WHEN THE BULLIED BECOMES THE BULLY

By Bayawanon

After the Sino-Japanese War where China lost to Japan, China became nothing but a property of different countries. She was divided into a sphere of influence of different strong countries like Japan, Britain, Portugal, etc. Manchuria fell to the hands of the Japanese, Hong Kong became a colony of Britain even before the Sino-Japanese War and Macau became a protectorate of Portugal even during the 1490s. For many years China was nothing but a sleeping giant.

But the time came when the giant had awakened from a long slumber, the democratic General Chiang-Kai-Shek and the communist Mao-Tse-Tung agreed to have a ceasefire from the Civil War and unite with each other with the common goal of repulsing the Japanese during the Second World War. The duo's forces became victorious and China became independent from the hands of the foreign invaders.

After the Second World War, the Civil War between the democrats and the communists continued with the communists eventually winning the war. General Chiang-Kai-Shek fled mainland China and went to Taiwan to establish the democratic Kuomintang government there. After the Chinese Civil War, Mao-Tse-Tung became the undisputed leader of China and the same became a communist state.

Mao-Tse-Tung brought reforms to China, one of which was the Chinese Industrial Revolution which paved the way for the industrialization of China. After such an important part of China's history, she never became the same again for she was transformed into an industrialized and militarized country. China is now a permanent member of the Security Council of the United Nations and she landed as the second biggest economy of the world.

China became militarily aggressive after the Second World War and the Chinese Civil War, she sided with North Korea and Russia in the forgettable Korean War and also aided North Vietnam in the infamous Vietnam War. She repulsed and crushed the rights of her citizens, the biggest human rights violation she committed was the Tiananmen Square massacre where hundreds of protesting students against totalitarianism where annihilated. After such a bloody part of Chinese history the people stopped from complaining and development was fast-tracked.

Now China wants to own everything in the Pacific and the West Philippine Sea nee South China Sea specifically the Spratly Islands and the Paracel Islands with pure dependence on their Nine-Dash-Line Theory which are not in corollary to international law and the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS). China is now trying to show the whole world the anger of a hegemon which was once upon a time a bullied giant which turned out to be an international bully through the rolling of time.