Young China
ATREMENDOUS revolution is proceeding in China, and we shall be hopelessly unwise if we fail tb note its phenomena and base our policy upon them. The new spirit of nationalism extends from end to end of the country. It is the one thing in the China of to-day which is a unifying force. One of the most ancient civilizations of the world, famous for its philosophic calm, has become infected by the modem political bacillus. The disease—for it is a disease at the moment—may culminate in a great improvement of the patient's health, or it may lead to permanent distempers. It is, we believe, possible for the Powers to shape the course of the disease and secure that it shall have permanently beneficial results. We must encourage the good that is in Chinese nationalism and discourage the bad. The one thing that we cannot do with any possibility of success is simply to try to repress or ignore nationalism.
The Chinese are highly self-conscious now. They believe that too long they have accepted a position of inferiority which is implied, to their constant humilia- tion, in what they call the unequal Treaties. They intend, whatever happens during the transaction, to get themselves out of that position. And who shall say them nay ? They are in the grip of a movement which has spread like an epidemic about the world. They see Turkey and India and Egypt, and even Asiatic tribesmen, acquiring or marching towards a new status ; and they say that they will not be contented with less themselves. This revolution affects in China about a fifth of the total population of the world. It is an irony that at a time when China seemed to have fallen hopelessly into separate groups which could not be joined together again this nationalism is providing a stronger common bond than has ever existed before. It may indeed be, as we have often speculated, that China will never again be one in the old sense, but even a federation of territories may have the sense of nation- ality. The Cantonese, who have by far the greatest power of coherence now to be found in China, may spread their influence over the whole country. Within a year or two they may even embrace Manchuria. The most important capital of the future may be Nanking. But even if the Cantonese should not achieve so much they may become the Prussians of China and exert a hegemony.
It is an entire mistake to suppose that there are any sane people in this country who desire to try to check Chinese nationalism by armed intervention. The days are past when the Powers by engaging a few forts on the coast could bring the Central Government to sub- mission and impose quiet upon millions who had never seen the sea , or a ship. All that Englishmen in common with other foreigners want in .China is the right to live in security. and _ trade in peace. It seemed that the Washington resolutions of 1921-22 would give the Chinese enough for their satisfaction. Certainly the Conferences which* met at Peking to put those resolutions into operation were entirely benevolent. All the Powers were ready to modify the Customs system administered by foreignerk-:—administered, be it said, with great efficiency and honest3i—so that the Chinese might imphse extra duties for their own benefit. All the Powers were ready, again, to abandon the extra-territorial rights of foreigners in the Treaty Ports and the Concesiohi in order that China might become nationally an equal among equals: The only condition imposed was. the reasonable one that foreigners should be really guarani safety for themselves and their property. All this w. only intended as a start.
Unhappily the dream was rudely ended by the Ch War, which deprived China of any Government who writ would run. The blame, therefore, for the immedia disappointment cannot fairly be laid upon the Powe All we want to insist upon is that Great Britain shout make it perfectly clear that she is a true supporter o Chinese nationalism. So intellectual a people as tli; Chinese should eventually be able to compose the affairs and provide a degree of security for foreign which will make extra-territorial rights wholly unneees sary. It ought, however, to be pointed out that the granting of extra-territorial rights was as much du to the Chinese themselves as to foreigners. At firs' the Chinese, though they never had the hermit ideals of Japan, did not like the idea of foreigners living free;} among them wherever they pleased, and it was at the suggestion of China that the resident foreigners we as far as possible grouped in Treaty Ports and Concessions. It is not true, therefore, to say that these rights have been merely grabbed. Rights, even some of those which are questionable in origin, become sanctioned by lapse of time, by custom, and by the active recognition of them by both parties. This is certainly true in China, where not only the Peking Government, but the people have entered into contractual relations with foreigners on the strength of which vast financial and commercial organizations have been built up.
It may be objected, however, that we ought not to encourage a form of nationalism that has taken on a definitely Red complexion. The answer is that those who understand most about the intensely individualistic temper of the Chinese are convinced that there is no fundamental community of ideas between the Chinese and the Russian Bolshevists. Each side is using the other for temporary purposes. Already it is clear, from labour riots and so forth, that certain Bolshevist methods are highly inconvenient to the Cantonese Government. It should be our earnest purpose, then, to prove to the Chinese that this irksome Russian help is entirely unnecessary. We ought not to stand upon a punctilio, but should learn something from those foreign merchants at Hankow who have quietly accepted the extra duty imposed on their merchandise by the Cantonese invaders. They have acted on the principle that as this surcharge was agreed to by the Peking Tariff Conference they are only accepting from a de facto Government what the old Central Government of Peking might have applied. The most important thing for Great Britain is not to miss the tide—a thing that, seamen hardly ever do, though statesmen do it continually. We were late in the day in diverting the Boxer indemnity to the benefit of China, and it is sincerely to be hoped that we shalt not be late again: Precisely because the Russians are pulling many strings in China there is an immense amount of propaganda. The Chinese propaganda IS anti-foreign because it .is nationalistic ; the Russian propaganda _ is anti-foreign because the Bolshevists, caring nothing about Chinese nationalism, want to injure Great ,Britain wherever and whenever they cam It. is being said by the Cantonese that Great Britain is supporting the North against the South. That delusion ought to be removed as quickly as possible. There is no reason in the world why Great Britain should suppoll the North, and she is not attempting to do so.
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