The Static Page

Rewriting History.

With the recent diplomatic incident between the US and China, I thought it would be interesting to learn some more about how the eastern Asians fit into world history. Among other things, China and Japan both had long periods of isolationism, denying access to western interests. This had the effect of encouraging patriotism in both countries. But both countries also had considerable non-Asian influence to bring about their current governments, too. That set me wondering how would they be different if that hadn't happened?

First, China. According to my aging World Book encyclopaedias, China's first major tussle with the west began with Opium. In the early 1800's, Britain was actively helping to smuggle opium into China, and against the Manchu's wishes. I'm probably summarising badly, but this led to the Opium war, which got Britain the rights to supply Opium to the Chinese, it got them more ports to trade in, and it got them the colony of Hong Kong. It was also the first wave of Chinese revolutions, where Western interests were driven out several times in the ensuing centuries, a war with Japan, the exile of Taiwan and the ascension of the Maoists and Communist China. There was a thread on Politics recently about the situation of Taiwan, actually. It's kind of ironic that each claims the other.

Next, Japan. Unlike China, Japan still has a hereditary Emperor, though they have a parliament as well. But like China, Japan has been forced a few times at Western hands to change. One of the most notable was to give up the lands it had invaded in China, but the atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima were at least as punitive.

Where am I going with this? My original premise was to theorise on what China would have been like if it was still an empire, ruled by one dynasty or another, and what Japan could have been like if it hadn't been forced to back down at largely US hands. I'm not sure if I can, though. Maybe instead we can look ahead and see where these two major Asian powers might take the world in the next century. After all, Japan has already been a major economic force and will probably get better at some point and China is only just starting to flex its muscles.

Wade Bowmer, aka Static.

Comments? Email me at static dash page at yceran dot org.