China: 1911-1949
China in Global History
China's central role in world history:
From urbanization to the late 18th century, China was at the center of the world system.
The 19th and early 20th centuries marked a temporary shift away from this pattern.
China's resurgence in the late 20th and 21st centuries is a return to its historical role.
China's resurgence is not a new phenomenon but a reassertion of its long past influence.
China has a deep sense of history and amazing innovation and transformation in the contemporary moment.
China: A Vast and Diverse Country
China is a unified, multi-ethnic country with substantial diversities.
Demographic dominance of Han Chinese people (approximately 90% of the population).
The remaining 10% consists of 55 groups, totaling over 100 million people.
Considerable linguistic diversity, distinctive regional cultures, and food ways.
Experiences vary greatly across regions (Guangzhou, Beijing, Xinjiang).
China's diversity is so vast it is more akin to a continent.
Historical Context
The age of its civilization is a central fact of Chinese history.
Much of Chinese history has been shaped by empire building.
Oldest written language and culture.
Key center of global trade until 1800.
Transition period coincides with the Qing dynasty (1644-1911).
Established the contours of modern China.
Origins were not amongst the Han Chinese people; it was a conquest dynasty.
Interplay between the Han Chinese majority and groups coming into China from the outside.
Early Qing period marked by extended stability and real growth.
Population growth:
1715: 140 million
1850: 410 million
Internal and External Pressures
Beginning from the 1850s, a period of political and social instability occurred.
Internal instability created a context for European empires to exert influence.
Britain led the way, with the British East India Company at the forefront.
British East India Company sought to sell opium to China to balance trade.
The West wanted to buy Chinese goods but had few products to sell in return, leading to trade imbalances.
Opium wars in the 1840s and 1860s led to the opening of treaty ports.
Britain seized Hong Kong and gained a sequence of treaty ports along the Chinese coast
Other European powers, Japan, and the United States had similar ambitions.
By the early 20th century, Japan, UK, Germany, France, Russia, and Austria-Hungarian Empire all had spheres of influence.
Chinese Resistance
Chinese cultural leaders resented foreign incursions.
The Boxer Rebellion (1898-1901) was marked by anti-imperial sentiment.
Anti-foreigners, anti-European newcomers, and anti-Christian.
China was working hard to defend itself against European imperial aspirations.
China's situation was similar to the Ottoman Empire, the "sick man of Asia."
Political turbulence led to increasing resentment towards the Qing dynasty.
In October-November 1911, anti-Qing uprisings occurred across Southern and Central China.
In February 1912, the Qing government abdicated, ending over 2,000 years of imperial rule.
Transition and Fragmentation
The transition to a new republican political order was marked by instability and fragmentation.
Competing visions for China's future.
World War I involvement:
Over 100,000 Chinese laborers supported allied war efforts.
Chinese interests were disregarded at the Paris Peace Conference, with Japan retaining territories in Shandong.
The May 4th Movement was marked by mass protests led by students, anti-imperialist sensibility, and the growth of nationalism.
Emergence of a growing sense of patriotism and the desire for Chinese nationhood.
Political Movements
Emergence of new political movements after World War I.
The Goumandang (GMD) aimed to strengthen China by removing foreign influences and preparing China for democracy.
Sun Yat-sen, the leader, died in 1925 and was succeeded by Chiang Kai-shek.
Chiang Kai-shek was not a communist, but there was a growing connection between him and Moscow.
By the late 1920s, the Goumandang largely succeeded in reconnecting Chinese political life and creating a kind of federal unity within China.
Chiang Kai-shek was concerned about the influence of the communists and initiated purges.
China's path to communism wasn't predetermined.
Chinese Communist Party (CCP)
The CCP was formed in 1921.
Mao Zedong was a great early influencer and shaper of Chinese Communism.
Mao re-oriented the party as an independent party.
Focused on agricultural production and rural communities.
At its outset, it is very much strongly grounded in rural communities and is a piece of basic movement.
The Long March
Aimed to escape persecution from the Goumandang.
Lasted for much of 1934-1935, covering 4,000 to 6,000 miles.
Crossed 24 rivers and 18 mountain ranges.
Initially consisted of about 85,000 people, ending with about 20,000 people.
The communists took refuge in Shanxi province.
CCP gained greater popularity while the Goumandang lost popularity.
Threat from Japan
China was under severe threat from Japan.
Japanese economy became heavily dependent upon China for materials, especially in Victoria.
Japan aimed to create the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.
In 1931, the Japanese invasion and conquest of Manchuria led to the establishment of Manchurian Quo as a puppet state.
In 1937, Japan launched an invasion of China itself.
World War II
Ryan and Mita argue that World War II really started in East Asia rather than Europe.
Chiang Kai-shek seemed keener to pursue Chinese Communists than defend China from Japanese invasion.
Goumandang authority began to get hollowed out as the communists mounted guerrilla war against the Japanese and won even more support.
Mao and the communists were seen as really committed to China as a nation.
The global conflict legitimized and empowered Japan to strike further into China.
Japan occupied significant areas of China.
Guerrilla warfare bogged down the Japanese army in China.
Japan's aspirations in Asia were ultimately crushed in the wake of the use of atomic weapons by the Americans.
Post-War Conflict
Final contest for supremacy in China between the Goumandang and the communists.
By this time, the communists had massive popular support.
In 1948, Mao's Red Army attacked the Goumandang.
In January 1949, the communists took Bocheng.
Chiang Kai-shek and his followers fled to Taiwan.
In October 1949, Mao proclaimed the People's Republic of China.
Early Communist China
Communist rule brought a slow return of political stability after almost four decades of contestation, conflict, and instability.
Rapid rebirth in economic life.
Improvement in basic health and education.
Baby boom and rapid rise in life expectancy.
Delivering on the promises of socialist ideology, such as the New Zealand workers.
Intended on driving further change in Chinese society.
Ideological Context
Chinese communists connected socialism strongly to nationalism.
Not liberal or capitalist at this point.
A growing deception and engagement with elements of capitalist culture that could be grafted into the socialist.
Key promise of the socialist tradition: ownership is of the means of production.
Global Politics
China becoming communist was critically important.
A powerful and demographically most significant state in Asia, and now it's communist.
A sea change shift in global politics.
Happening in 1949, as Europe was divided at the start of the Cold War.
Conflict between America and its European allies against the Soviet Union.
China becoming communist raised challenging issues for the global order.
Stalin was not willing to form strong connections with China.
Throughout the Cold War, there was always tension between these two great communist powers.
Conference in Bandung in Indonesia in 1955.
29 governments from Asia and Africa came together to underscore their commitment to anti-colonialism.
To focus on the new forms of cooperation that might develop between countries.
China was represented by Joe and I in this conference.
China doesn't want to fully commit out of fear of being rejected.
China's embrace of communism in the 1940s is a very important shift in the global geopolitics.
Conclusion
This turbulent period in the 20th century for China marks a massive transformation.
A 2,000-year-old empire is reshaped into a modern communist state.
It connects to the story of European empires and China's aspirations to protect its culture and sovereignty against those aspirations.
It connects to World War I, to World War II, to Japan's imperial aspirations and expansion, and to Soviet communism.
China is now, in the late 40s and the 1950s, a real force to be reckoned with as the Cold War begins to take shape.
By the 1980s, China is beginning to re-emerge as a global power.
That communist tradition is opened up and liberalised and key aspects of capitalist culture are able to be grasped and also driving and sustained a miraculous period of economic growth.