China Stands Up:The Rise of Modern China

The first major humiliation China suffered at the hands of the West could well be taken as the starting point for the rise of modern China. This rise has been both confused and lengthy, beset with setbacks, bedevilled by internal dissension and a source of intermittent great suffering for the Chinese people. It has now been accomplished and it may be postulated that modern China, part of the world community, united, stable and developing, albeit with some mighty problems yet to be solved, more or less came of age when Deng Xiaoping initiated his far-reaching and dramatic Open Door policy in 1978. It can equally be argued that this long process began in 1842 when a weak and inept Manchu government signed the Treaty of Nanjing with Britain, ceding HongKong island, allowing foreign interests to trade and subsequently missionaries to proselytize. These cut-off dates at either end can only be arbitrary, they roughly encompass a process that one way and another has taken nearly a century and a half. Indeed, one can assume an earlier or a later date for the beginning of the process; its completion is now a fait accompli. China and her people are today bent upon growth and prosperity; the bitterness of the past is of course remembered but mentioned less than before.