Why is China so hostile to the United States? China often interprets American actions as having anti-Chinese intentions. Most of China’s military innovation is aimed at the United States and its interests in the eastern hemisphere. China makes cyberattacks on American government agencies and companies. China conducts provocative military encounters with the U.S. military. China’s hostility may appear to be paranoia, but upon examining history, it becomes logical. China has faced foreign threats since the beginning of Chinese civilization. Leaders of China from ancient times up to now have been preoccupied with the defense of their territory because foreign invasion has always been an existential threat. Note that China borders fourteen countries; the United States borders just two. From history, consider the following:
· Oracle bone inscriptions from the Shang Dynasty (商)(c. 1600–1046 BCE) record invasions by tribes to the north.
· The earliest recorded histories tell of invasions in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties (周) (1050–256 BCE), Chinese resistance, diplomacy, and the building of fortified walls.
· During the Han Dynasty (汉) 206 BCE — 220 CE), the Xiongnu(匈奴), a nomadic tribal confederation on the Mongolian plateau, continually attacked the northern borders. Their hundred thousand-strong armies of mounted archers terrorized China. Han Gaozu (汉高祖 — reign 202–195 BCE), the first Han emperor, was surrounded and nearly captured in one encounter ( 200 BCE).
· After the fall of the Han Dynasty, there was constant civil war and invasions by nomadic tribes.
· During the Tang Dynasty （唐）(618–907 CE), the Tibetan Empire waged serious campaigns against China, even briefly capturing the Chinese capital, Chang’an （长安）, in 763 CE.
· In 1127 CE, the Song Dynasty (宋) (960–1279 CE), the capital Kaifeng （开封）was captured by Jurchen invaders, and Song rule was relegated to southern China.
· In 1279 CE, the Mongol leader Kublai Khan invaded and conquered all of China and established the Yuan Dynasty (元) (1271 -1368 CE).
· In 1644 CE, Manchurians conquered China and established the Qing Dynasty (清) (1636–1912 CE), China’s last imperial dynasty.
An obvious symbol of China’s focus on foreign threats is the Great Wall of China. Defensive walls were built during the earliest times of Chinese recorded history. As Chinese dynasties became more centralized under the Qin Dynasty (秦)(221–206 BCE) and Han Dynasty, these walls were unified. In subsequent dynasties, the wall was extended and strengthened.
Until the nineteenth century, threats to China were from neighboring nations and tribes. As the Industrial Revolution in the West developed, powerful nations were able to project military might far beyond their borders, and China faced threats from Europe, America, and Japan. Rapid advancements in military technology were beyond China’s defensive capabilities. A century plunder ensued.
· In the Opium Wars, Britain forced China to import opium, cede Hong Kong, and open five treaty ports (including Shanghai. France, Russia, and the United States soon demanded equal trade access to China. England instigated the First Opium War (1839–1842), and France joined the U.K. as a belligerent in the Second Opium War (1856–1860). The United States was a minor participant, attacking some Chinese river forts in 1856. As a result of these wars and the resulting concessions, China lost much of its control over trade.
· The Taiping Rebellion (1850–1864) was a rebellion against the Qing rulers. It was a nominally Christian struggle against the corruption of the rulers and the dire poverty of the masses. While international powers were initially neutral, they eventually joined forces with the dynasty. The struggle was among the deadliest in human history, resulting in 20–30 million dead.
· The First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895) was fought over which country would be the dominant power in East Asia. For millennia, that had been China, but with Japan’s modernization during the Meiji Restoration starting in 1868, Japan achieved political, military, and technological advancements similar to the Industrial Revolution of Europe and America. First, Japan gained effective control of Korea (which had been a Chinese tributary state), and then of Chinese territories. Like the European countries, Japan forced the opening of treaty ports. Soon afterwards, other countries such as Germany and Russia gained territory and trading rights.
· The Boxer Rebellion (1899–1901) was an anti-foreign influence rebellion. The Empress Dowager Cixi (慈禧太后) initially resisted, but eventually joined forces with the rebels. The uprising was eventually defeated by a combined force of Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. They destroyed the imperial Summer Palace in Beijing and enforced a huge indemnity. (Many years later, the United States returned part of the indemnity to fund scholarships for Chinese students and to help establish Tsinghua University in Beijing.)
· In the early twentieth century, Japan continued its aggression against China.
o In 1915, Japan presented the newly founded Republic of China with twenty-one demands that included territorial concessions, such as the Shandong peninsula, expanded privileges in Manchuria, and effective political control over China. Japan threatened force if they were not accepted. China’s weak President Yuan Shikai (袁世凯) accepted most of the demands; only opposition by other foreign powers prevented the political control demands. The ultimate humiliation to China was at the end of the First World War, when the Treaty of Versailles awarded German concessions in Shandong to Japan rather than returning them to China.
o Through various pretexts, the Japanese expanded into China. In 1931, based on the manufactured Mukden incident, Japan took control of Manchuria and established the puppet regime of Manchukuo with Puyi (溥仪), the last emperor of the now fallen Qing Dynasty, as the puppet ruler. In 1937, after a skirmish at the Marco Polo Bridge near Beijing, Japan launched a full-scale invasion of China, capturing Beijing, Shanghai, and Nanjing, where they launched the horrendous Nanjing Massacre, killing hundreds of thousands of civilians.
After the end of the Second World War, the United States and the Soviet Union influenced the civil war between the nationalists under Chiang Kai-shek (蒋介石) and the communists under Mao Zedong (毛泽东). The U.S. provided large-scale military aid to the nationalists. Two days after the U.S. bombing of Hiroshima, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan and dispatched a large force to occupy Manchuria. They turned over captured Japanese weapons and equipment, including hundreds of aircraft, tanks, artillery, machine guns, rifles, and ammunition to the communist forces.
When the Communist Party came to power and established Chinese sovereignty in 1949, what became known as China’s Century of Humiliation came to a close. But China’s worries of foreign threats continued. American actions in the region were perceived as hostile.
· At the end of the Second World War, the United States maintained large occupation forces in Japan and South Korea, which projected a significant military presence close to China.
· In 1950, North Korea, a Chinese client state, invaded South Korea, which the United States supported. The U.S. military, as the main component of a United Nations force, came to the aid of South Korea. U.N. forces quickly pushed back the North Korean attack and soon neared the Chinese border at the Yalu River. At this point, the Chinese came to North Korea’s aid. Eventually, an armistice near the 38th parallel was agreed.
U.S. General MacArthur, commander of the U.N. forces, advocated aggressive action against China, including bombing Chinese territory, a naval blockade, and using Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist forces on Taiwan to open a second front against mainland China. U.S. President Truman eventually fired MacArthur, but the perception in Chinese strategic thinking was impacted. They will never forget MacArthur proclaiming Taiwan an unsinkable aircraft carrier.
· While the U.S. was initially neutral over communist claims to Taiwan, with the Korean War, the U.S. shifted to a defensive posture. The Nationalist government had retreated to Taiwan. The U.S. provided extensive military assistance and built up a military presence on the island. After U.S. recognition of the People’s Republic of China, U.S. forces were withdrawn, but military aid continued.
· Throughout the 1950s, the United States kept military advisors in South Vietnam. In 1964, this escalated into the Vietnam War with significant U.S. forces again near China’s borders.
· The United States expanded its military presence and alliances in the Philippines, Thailand, Australia, and Guam.
· The United States has imposed sanctions on China for human rights abuses, trade practices, and national security. Chinese rulers believe the real reasons for these sanctions are to hold back Chinese economic development and to hinder military technology development.
China openly claims rights to a sphere of influence in East and Southeast Asia, as it has had for millennia. They see U.S. objections as hypocritical, considering the Monroe Doctrine, which claimed similar rights for the U.S. in Latin America. They see American counteractions as hostile to these rights.
As I have described, China, throughout its history, has focused on military preparedness against the most threatening powers of the time. During the ancient dynasties, it was the nomadic peoples to the north thus the building of the Great Wall of China. In the nineteenth century, threats were from the European powers, America, and Japan.
Today, it is the United States that has surrounded China with military forces and alliances. The greatest affront to China is the continued separation of Taiwan. Taiwan was part of China from 1683 and was only separated by the Japanese conquest. After the Second World War, it was returned to China, which at the time was ruled by the Nationalist Republic of China under Chiang Kai-shek. As most of the world now recognizes the People’s Republic of China as the legitimate ruler of China, the communist leadership argues that Taiwan should come under its rule. As a practical matter, for 76 years, Taiwan has developed in a very different direction, becoming a vibrant democracy and an economic power. It is now the source of 90% of the world’s most advanced semiconductors, the driver of technical advances in today’s world.
Although the U.S. no longer has a military presence on Taiwan, its continued supply of advanced military technology is seen as threatening. While the rulers of Taiwan have, until recently, agreed that there is just one China, only divided politically, the currently elected government openly advocates Taiwan becoming a separate country. While China may no longer see a threat of invasion from Taiwan, its military strength threatens its ambitions to expand influence in the South China Sea. Should Taiwan become independent, who knows what military alliances it may form?
Through most of China’s history, it has been the most advanced country technically, culturally, politically, and militarily. It has seen breaks in this pattern before and sees its falling behind since the 19th century as one more temporary setback that strong, centralized Chinese leadership will reverse. The United States is a great, fearsome opponent, but it has only been around for 200 years, nothing compared to China’s thousands of years.
As the threats to China were continuous for thousands of years, the political mentality of its successful rulers was military preparedness and strong control of the military by central authorities. This thinking continues to this day as threats (or perceived threats) have not subsided.
Afterword:
Like most Americans, I think our military presence in East Asia is to defend our allies Japan, South Korea, and others. Based on history, I can understand why China might think otherwise. With this article, I am not suggesting one side is right or wrong or what policies should be followed. My purpose is that if we are to find a way to coexist, we must understand each side’s point of view.
Sources:
This is not a comprehensive bibliography, but a list of sources that readers might find interesting.
Sima Qian, the Grand Historian:
China’s greatest historian, Sima Qian (司马迁) (145 BCE — 86 BCE wrote the history of China up to his time in the Shiji (史记) (or historical record). My Chinese copy is in ten volumes, a total of 3,322 pages. In many chapters, the Shiji tells of the Xiongnu threat from the earliest dynasties through to the Han Dynasty. Chapter 110 Account of the Xiongnu, tells the history of the Xiongnu and their conflicts with China. Chapter 6 Basic Annals of Chin Shihuang (秦始皇本纪) is the biography of Chin Shihuang (秦始皇), the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty (reign 221–210 BCE), and tells of struggles and diplomacy with the Xiongnu and early work on what became the Great Wall of China. Chapter 88, the Account of Meng Tian (蒙恬列传), tells the story of Meng Tian, a Qin general responsible for leading many campaigns against the Xiongnu and directing construction work, joining together and building defensive walls that later became the Great Wall of China.
The Shiji is not only a meticulous history but also a great work of literature. Much of the Shiji has been translated into English, the most complete being those of Burton Watson and William Nienhauser (whose project is to eventually translate the complete work).
Patriotic Poetry of the Song Dynasty
The Chinese mindset of an established civilization was expressed deeply by poets of the Southern Song dynasty after Jurchen invaders took the Song capital, Kaifeng in 1127 CE and established the Jin Dynasty (金) (1115–1234 CE) in the north. A great among these poets was Xing Qiji (辛棄疾), who was also a government official and advocated fighting the Jin to reunite China. In his poems, he expressed great sorrow of loss. One example follows:
少年不识愁滋味，
爱上层楼，
爱上层楼 ;
为赋新词强说愁。
而今识尽愁滋味，
欲说还休，
欲说还休 ;
却道天凉好个秋。
Translated by Stephen Watson:
In my youth, I knew not the taste of grief
I climbed the tall towers
I climbed the tall towers
Composing the new lyric rhymes, I often wrote “grief.”
Now having chewed my fill of grief
Want to say, but stop
Want to say, but stop
Instead remark “Cool weather, comes an autumn fine.”
Note: As in much Chinese poetry, there is a tragic pun — the Character for grief is pronounced the same as the character for autumn.
Spence, Jonathan D. The Search for Modern China. 3rd ed.
Jonathan Spence’s book tells the history that created modern China. He begins with the Ming Dynasty, representing the long dynastic tradition, then describes the invasion of the Manchus and the Qing Dynasty, then the Republic of China, through to the current People’s Republic. Spence reveals the thinking and the factors that formed Chinese leadership policies, especially the Century of Humiliation, then the problems with the United States and the Soviet Union.
The Century of Humiliation — An Analysis
Alison A. Kaufman’s testimony before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission in March 2011 gives an excellent summary of the events of that period and their effects on Chinese thinking.
https://www.uscc.gov/sites/default/files/3.10.11Kaufman.pdf
Movie: Farwell My Concubine
Movie: Farwell My Concubine, directed by Chen Kaige tells the story of two Peking opera performers and is set from the early days of the Republic of China through the Cultural Revolution. While the plot is about the relationship between the main characters, their story is largely affected by the turmoil of those times.
Book: The Changing World Order by Ray Dalio
Dalio’s book covers his research and thinking on all aspects of the current world order, how it came to be, and where it might be headed. Relevant to our subject are two excellent chapters on China and its relations with the United States. Dalio is more concerned with economic issues, but military issues are closely related. Of particular interest is a graph on page 369 showing China’s relative standing versus the other major world powers from the Tang Dynasty until now.
Statements by General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping (习近平)
Xi’s statements echo the many millennia of concerns of Chinese leaders about foreign aggression.
In Xi’s speech marking the centenary of the Chinese Communist Party (July 1, 2021), he included:
“We Chinese are a people who uphold justice and are not intimidated by threats of force. As a nation, we have a strong sense of pride and confidence. We have never bullied, oppressed, or subjugated the people of any other country, and we never will. By the same token, we will never allow any foreign force to bully, oppress, or subjugate us. Anyone who would attempt to do so will find themselves on a collision course with a great wall of steel forged by over 1.4 billion Chinese people.”
Full speech can be found at: https://english.www.gov.cn/news/topnews/202107/01/content_WS60dd8d8ac6d0df57f98dc459.html
Xi made some strong statements in his speech commemorating the Korean War: https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3106759/china-ready-fight-xi-jinping-says-korean-war-address-aimed-us