What China’s Past Speaks About it’s Uncertain Future
Perched next to the massive Summer Gardens in Beijing, just north of the Tiananmen Square, and slightly east of the Temple of Azure Clouds, lies a series of desolate stones and columns that look out of place amongst a city known for its Imperial splendor.
Razed to the ground by British forces in 1860 after their capture of the complex, the Old Summer Palace, with its once sprawling grounds of carefully manicured gardens and centuries old mansions, was reduced to ash, leaving only a few precariously balanced marble slabs and rubble in its place. Looted prior to the burning, countless Imperial artifacts, ranging from delicate porcelains to brass and gold fixtures were taken and shipped to collections all around the world: testament to the destructive colonialism typical of European powers during the period.
You can scarcely imagine the beauty and magnificence of the places we burnt. It made one’s heart sore to burn them; in fact, these places were so large, and we were so pressed for time, that we could not plunder them carefully.
Now, if one were to return to the once proud symbol of the Imperial might and grandeur, all that remains are barely standing marble columns and crumbled stone, once a part of a flourishing country that was brutally crushed and mortally wounded by colonial interests and British cruelty.
For China, the Old Summer Palace (or Yuan Ming Yuan) is a national wound. Even almost two hundred years after its destruction, the rubble still lies at the heart of Beijing, destruction that lies preserved at the seat of China’s government as a stark warning against Western imperialism and colonialism.
It is through the Yuan Ming Yuan, that China conducts its foreign policy, its domestic security, and projects its global interests abroad. Everything that China does: from the subjugation of Tibet to its counter Western ideologies can be traced to the destruction of the Old Summer Palace, and the resulting years of humiliation that China was forced to undergo to “repent” for its crimes of being an independent nation, upset at Britain’s attempted influence on its national security and sovereignty.
Of course, in the modern era of globalism and post-colonialism, such actions conducted by any force, foreign or domestic, would be immediately condemned by the international community, disavowed by every nation with some understanding that cultural symbols are not the targets for destruction and annihilation. But for China, this doesn’t matter.
For all intents and purposes, China will never again be invaded and forced into capitulation by any nation from any culture — East or West. Armed with economic prosperity and growing global influence, China has seen to it that any nation or group seeking to destabilize or destroy its government, its seat of power, and its cultural heritage will find it impossible to do so — thanks to a series of foreign policy decisions, partnerships, and initiatives with a focus on extracting revenge for two centuries of Western subjugation and humiliation. But for all China tries to remember the past through a single era of colonial domination, it often forgets it is still vulnerable to the ramifications of its more general trends throughout its long existence.
China’s journey is intensely cyclical. It’s 3,000 year history is made up of tens of thousands of incidents that repeat, year by year, dynasty by dynasty. China grows as a world power, leads the region in economic development and innovation, only to fall behind, lazy from its perceived lead against its perceived lesser neighbors, and then proceeds to be overrun. Heng Zhe’s fleet, voyaging to Africa and neighboring nations, bringing trade and Imperial authority to the far reaches of the Asian and African continents, lead the world in terms of size and technology, yet ended up rotting by the end of the century in port, a shadow of its former prestige and symbolism once invoked on legendary voyages. China sat content with its naval prowess, thought the rest of the barbaric world could never catch up to its sophistication and grace — yet it was China that sat with the wooden junks fighting the British navy armed with the latest in weapons technology, cannons and muskets making easy work of the weak and vulnerable Chinese fleet.
The ways dynasties fall are even more predictable, applying universally to every single Emperor throughout China’s sprawling 3,000 year history, No matter how affluent or developed, from the Song to the Tang, dynasties fall at the turn of every natural disaster, famine, or foreign invasion, each toppled by either peasant revolution or corruption and lazy impertinence. The concept of a peaceful transition of power has no place in China’s history: it is either rule successfully, or die trying.
Right now, China is focused on revenge. It has understood that times have changed, and it now has an opportunity for payback against the nations it believed has harmed its national pride and cultural identity. But what’s missing from China’s story, is behind every cultural humiliation, only the ruling party lies at fault. The British, although particularly maleficent with their arson and destructive tactics, were not, as the Chinese would like to believe, determined to destroy the Old Summer Palace out of pure hatred for the Chinese culture. Instead, they were retaliating for the Chinese killing 14 British and French diplomats — had China obeyed international norms and standards for protocol, a raging inferno might not have engulfed the palace, and it wouldn’t have lost a symbol of national pride and Imperial rule. If China had continued to innovate beyond the naval technology it alone pioneered, if it had successfully cultivated gunpowder to a weapon rather than a children’s toy: the what-if’s are endless. When British officials visited the Qing dynasty in search of expanding trade routes, the Chinese communicated with them in Latin, assuming the British were the Romans that preceded them nearly 1200 years ago. China can blame European powers and ignore its own flaws: but look just across a narrow channel to Imperial Japan, who embarked on the Meji Restoration immediately after encountering a technologically superior enemy, rapidly industrializing until its military and factories were second to none in Asia, while Qing officials squabbled about preserving culture rather than innovation, and you will see the chronic relaxed superiority complex that lead to the downfall of Chinese power and grace in the region, until it was inevitable for the nation to be manipulated and disgraced by exploitation and colonial rule.
China is on the rise again. In the cycle of rule, which even the communist regime is not immune to, perhaps China is reaching its Golden Era, filled with peace and prosperity, as well as technological innovation and industrialization. But what China threatens to become, in seeking to prevent a repeat of its humiliating past, is the very idea it has sworn to eternally fight against. China has become the bully — look anywhere in its realm of influence, and you’ll see evidence of abusive power, whether that be against other countries in the South China Sea or the Uyghurs in Xinjiang. Aggressive Covid-19 containment protocols forced millions of citizens to remain isolated in deplorable conditions, new technologies crack down on freedoms, and Hong Kong, the former sanctum of democracy, is now yet another Chinese satellite state. It would do well for China to remember: no rule is immune to the power of the people. Countless dynasties were toppled by starving peasants and angry citizens, and the government is just as resistant to these factors as the Emperors that came before it. In a global community, China finds itself increasingly isolated, making more enemies than friends in its goals to prevent foreign takeovers of its previous land and culture.
While China’s history as an autocratically ruled nation-state lends itself to an edge in quick action, with no need for infighting and political fistfights, quick action is often rash and poorly fleshed out. Democracy promotes discussion, and discussion results in carefully planned and deliberate action for the sake of all interests involved. While action is slower, and often susceptible to painstaking compromise, an action in which no party every voluntarily embarks on, compromise ensures efficacy. The advantage comes in the nature of discussion: concerns are addressed, questions answered. With more involved in a decision, comes less chance for action to grow with unintended consequences. The United States Constitution, while subject to thousands of arguments and months political conflict, remains as the greatest testament to the power of democracy to balance power with independence. Concerns for the abuse of power within the government resulted in three branches — three branches resulted in a system of checks and balances — concerns over the power of the Federal government resulted in provisions dedicated to reserving rights to the states — concerns that personal liberties were destined to be sacrificed to politicians were assuaged by a Bill of Rights detailing rights the Federal government is, with some exceptions, banned from seizing.
There is a reason the United States has successfully maintained a peaceful transition of power for over 46 presidents and 200 years of history. The discussion and slow action, while seemingly inefficient and mammoth in nature, has resulted in centuries of political stability, regardless of changing times and culture. China cannot say the same: in the same window of time as the existence of the United States, it has gone through political turmoil, civil war, and revolution — all from the nature of autocratic rule.
China will never forget the destruction of the Old Summer Palace. It will continually remain a blight on its proud history, the time when the Middle Kingdom fell to Western barbarians and foreign invaders. But moving forward in the future, China will find it increasingly harder and harder in differentiating between campaigning against the powers that burnt its cherished palace to the ground, and becoming one of them itself. In its uncertain future, one thing is certain: the current rule will again, be one of many. There will be a time where autocratic action will result in famine, disaster, or tragedy. And when that time comes, China will see itself, again, enter a new era — ending one more cycle amidst its long, tumultuous history.