The Emergence and Strengthening of Chinese Nationalism and America's Influence

Résumé du document

In a domestic level, China has undergone a change from atrocity, civil strife, and revolution, to an image of unification, modernization, and achievement in the last one hundred years. This is more than what some countries have endured in more than two hundred years in other parts of the world. The committed and ever ending dedication to unification by every individual and leader in China throughout the last one hundred years has contributed, and continues to contribute to a feeling of nationalism that cannot be compared to any other nation today. Of course, many other countries throughout the world such as France have deep roots and have advanced into the 21st Century with a strong nationalist agenda, but the very idea that China, with a population of about 1.3 billion, has been stable in its unification under the name of Communism is amazing. America's image has not been affected either in a positive or negative manner, it helped strengthened Chinese modern nationalism and played a very distinctive role.

Extraits

[...] I say indirectly because it was not the US who was manipulating the Qing Dynasty and exploiting the Chinese, but rather America's friends the British. Nevertheless, the US profited from British imperialism in China and was characterized as a “free rider”. This and the Chinese Exclusion Act passed by the US Congress in 1982 both contributed to what later became the Boxer Rebellion. The US Congress passed the 1982 Chinese Exclusion Act in order to stop allowing Chinese immigrants into the US. [...]

[...] Mao's anti-US and anti-West propaganda allowed him to shift the nationalist movement from talk to action. As Mao blamed the US, western influence, and free trade throughout the world for China's problems, he unified the labor and industrial force in the country and kept them focused on the strengthening of China's power and national identity[15]. In August of 1963 he said, oppressed peoples and nations must not pin their hopes for liberation on the "sensibleness" of imperialism and its lackeys. [...]

[...] 1980's were the peak period for the Westernization of Chinese society and culture. The country was emerging from the straightjacket of Maoism. Deng Xiaoping emphasized the importance of education, technology and expertise that China could best obtain from America and its Western allies.[19]” It was during this time that US policy played a different role on Chinese modern nationalism. Instead of China using the US role and image negatively to help them unite the people within China, they used the US in a positive image and for insight to help strengthen China as a nation. [...]

[...] In the past one hundred years, US policy and influence has contributed to the strengthening of Chinese nationalism in completely different ways. It is interesting to try to predict what will happen in the 21st Century as China's influence internationally and power in the region continues to grow quickly. The most popular topic regarding the Sino-American relation today is whether China and America will turn out to be close friends or bitter enemies. Is it in America's interest to have a prospering China in the 21st Century? [...]

[...] The students burned down the residence of the pro-Japanese minister of communications and assaulted Japan's ambassador to Beijing. A government crackdown led to arrests and bloodshed. In response, a mass movement quickly developed and swept across coastal China.[9]” The reason they stood up was partly because of how US President Wilson had advocated his Principles' and how the rest of the world needed to recognize this, while at the same time turning his back on the Treaty of Versailles that allowed the Japanese to rule parts of China. [...]