Assess the Impact of Interference by Foreign Powers on China’s Development in the 20th Century

Western incursion into China and Japan is a key factor as to how these countries developed economically and socially. While China and Japan were trying to get on their feet and figure out the standards in which to run their countries, the West was escalating in both power and ambitions. The escalation meant growth in European fire arm power which allowed the European countries to make their way into China and Japan without China and Japan being able to stop them because they were not as strong at this point. However, China and Japan both responded to European influence in very different ways. Under the influence of Western imperialism, China was hindered in the process of structural change and industrialization in their society, where as,

Chapter 3 further illustrates how Japan displayed as an underlying basis of support and motivation for the Chinese who advocates in political revolution to continue their political schema. Policy set by the Britain to provide assistance to those who could maintain China’s unity has contributed to the appointment of Yuan Shikai as the leader of the Republic of China. This newly developed political system has endured through the political turmoil in the 1910s and 1920s, predominantly due to the fact that the major Western nations were preoccupied and destabilized by the World War 1, as mentioned in Chapter

​ For hundreds of years China had always been dominate in terms of trading and industry. China thought of itself as being greater than other countries. Since China was an industrial leader, European countries realized that they needed to have China as a trading partner. At the same time, imperialism was coming to the attention of many countries. European nations tried to gain as much land and to make as big of a profit as possible. With imperialism came spheres of influences. A sphere of influence is a territorial area over which a political or economic influence is wielded by one nation. England, Japan, France, Russia, Portugal, Germany, and Italy all had spheres of influences within China. Because the United States didn’t have any spheres of influence, at the time, they feared that they would be cut out from the Chinese trade.

The rise in China from a poor, stagnant country to a major economic power within a time span of twenty-eight years is often described by analysts as one of the greatest success stories in these present times. With China receiving an increase in the amount of trade business from many countries around the world, they may soon be a major competitor to surpass the U.S. China became the second largest economy, last year, overtaking Japan which had held that position since 1968 (Gallup). China could become the world’s largest economy in decades.

After breaking away from a temporary alliance with the KMT during the war with Japan (1937-1945), civil war broke out between the Communist Party and the KMT; resulting in the Communist Parties victory. This lead to the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Mao Zedong along with other Communist leaders set out to remodel China with his campaign of the ‘Great Leap Forward’ through “mass mobilisation of labour to improve agricultural and industrial production”, eventually transforming China into an industrial superpower that would surpass Western countries within fifteen years. The ‘Great Leap Forward’ model was borrowed from the model used by Joseph Stalin in the USSR of an “enterprise that was evaluated on the basis of ‘success indicators’… items produced, quantity of labour used and amount of raw materials depleted”. Mao wanted to adapt the ‘Stalin Model’ of controlled planting and production with the Asian idea of ‘collectivisation’ in mind, ultimately creating China into a self-sufficient industrial nation.

Western imperialism in China had a very significant impact, it costed the lives of millions of people, but also helped shape China into a much stronger country than it was during the Qing Dynasty. Imperialism is a country extending its power and influence through the use of military force. There were two wars between the imperialists and China, the infamously called the First and Second Opium wars. The result of these wars was the weakening of the Qing Dynasty and led to a time of rebuilding, which was a great struggle for China. The Europeans wanted to trade with China because of the great opportunity that they saw in the market. China’s population, which was 430 million, was seen as a fast and easy way for the Europeans to make a lot of money. The Chinese refused to cooperate for trade which lead to the conflicts and eventually forced China to concede and have the trade ports opened. China was faced with circumstances they had never dealt with before and suffered from a series of crisis’ worse than any others in their history.

Ho-fung Hung’s work attempts to reconcile the widespread expectation that China’s rise would lead to a fundamental change in the global status quo with the observed fact that China has become increasingly connected to and one with the global status quo. To do this, he must first examine China’s rise and prove that it upholds the global status quo, and further must look into the origins of China’s rise, going back to the 13th century, to understand why this rise seemingly changed so little about the global world order.

This would lead to an “unending series of defeats,” including the “British in 1942, the French and British jointly between 1856 and 1860, and by the French again in 1864,” and the Japanese in 1894 (Spence 35). Revolutionary efforts led by men like Kang Youwei and Sun Yat Sen would eventually overthrow the Qing Dynasty. Even after several failed uprisings, Sun Yat Sen was still able to maintain a, “steady stream of support of new followers, and he was always able to get enough funds from overseas Chinese,” (Spence 110-111). On the first of January, 1911, Sun Yat Sen and his fellow revolutionaries would found the Republic of China (Spence 135). In 1945, after emerging victorious in a conflict with Japan, China’s Nationalist and Communist Parties would enter into a civil war, with Mao Zedong and the communists winning the conflict and founding the People’s Republic of China in 1949 (Spence 359). China under Mao would be subjected to killings and acts of propaganda meant to control a population being molded for communism. Mao’s legacy is a strange one. Even though he did help give many Chinese more rights than ever before, his willingness to keep the population under control would create a very controversial China to say the least (Spence 387).

This essay introduces the idea of New Democracy in response to concerns about imperialism from both Japanese and Western influences as well as outlining a potential solution to this problem with Marxism and Sun Yat Sen’s Three People’s Principles. A value in its purpose is that it forms the basis of Mao’s vision for China regarding politics, economics, and culture from Mao’s writing himself. Another value in its purpose is that it incorporates Mao’s perspective on Marxism, and this is valuable because it shows inconsistencies from Marxism to distinguish it from Maoism. For example, he mentions revolutions in the Soviet Union such as the October Revolution is not applicable to China: a semi-colonial and feudalist nation that is a victim of Japan’s invasion and Chinese Communist Party’s feudalism (KMT) instead of an aggressor.

China, the crown jewel of the golden ages, was left broken and without leadership after the Second World War. Their land was torn by war and their people’s morale had been severely affected with all

China’s history is riddled with violence and revolution that would change the country forever. From the 17th century, the Qing dynasty ruled with no one being able to oppose them as they were that superior to all who would oppose them. Until the time for change arrived. There were many things that caused this change but one of the more significant catalysts of this change was the Sino Japanese war.

Mao had a very questionable rule over China. Beginning in 1934, he used communism as his guide and transformed China and its policies. From kicking out Chiang and the GMD, to causing the deaths of millions of innocent chinese citizens, he shifted how citizens in China live their everyday life. His death in 1976 ended his reign, but the horrors and atrocities still continued on, disrupting the personal lives of all of China. As the chinese government creates new reforms and policies in China from 1945-1991, all human rights were constantly being violated, resulting in mass amounts of death caused by Mao’s poor leadership. The Hundred Flowers Campaign (1956-1957) and The Great Leap Forward (1958-1960) were two reforms that negatively affected

This article is an attempt to, via reviewing various related sources on this topic, identify some the major elements in the history of China, the achievements and lessons, and their roles in shaping today’s Chinese Dream as expressly initiated by the current Chinese political leadership.

China was at its most corrupt era during the 1930s. Its economic status was not promising and overtaxing emerged to support warlord adventurism due to Kuomintang's establishment of a rival government in the Southern city of Guangzhou. Meanwhile China was facing various economic and political challenges, Japan was eager to take over the plentiful natural resources found in China. Japan took China's weaknesses as an advantage, and invaded Manchuria. Gradually, Japan started taking over China until it had full control over the country. This invasion caused war between both countries. For Japan, it was a war fought for resources and geographical position. For China, it was a war for survival and independence. This research

1900s China saw a century of fluctuating development and progress, which is recognised through various political, economic and social changes. The early division of the period encountered some change for the country yet this was not as significant as the latter change in which China’s political landscape metamorphosed into one of total contrast to the former. Foreign intervention was of course a reason and usually the root cause for the changes that occurred, particularly in the first half of the century until 1962 whereby there were still some minor influences by the foreigners but other factors seemed to have caused these later changes. It could be deduced that yes, foreign powers did have a significant influence over the transformation