Why China Turned to Communism and Won the Civil War

From the early nineteenth to the middle of the twentieth century, China went from a global economic, political, and scientific power to a basket case. After centuries of self-imposed isolation and government clamp down on innovation, Chinese science and technology were sliding backward and the country was losing its status as the world’s inventor. Research papers were burned, and those who dared to be innovative were persecuted or executed. Europe, in contrast, became militarily stronger and technologically advanced in weapons development, ship building, and navigation, empowering and enriching many nations, particularly Britain, Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, and the Netherlands in the same period. Growing economic and military power prompted these European powers to explore and colonize the world, searching for wealth and expanding their empire. In the nineteenth century, the United States joined the European powers in the pursuit of commercial opportunities. It was the United States that forced Japan to open up to the world. Japan, perhaps aware of its relative backwardness and weakness, opened its borders and emulated Western science and technology—including military technology—becoming a modern and powerful nation. But Chinese rulers were delusional in thinking that they had nothing to gain or learn from the “barbaric West,” widening the technology and power gap with the West and Japan.