (ROC) in Taiwan
and the People's Republic of China (PRC)
in mainland China,
both claiming to be the legitimate government of China.
The war represented an
ideological split (Left vs. Right)
between the KMT's brand of Nationalism,
and the Communist CPC.
In mainland China today,
the last three years of the war (1947–1949)
are more commonly known as the War of Liberation,
or alternatively
the Third Internal Revolutionary War .
In Taiwan,
before 1991 the war was also known as
the Counter-insurgency War against Communists
or commonly
the Nationalist-Communist Civil War .
[ie, Taiwan liked the feudal system,
they just didn't like foreigners running it;
China's communists didn't care who runs it,
nobody should be running a feudal system .]
The civil war continued intermittently
until late 1937,
when the two parties formed a Second United Front
to counter a Japanese invasion.
China's full-scale civil war resumed in 1946,
a year after the end of hostilities with Japan.
After four more years,
1950 saw the cessation of major military hostilities
—with the newly founded People's Republic of China
controlling mainland China (including Hainan),
and the Republic of China's jurisdiction
being restricted to Taiwan, Penghu, Quemoy, Matsu
and several outlying islands.
The Kuomintang defeat is attributed to:
# Corruption - Chiang wrote in his diary on June 1948
that the KMT had failed, not because of external enemies
but because of rot from within.[8]
# Strong initial support from the U.S. diminished, and then, stopped. (Partly because of
KMT corruption and anti-democratic regime,
and partly because of the
uncertain U.S. foreign policy towards
Communism between 1945 and 1950);
# Communist land reform policy promised poor peasants farmland .
This ensured PLA popular support.
# communist assistance: After the surrender of Japan
at the end of World War II,
Soviet forces turned over their
captured Japanese weapons to the CPC
and allowed the CPC to
take control of territory in Manchuria.
To this day, no armistice or peace treaty
has ever been signed,
and it is debated as to whether
the Civil War has legally ended.
Cross-Strait relations have been hindered by
military and economic pressure,
particularly over Taiwan's political status,
with both governments officially adhering to
a "One-China policy."
The PRC still actively claims Taiwan as
part of its territory
and continues to threaten the ROC
with a military invasion if the ROC
officially declares independence
by changing its name to
and gaining international recognition as
the Republic of Taiwan.
The ROC mutually claims mainland China,
and they both continue the fight over
diplomatic recognition.
Today, the war as such occurs on the
political and economic fronts
in the form of cross-Strait relations;
however, the two separate de facto states
have close economic ties.
No comments:
Post a Comment
moderated for academic or family appeal