Differences in the way China and Japan dealt with the coming of the West

By Greg McCulley

Drafted 25 October 1998

����������� American Marines have a catch phrase, "adapt and overcome", that they often use to motivate members of their ranks when dealing with challenging situations.� Japan and China found themselves in such a situation as they struggled to cope with the coming with Western powers during the 19th century.� These two countries dealt with the stress of this change to their worlds in different ways, and this essay seeks to illustrate how they were different, how they were similar, and why by looking at the responses by each of the countries.��

����������� One of the more obvious similarities one observes between China and Japan in their dealings with the west was how both countries focused trade (and therefore influence of the west) in a limited number of ports.� China restricted trade to the port of Canton, and Japan restricted trade interaction to an island in Nagasaki Harbor.

����������� Prior to the coming of Portuguese and other European sea powers, China considered herself to be the center of the world.� The name "China" means "central kingdom", so the Chinese mindset when dealing with these traders left little room for imperial competition.� China traded with these nations out of benevolence of a country that did not need anything from the rest of the world; it was a seller's market.

����������� With trade focused in the Chinese port of Canton, a trade deficit soon developed from the lack of market in China for European goods.� Western silver went into China, not western goods.� What made matters worse was that Europe, particularly England, was buying mostly tea from China.� The English cultural addition to tea required England to come up with something to trade for it besides currency.� To save their coffers, traders began selling Indian opium to dealers in China.� This soon reversed the control of the trade situation as the demand for the drug grew in China.� Before, England traded silver for a consumable, tea.� Now, it was China trading silver for the consumable, opium.� In a set of engagements known as the Opium Wars, England forced open Chinese ports, recouped reparations for losses in the wars, and enjoyed extraterritoriality for her citizens in China.� This meant Europeans and their families were subject their country's laws, not China's.� With the exception of extraterritoriality (which was a traditional method of coping with the frequent "barbarian management" required throughout China's history), these things meant China was forced to take on a new world-view.� She was not the center of the world, and these hairy barbarians were not behaving subserviently at all.� Soon, the subservient role Chinese played in the trade areas, called foreign zones, was a metaphor for the role that China played internationally.� China had gone from serving as the primary influence in Asia to being a European exploitee.�

����������� Japan was a witness to this.� Because Japan was isolated from these events geographically, and because she was not the primary focus of English trade, Japan had some time to observe the mistakes (and successes) made by China and learn from these.� Under the Tokugawa Shogunate, trade was focused to one port, in Nagasaki Harbor.� Trading with the Dutch traders on an island in the harbor, the average Japanese had little contact with the west beyond rumor.� This changed when Commodore Perry opened Japan to trade via ultimatum enforced by "gunboat diplomacy".�� Perry sought coal to fuel the American fleet during trans-Pacific voyages, and wanted the Ryukyu Islands to become a coal station.

����������� Historically, Japan held a different viewpoint from China, and this is important to understanding the difference in how the two countries dealt with the west.� China saw herself as complete, needed no subsidy, cultural or otherwise, from the west.� Japan, by contrast, had a tradition of selective adoptation and adaptation.� She took what she needed from the west and made it distinctly Japanese.� It's inaccurate to say Japan has no cultural identity beyond her imported American one. For centuries, Japan was influenced by Korean and Chinese contact at the south end of Japan, the area nearest the mainland.� A similar tack was used in dealing with other foreigners.� This served Japan well.

����������� In a matter of a few years, Japan became a player in world affairs.� Ironically, Japan made war with source of much of her traditional culture, China.� In 1895, Japan defeated China.� Japan modernized, built an army and navy, and took on a worldview that resembled those who had opened her ports by force just a few decades earlier.� Japan sought German land holdings in China after World War I, later took Korea as a colony, then invaded China outright.� Tradition and internal pressures drove Japan to these decisions that reflected the ability to adopt and adapt to the world around her.�

����������� Because of Japan's method of dealing with the challenges of western influence, Japan had a much less traumatic time dealing with countries like the United States.� China had a long row to plow during the mid-19th to the early 20th centuries.� During the Opium Wars, the internal and very bloody Taiping Rebellion raged from Nanking northward. Other internal struggles, such as those with Chinese Moslems in the west, made China a fractionalized and weakened nation controlled by warlords, and not as nearly equipped to face the west as Japan was.� Japan, witnessing the western experience in China, took steps turn the situation to her advantage, and those steps accelerated her rise to world power status.

The result of this can be seen through a simple study of geography.� China has spent almost the entire 20 century dealing with the lost of sovereignty to old European claims, notably Hong Kong and the Kowloon Peninsula and Macao.� Japan's territory struggles with the Soviet Union over the northern Kuriles have not been nearly as significant. Japan realized that the faster you start to modernize, the less painful it will be, so since she could not beat them, she joined them.