China and the West: The Meeting of Two Suspicious Minds

China has one of the longest and best continuously documented histories of a single civilization. It is a history of isolation, introspection, and suspicion of foreigners. This suspicion is best demonstrated by the construction of the Great Wall which for centuries protected the "Middle Kingdom" (as China regarded itself) from invasion. The Great Wall did not prevent internal rebellions which caused dynastic changes, but it did halt the advance of Mongolian, Japanese, and other armies. Then during the nineteenth century China changed its attitude towards foreign civilizations.

The change is attributable to the 1840 opium wars with Britain that led to China losing control of Hong Kong. When Britain gained control of Hong Kong, Western businesses began investing in China. Trade prospered until 1900 when some factions of Chinese intellectuals organized the "Boxer Rebellion". These factions argued that the "Middle Kingdom" had lost its purity and had become simply another depository for Western goods. The end result of the rebellion was that the US government paid to construct the city of Shanghai with foreign aid funds.

A decade later the imperial dynasties that ruled China for thousands of years lost their "Mandate from Heaven" and were replaced by a weak republic led by Chinese nationalists. Throughout its brief existence (1911-1949) the mainland Republic of China battled Communists and Japanese invaders. The Republic diverted most of its resources to military campaigns. It enjoyed essentially good relations with Western powers as allies during the second world war. American aid and advisers (including General George C. Marshall) could not assure stability in China. On 1 October 1949 Mao Tse-Tong founded the People's Republic of China (PRC). The nationalist republican leaders fled to the island of Formosa (now Taiwan) and re-established the Republic of China there. Both governments claimed to be the legitimate government of China. This situation caused much military uncertainty and contributed to Cold War hostility during the 1950s. The US recognized Taiwan; it did not recognize the PRC until 1979. Taiwan holds unique distinction as the only state ever to be formally de-recognized by the United States. A separate and quasi-privately operated division of the US State Department conducts diplomatic relations unofficially with Taiwan to protect American business interests there. In 1971 Taiwan voluntarily withdrew from the United Nations at the same moment the General Assembly admitted the PRC as the "true" delegation representing China.

While the West restored relations with the PRC, the PRC changed its attitude towards those Western leaders it previously rhetorically reviled. As during the nineteenth century, Western products poured into markets in Beijing and other Chinese cities. The PRC was perceived as a fertile frontier for manufacturing centers and an excellent source of low cost labor. Simultaneous with this influx of investment came allegations of egregious human rights abuses, mass jailing of political dissidents, and other abuses typical of tyrannical regimes. This situation was most explicitly depicted by the activities of the PRC army against thousands of people peacefully gathered in Tiennimen Square on 4 June 1989. For a while the attack against civilian demonstrators chilled China's relations with the West, but as issues of international trade gained prominence with the advent of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the general perception was that the PRC should and eventually would be a full member of the new global organization. During the 1990s annual renewal of most favored nation trading status for China caused contentious debates in the US Congress. Each year the status was renewed despite concerns about PRC human rights policies. By late 2000 it was almost a foregone conclusion that China would be a full WTO member well before the 2005 deadline to abolish all duties and quotas.

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