Choate: Continuing the....."no wonder they hate us so much" thread.
> " http://slashdot.org/yro/02/02/19/0122238.shtml?tid=153 " This is mostly off the top of my head, so I invite others to add insight/correct mistakes: Riding the opium and human trade, missionaries and Western influence gave China a culture shock, which caused the Taiping Rebellion of 1850 -- 40 million dead. Guerrilla activity lasting through 1864. A man named Hung Hsiu-ch'uan(?) had a religious vision where he was the son of God and the younger brother of Jesus Christ. They called themselves "God Worshippers" and raised a substantial army. It bled China so bad they had to go to the West for money, because they were fighting Moslem rebels in the North. (As they are today.) Colonial powers used the weakness and leverage to grab Burma (U.K.), Vietnam (French), Manchuria (Russia), etc. and so on, looting the rest of the country. From 1865 on, China was divided up among Western powers and exploited as a trinket-state. The cultural shock created multiple rebellions, anti-foreigner attitudes and internal unrest. In 1900, the Boxer Rebellion slaughtered missionaries. With the 1919 Peking University riots, China had rejected the West. Then came Kai-shek v. Mao and a war with Japan. A century of bloodshed caused by outside influence. I'm not 'making excuses' for China. ~Aimee
