Chinese nationalism

Modern Chinese nationalism emerged in the late Qing dynasty (1644–1912) in response to China's humiliating defeat at the end of the First Sino-Japanese War and the invasion and pillaging of Beijing by the Eight-Nation Alliance.

During the Warlord Era, large-scale military campaigns which were led by the Kuomintang (KMT), overpowered provincial warlords and sharply reduced special privileges for foreigners contributed to the strengthening and aggrandizing of a sense of Chinese national identity.After the Empire of Japan was defeated by the Allies at the end of World War II, Chinese nationalism again gained traction as China recovered territories which it lost to Japan before the war, including Northeast area and the island of Taiwan.

[8] Chinese nationalists drew inspiration from Japan's victory in the Russo-Japanese War, which they broadly viewed as demonstrating the fallacy of a European-centric racial hierarchy.

Shaped by the global discourse about Social Darwinism, reformers and intellectuals both held debates about how they should build a new Chinese national subject based on a proper racial order, particularly on Manchu-Han relations.

[11] After the collapse of the Qing regime and the founding of the Republic of China in 1912, concerns about domestic and international threats caused the role of racism to decline and during the 1910s, anti-imperialism became the new dominant ideology of Chinese nationalism.

"[12] In some revolutionary circles in the 19th century, the significance of the development of a Chinese national identity was the result of an attempt to negatively identify the Han people by turning them against the Qing dynasty, which was non-Chinese in their view.

[13]: 18 After Qing China's defeat at the end of the Sino-Japanese War of 1895, reformers and intellectuals debated about how to strengthen the nation, the discussion of which centered on the issue of race.

Liang Qichao, a late Qing reformist who participated in the Hundred Days' Reform of 1898, contended that the boundary between Han and Manchu must be erased (ping Man-Han zhi jie).

[17] Historian Prasenjit Duara summarized this by stating that the Republican revolutionaries primarily drew on the international discourse of "racist evolutionism" to envision a "racially purified China.

[18] The rhetorical move, as China historian Joseph Esherick points out, was based on practical concerns about imperial threats from the international environment and conflicts on the Chinese frontiers.

Pressured by both domestic and international problems, the fragile Republican regime decided to maintain the borders of the Qing Empire to keep its territories intact.

[22] In addition to being anticommunist, some KMT members, like Chiang Kai-shek's right-hand man Dai Li were anti-American, and wanted to expel American influence.

[26] In addition to anti-Manchuism and anti-imperialism, political scientist Chalmers Johnson has argued that the CCP's rise to power through its alliance with the peasantry should also be understood as "a species of nationalism.

[citation needed] Influenced by the 1911 Revolution and the appearance of modern nationalist theories, "Zhonghua minzu" in the early Republic of China, referred to the Five Races Under One Union concept.

[13]: 19 Before Xi Jinping took power in 2012, the People's Republic of China's form of Chinese nationalism was strongly influenced by the Soviet Union's Korenizatsiya policy.

On the other hand, the primary focus of Chinese nationalism in Taiwan was the preservation of the ideals and lineage of Sun Yat-sen, the party which he founded, the Kuomintang (KMT), and anti-Communism.

[citation needed] In the 1990s, the dissolution of the Soviet Union, rising economic standards and the lack of any other legitimizing ideology, has led to what most observers see as a resurgence of nationalism within mainland China.

Ma Bufang presented himself as a Chinese nationalist who fought against Western imperialism to the people of China in order to deflect criticism by opponents that his government was feudal and oppressed minorities like Tibetans and Buddhist Mongols.

The former has engaged in combating the influence of Falun Gong in Taiwan,[69] while the latter has been accused of violence against Hong Kong opposition figures such as Denise Ho and Lam Wing-kee.

The Milk Tea Alliance formed by netizens from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Thailand began as a reaction against Chinese nationalist commentators online.

[98]: 62 The end of the Cold War has seen the revival throughout the world of nationalist sentiments and aspirations, nationalism is seen as increasing the legitimacy of Chinese Communist Party rule.

One such event occurred in the Hainan Island incident of April 1, 2001, in which a United States US EP-3 surveillance aircraft collided mid-air with a Chinese Shenyang J-8 jet fighter over the South China Sea.

[6]: 64 The Japanese history textbook controversies, as well as Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to the Yasukuni Shrine was the source of considerable anger on Chinese blogs.

In addition, the protests following the 2008 Tibetan unrest of the Olympic torch has gathered strong opposition within the Chinese community inside China and abroad.

The central government's quick response to the disaster was instrumental in galvanizing general support from the population amidst harsh criticism directed towards China's handling of the Lhasa riots only two months previously.

In 2012, Chinese people in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan held anti-Japanese protests due to the escalating Senkaku Islands dispute.

[108] Nationalism was witnessed at the 2008 Olympic torch relay where pro-Olympic protests were held by overseas Chinese in response to disruptions by anti-China activists in Paris and London.

[6]: 151  The images were widely televised and led to an internet rumor that accused French supermarket company Carrefour[6]: 151  of funding Tibetan independence groups.

[6]: 150 In 2005, twenty-two million Chinese netizens signed an internet petition in opposition to Japan's efforts to join the United Nations Security Council.

[121] In response to protests during the 2008 Olympic Torch Relay, the Chinese blogosphere became filled with nationalistic material, many of which highlighted perceived biases and inaccuracies in Western media such as photos of clashes between police and Tibetan independence protestors that took place in Nepal and India but captioned to seem as if the events happened in China.