(above, Guardian figure, Forbidden City, Beijing)
China Taiwan India Recent Regional History Japan Forces to Watch N. and S. Korea
Withdrawal and isolationism: Zheng He’s fleet is recalled (1433)
Disdain for other cultures
British Lord George Macartney's failed trade overture to Emperor Qianlong (1793) (Qianlong's response)
First Opium War (1839-1842) and Treaty of Nanjing (1842): Hong Kong ceded to British
Second Opium War (1856-1860), also called the Arrow War (1856), and Treaty of Tianjin (1858, reaffirmed 1860): China forced to make more concessions to the British
Religion and rebellion: Lotus (1796-1804), Heaven and Earth Society (18th century), Lin Qing (1813), Taiping (1850-1864), Muslims (1855-1873), Boxers (1900-1901)
Revolution, Collapse of the Qing Dynasty, Birth of the Republic (1911-1912)
Sun Yat Sen (inaugurated China's first president, Jan., 1912)
China and Japan
Sino-Japanese War (1895): Chinese political ties with Korea severed; Japan's influence over Korea increases
"Twenty-one Demands" (1915): Japan seeks to dominate Chinese republican government; lays groundwork for "May Fourth Movement."
“Mukden Incident” (1931): Japan conquers Manchuria (“Manchukuo”)
Fall of Shanghai and “Rape of Nanjing” (1937)
Rise of Communism
Communist Party founded, Shanghai (1921)
Mao Tse Tung, "Report on an Investigation of the Peasant Movement in Hunan" (March, 1927)
Purge of Communists from Guomindang (beg. April 12, 1927)
Guomindang rule (“Nanjing Decade” - 1928-1937)
Communists' "Long March" (1934-1935)
Xian Incident (1936): Chiang Kai-shek coerced into joining Communists to fight Japanese
Chiang Kai-shek flees to Taiwan
People's Republic of China: Communism (1949 to the present)
Mao Tse Tung (Zedong) (1893-1976) (Mao Quotations via Halsall) (see also)
“Hundred Flowers” (1956) (Halsall)
“Great Leap Forward” (1958-1959 -Univ. Chicago)
“Cultural Revolution” (1966-1976) (see also) (Halsall)
Post Mao Era (1976 to the present)
United States breaks formal ties with Taiwan and recognizes the PRC as the sole legal government of China (1979)
Deng Xiaoping: “Four Modernizations” (industry, agriculture, national defence, and science and technology) (1978-1997) - see also UCLA
Hong Kong returned to China (1997 - TIME Magazine 10th Anniv. commerorative piece)
The Economic Miracle: Authoritarian Capitalism
Constitution amended (2002 and 2003): private business and property put on equal footing with state run corporations and state owned property (Kynge, 192, 207).
Enduring Questions
Legacy of Confucius: his role in the new Asia
Capitalism, Communism, Confucianism: President Hu Jintao's "harmonious society" (text of May, 2007 speech via CNN)
Regionalism and centralism
Tibet
Xinjiang
City versus countryside
British Era
East India Company (1600-1857)
Sepoy Mutiny (1857), then, British direct rule (1857-1947)
Independence and Partition (1947)
Tensions with neighbors (Pakistan, Kashmir)
Economic Boom (1950-1990): Growing too Fast?
Increasing tensions between urban and rural
Hindu Nationalism
Commodore Perry "opens" Japan (1853)
Meiji Restoration (1868)
The shogunates end: following a year of civil war (1868-1869), imperial and political rule is consolidated in the emperor, the imperial capital moves to Edo (Tokyo) where the Shinto Yasukuni shrine is built as a memorial to imperial war dead, Buddhism declines in influence, Shinto rises in influence
From early draft of new constitution (1867): "'There cannot be two rulers in a land, or two heads in a house, and it is most reasonable to return administration and justice to one ruler.'" (Quoted in Buruma, 30)
Meiji slogan Bunmei Kaika ("civilization and enlightenment"): Emulation of Western ways (if not the West itself) as the means for Japan to increase power, overcome Western domination of Asia, and rule Asia in its own right (Fukuzawa, 1882)
Industrial boom (1880s)
Japanese fleet lands in Korea, forces treaty (1876)
State Shinto: Emperor worship introduced as an "invented tradition" ("Imperial Rescript on Education," 1890; Buruma, 56-57)
Growth of militarism with a German flavor: Yamagata Aritomo (1880s - 1890s)
Constitution (1889): modeled after Prussia's, full sovereignty placed in imperial hands
Sino-Japanese War (1895): Japanese influence over Korea grows
Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905): Clash of rival imperialist ambitions in East Asia
"Twenty-one Demands" (1915): Japan, exploiting its alignment with Western allies in World War I, seeks to dominate Chinese republican government; feeds Chinese nationalism (see "May Fourth Movement")
Japanese Colonial Rule: Korea, Taiwan, Manchuria (1910-1945), China (1937-1945)
Kokutai no Hongi ("Fundamentals of the National Polity") (1937): absolute submission of individual will to that of the emperor, rightist collectivism (builds on rhetoric of Imperial Rescript of 1890)
Post World War II
Atomic bombs dropped, Japan surrenders to U.S. (1945)
American occupation of Japan (1945-1952)
1946 Constitution (n. b. especially Articles 1 and 9)
Economic Recovery and Boom (beginning in 1950s)
"Yoshida Doctrine" (post WWII period): emphasized economic recovery with reliance on U.S. military protection.
Leadership of Yoshida Shigeru, Ikeda Hayato, Sato Eisaku, Tanaka Kakuei
National mood: nuramayu - comfortable apathy born of economic security (K&W, 87)
Rebirth of Nationalism
The politics of Yasukuni-jinja
Japanese Influence in Korea
Japanese invasion led by Hideyoshi (1592)
Japanese naval force lands, compels Korea to sign Treaty of Kanghwa/Ganghwa (1876)
Sino-Japanese War and Treaty of Shimonseki (1895)
Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) and Treaty of Portsmouth (1905)
Japanese annexation (1910) and colonial rule (1910-1945)
Post World War II (1945-1948)
Area north of 38th parallel occupied by Soviet Union
Area south of 38th parallel occupied by United States
Partition (1948)
Republic of Korea established in the south
Democratic People's Republic of Korea established in the north
The Korean War (1950-1953)
Soviet troops withdraw from north and U.S. troops from south (1950)
North invades south (1950)
Ceasefire (July 27, 1953) but no final settlement
From the Korean War to the Present
South: Growth of democracy, economic boom
North: dictatorship, famine, disaster, nuclear tensions
Stirrings of reunification
Joint statement by ROK and DPRK committing themselves to seeking peaceful reunification (July 4, 1972 - see Chang, 100))
“Sunshine Policy” (launched on Feb. 25, 1998 by S. Korean Pres. Kim Dae Jung in his inaugural address -- full text from Korea Herald )
(see summary at Federation of American Scientists)
North-South Summit Conferences (2000, 2007)
Taiwan falls under Japanese rule
End Chinese Civil War (1949)
Republic of China (1949-present)
ROC-PRC Relations
United States breaks formal ties with Taiwan and recognizes the PRC as the sole legal government of China (1979)
Economic growth (1950s-present)
From authoritarianism to democracy (martial law ended in 1987)
Economic Crisis (1997)
"Saffron Revolution" in Burma (fall, 2007): Buddhist monks lead protests against military junta
Nationalism: Japan, India, China (K&W, ch.11; Kynge, 237 )
China's "Great Game"
Oil deals with Sudan, Uzbekistan, Iran (Kynge, 228ff.)
Military buildup along the "string of pearls" (Kynge, 235)
Territorial Disputes (K&W, 256-258, 337, 342; Kynge, 233f. )
Forecasts (K&W, 319-351; Kynge, ch.9 )
"Geopolitics of Scarcity" (Kynge, 226)
Asia and the West
Trade Imbalance and Debt
U.S. debt to China (Kynge, 223)
Growing European and American dependency on Asia (Kynge, chs. 4-5)
Threat to Asia from Western Protectionism (Kynge, 224)