UNIT 8

Chinese-American Relations: A History(Ⅰ)

The Nineteenth Century to World WarⅡ

The Nineteenth Century

In the 19th century,

the United States was

a relative newcomer to

the area of international affairs.

Relations with China really began,

not so subtly, in the 19th century

with its discriminatory immigration

policy against China. The Gold Rush

of 1849 in California, the building

of railroads, and the American industrial

revolution of the second half

of the 19th century, attracted

many Chinese immigrants with dreams

of the  good life in America.

At that time, it was perceived

by most of the world, that

America was the land of opportunity,

success, and wealth.

As the Chinese population

in the United States grew in size,

pressures to limit the number

of these coming into the United States

became strong. Laws, such as

placing a police tax on

Chinese people in California in 1862

and The Chinese Exclusion Act passed

in 1882, officially testified

to blatant discrimination against

Chinese people. The latter felt

forced to congregate in areas

of big cities, such as San Francisco,

New York, and Boston. Chinatown

soon became part of American

urban vocabulary. It seemed that

the timid Chinese were susceptible

to being pushed around. It appeared

that Chinese and other Oriental immigrants

were not welcome with open arms,

but were welcome only when

hard labour was needed to do

the toughest jobs, especially

in railroad construction and

in the new industries that were

fast developing at the time.

It would be well into

the 20th century before such discriminatory

laws would be suspended.

The Early Twentieth Century

During the second half of

the 19th century, the United States

was preoccupied with a civil war

and a post civil war

industrial revolution. American

foreign policy with China did not

really take form until 1899

and 1900. By the turn

of the century, the United States

was ascending as a major player

in international affairs, especially

in the western hemisphere.

American foreign policy, at the time,

focused mostly on Latin America.

However, in 1899, the Americans

saw economic opportunities in

an already politically suppressed China.

For decades, European countries

had been reaping the economic benefits

by exploiting of the country's resources

and markets while claiming chunks

of territory as their own.

It had become a closed club

of the countries already established there.

The United States, fearing that

China was about to officially partitioned,

wanted access to those lucrative assets

as well. American Secretary of State,

John Hay, perhaps using some

Big Stick and gunboat tactics,

popular American strategies at the time,

was well positioned to get

the established foreign nations

in China to conform to an agreement

called the Open Door policy for China.

This benchmark intervention by

the United States, conferred on

all countries, equal and impartial trade

with all parts of China, while

preserving the territorial and administrative

integrity of the country.

The American approach did little

to respect China's customary opposition

to foreign intrusion. To China,

the United States was only

one more country to bully it,

to exploit its resources and

sovereignty and, further, to deny

it of its autonomy,  integrity,

and dignity. This collective foreign presence,

boosted by American interests,

diffused any hope for China

to break the chains of humiliating

foreign occupation. The Chinese were

virtually captives or prisoners

in their own country.

The United States did not deviate

far from this economic

policy toward China, until

the communist take over in 1949.