The relevance is the motivation.
The peasant/Communist revolution in China took a long time, so I am not sure which incident you are referring to, but I understand our general motivation.
1. Washington is a long way away from China, even further away in 1927. No good intelligence.
2. Chinese were not liked in the USA by most people at the time. Racial prejudice, as I explained. This was true for every level of society - top to bottom.
3. Much prejudice against foreigners in general. Again, this was true from top to bottom. "Foreigners" means non-Western Europeans, no Irish allowed, either. Nor Italians, Spanish, or Portuguese.
4. Communism and socialism and anarchism were threats to the power structure. They were not popular with the people, either, because they were foreign "isms." Communists and socialists and anarchists in the US were from other countries, "those" countries, e.g., not England, and didn't speak good English.
The labor movement at the time was not left, and even if it had been, Communists had no support. I think the highest they ever got in an election was 3%, during the Progressive era.
The fact that some of the Communist party members did not actually believe in Communism is a subtlety that got lost in the translation.
5. Chiang Kai-Shek and his followers were admired in the US. I learned in school that he was a great hero.
6. Between the World Wars, the US had zero interest in geopolitics or being a world leader, and did not perceive itself as such.
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Re: Taiwan - the Taiwanese people are well liked in the USA, as are people from Hong Kong. We have come to admire the Chinese as people.
The government is a different story, even today. There is an incomprehensible brutality in the way your government treats dissenters. We know how to live with dissenters and we are extremely proud of that.
In America, dissent is honorable. We say, "I may not believe in what you say, but I would fight to the death for your right to say it." That is the way we raise our children. So killing dissenters is contrary to a belief that we would die for. I would die for, personally. When your government kills dissenters, it makes me want to fight. I would willingly die rather than stand by and allow my country to be governed by a government such as yours. But I would rather not die, I would prefer to win. I just mean, I wouldn't give up.
Personal freedom is something that we don't give up.
We don't hate all lefties. We love the Swedes. But their government allows their citizens a lot of personal freedom. |
