Contemporary China and Sun Yat-Sen - Essay Example

Contemporary China and Sun Yat-Sen

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The history of China is rich, captivating and turbulent at the same time. This is mainly seen in the events that took place in the twentieth century which saw various political, social and economic upheavals take place in China in the 20th century. The dissatisfaction of various Chinese citizens on the Manchu rule saw some Chinese business people and students rebel against the Qing dynasty. This further led to the fragile nature of affairs in the country. Various events took place in the country in the 20th century which saw various changes take place which included leadership of the country and the ascent of new leadership to power. Apart from the political changes that occurred in the country around this period, there are social and economic changes that have seen the Chinese society evolve significantly over the past years. The countrys economy, for instance, has seen it become one of the economic powerhouses of the world. Sociologists, on the other hand, points out that household in China have experienced changes over the years. This has led to a massive growth of Chinese population CITATION HuZ15 \p 45 \l 1033 (Hu 45).

Sun Yat Sen is an important figure who is impossible not to refer while studying the Chinese Revolution. The involvement of Dr. Sun in the early days of the Chinese revolution was crucial, but an argument ensues on the effectiveness of his participation in the revolution. There are different perspectives of various scholars on whether his contribution was helpful where some scholars have a view that he was instrumental in Chinese revolution while others have an opposing view that he was a failed revolutionary CITATION Mit15 \p 134 \l 1033 (Mitter 134).

Sun Yat-Sen is regarded as the first third world revolutionary whose contribution in dealing with the major issues affecting the country engaged the developing countries. This made him be regarded as the acclaimed national hero and the founding father of the modern China. Being one of the acclaimed domestic political thinkers in China, he used mix of both traditional Chinese cultural leadership style and the moral values from contemporary European and American political and economic ideas which enabled him to create the infamous doctrine called Three Principles of the People which was made up of Nationalism, Democracy and People's livelihood. This doctrine is believed to have created a blueprint which allowed the country to experience political reform and changed the way of thinking in China enabling liberal thinking and further becoming a model to other third world countries. This earned him the respect as the father of the revolution. While the western democracies emphasized on the political rights, socialists, on the other hand, emphasized on the economic rights; on the contrary to these two Suns principles on the other hand emphasized on both political and economic rights as well as the welfare and the livelihoods of the Chinese people.

There are varied views on the contribution of Sun Yat-Sen to the 1911 revolution. Dr. Sun who had spent most of his time in exile had expressed his desire to overthrowthe Qing dynasty. He began this by recruiting and sending followers to different areas of China to spread the message of the uprising in 1900. The attempted rebellion however failed. This did not keep Sun Yat-Sen from his desire to overthrow the government. This is seen when the groups of students allied to Sun Yat Sen formed a coalition referred as Tongmenhui which was a Chinese Society. The primary goal of these groups was to overthrow the Qing dynasty. Apart from overthrowing the Qing dynasty, the uprising led by Sen wanted to make reforms in the country. These reforms included the establishment of the independent Republic of China, getting rid of all the foreigners distributing land equally and developing the economic status of the country. This views made Sun famous and gained him a name in the mainstream revolution with many people seeing him as a possible force that could revive China.

Although SunYat-Sen did not directly participate in the uprising in 1911, he contributed largely to it by inspiring the participants. He participated in campaigning and spreading the mutiny in Wuchang which ignited the flame of revolution across the country. Apart from organizing the revolution and spreading revolt against Qing dynasty, SunYat-Sen made people understand that there are better ways in which affairs of the country can be run. This enlightened individuals and made them aware that Qing dynasty has for long exploited the Chinese people.

The events that led to the overthrowing of the Qing dynasty in 1911 through an epochal rebellion and founded the Republic of China were inspired by Dr. Sun. He was later to be inaugurated as the provisional president of the Republic of China. He however stepped aside leaving the office for Yuan Shih-Kai who is regarded by many as a powerful and ambitious leader. He then rallied people against Yuan who he saw as over ambitious and corrupt. Further, he focused on the unification of the Chinese people by popularizing the National Party around the country. To strengthen the military might of China in the international arena, he established Whampoa Military Academy apart from developing Three Principles whose core intention was to strengthen the economy and the social livelihood of the Chinese people. He mainly contributed to the Chinese nationalism and patriotism focused on national unification and democracy.

Among the areas that were highly focused on by Dr. Sun are economic transformation and labor. Traditionalist economies still depended on the international division of labor in the country. This, however, did not go down well with Dr. Sun who saw this as exploitation of other nations due to believing that some nations will be producers of products while others will only concentrate their efforts on industry. While western powers recognized only two world orders either socialist or capitalist, Sun came up with Chinas order which is nationalism. With nationalism, Chinese people would be able to speak of the countrys economic growth and the livelihood of the people thus the country was later to prosper due to the new ideologies held in the adopted system. By advocating such beliefs, China was to develop under the transfer of the western capital skills and technology all of which Sun advocated for the Chinese republic. He believed that these factors which were mainly available in the world of the West were the only key success factors which would see China prosper CITATION CHE13 \p 78 \l 1033 (CHEN 78).

The economic ideology of Sun of modernizing the Chinese economy first came to light in his 1894 first public statement where he stated the need to improve the effort of improving the economy of China. In this declaration, he elaborated the need of establishing modern transport and infrastructure systems which he regarded as the key drivers of the economy. In Suns view, there was a need for the construction of vast transport network which includes roads, railway lines, and water passages. With these systems in place, Sun stated that communication around the entire country would be cheap and efficient and able to enhance economic growth of the country. Animal and plant production were still using traditional methods in China. This called for an urgent need for action against inadequate methods of agriculture which was in place in the country. Sun urged the Chinese people to introduce modern agricultural technologies which would see a boost in the countrys agricultural ability and food safety. Due to this new demands advocated by Sun, a new animal, and plant varieties were introduced into the country, this oversaw agriculture getting enhanced in various parts of the country. Additionally, it modernized the country bringing into place new technologies which were available in the western world. With excellent infrastructural facilities in place, Sun believed that the country would be self-reliant and able to resist dependence on the Western powers and oppression which had for long been waged on the Chinese soil by these foreigners CITATION Lor13 \p 28 \l 1033 (Lorenzo 28).

Sun apart from his contribution to the economy of China also contributed widely to the social well-being of the Chinese people. His trips to various parts of the world allowed him to see how people lived in different conditions which he saw as much better than the state of affairs in his native country. He had gone to Vancouver in Canada and the United States on several occasions to drum up support for his revolution and had observed various positive developments which were taking place in the western world which if executed in China, the country will experience the social satisfaction. In his entire lifetime, Sun was worried about the influence in which the western culture had on the Chinese traditional view and beliefs. This made him adopt nationalism which would counter the challenges posed to the countrys mode of beliefs by socialism and communism which were brought into the country by the Western nations. He was highly aware of the imperialism laid down in various parts of the world by the westerners. This is evident in the speech in English in 1904 called Imperialism. In this speech, he seemed aware and worried about the threat that the country faced from the imperial powers whose main aim was to fleece the country of its resources as they have done in other nations. Imperialists had a reputation of taking the natural resources of their victim country to their motherland leaving nothing behind as a result. Aware of this, he was determined to strengthen the Republic of China by developing it and equipping people with adequate knowledge on their rightful place in the world.

Throughout his life, Dr. Sun believed that economic and military weakness of a country leaves it open and vulnerable to the exploitation of other countries whose main aim is to unfairly and unequally obtain whatever they want and run leaving the country at its poorest state. Sun further believed that there could be a relationship between China and foreign nations which can mutually benefit both Chinese as well as the foreign countries. According to his views, China will forever remain weak without a proper relationship with other nations due to little trade which is the key factor that ensures exchange of ideas and wealth. China under the leadership of Sun was opposed to the oppressive and exploitative relationship between his country and the imperialists. While economic exploitation is more harmful compared to the political type of opression, Sun expressed the need for the defense system. He was aware of the fact that lack of proper defensive mechanisms in a country will lead to falling of the country leaving it a victim of political and social hegemony from the imperialists. Being a hazardous and vulnerable nation, Sun saw a need to put a balanced strategy which will oversee the tremendous growth of the country while on the other hand ensuring its independence and sovereignty CITATION Ngo15 \p 29 \l 1033 (Ngok 29).

The land and economic policies which were adopted by China saw the growth and consistency of its economy and industrialization. The primary driver behind this was the desire to maintain the livelihood of the Chinese people. The first attraction of Sun which urged the creation of the land policies was to create a common ground which would see the harmonization of the personal interests of various people in the society.

Concerning industrialization of the country, Sun had an ambitious plan which was aimed at making the country competitive regarding industrialization like their western counterparts CITATION Che09 \p 81 \l 1033 (Chen 81).

With the introduction of nationalism by Sun, the country has since th...