China and the US should be wary of the historical parallels with 1914
Niklas Swanström and Phil C.W. Chan
The year 2019 is meaningful for China and the world in so many ways. It marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China and the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen uprising.
It is momentous for another, less celebrated, reason: the centennial of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, formally ending World War I. At the Paris Peace Conference, China demanded the return of Shandong peninsula, which had been surrendered by Germany to Japan. Rejection of China’s demand brought forth the May Fourth Movement, allowing Marxist ideas to take hold.
Japan saw its proposal for a racial equality clause in the treaty stymied, leading to its disillusionment with the international system of the day and rapid militarisation, ultimately causing millions to perish. Germany, of course, regarded the treaty and its prohibitive terms as abject national humiliation.
Related Publications
-
Europe’s Involvement in the Indo-Pacific Region: Determined on Paper, Timid in Reality
Introduction France adopted its Indo-Pacific strategy in 2018, Germany in 2020 and the EU in 2021. None of this comes a minute too soon as geo-political and geoeconomic competition in […]
-
Cross-Strait Relations: A Conflict in Slow Motion?
Abstract Xi Jinping’s much-anticipated centennial speech left little doubt that it remains “an unshakeable commitment” for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to resolve the Taiwan issue. With the global pandemic […]
-
The Dawn of the Digital Yuan: China’s Central Bank Digital Currency and Its Implications
Summary The COVID-19 pandemic has driven digital innovation and proved to be an enabling episode for the technology industry; the growing focus on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) comes within such a context. China has rushed to […]
-
The Problem of Whitsun Reef
Introduction More than a month has passed since a statement relating to the presence of Chinese fishing vessels at Whitsun Reef was released by the Philippine Coast Guard and the […]
-
The Next Generation Problem: The Ups and Downs of Sweden’s Huawei Ban
Abstract After months of pending legal challenges, Sweden proceeded with the long-delayed 5G-frequency auctions in January this year, finally allowing Swedish telecom providers to continue the 5G-rollout; however, still without […]
-
Russian Foreign Policy in 2020: Strengthening Multi-vectoralism
Sino-Russian Relations: Expectations, Illusions, and General Trends by Niklas Swanström Abstract China and Russia have consistently been building strategic cooperation between one another. Even as Russia has sometimes used the […]