The Japanese, Manchukuo, and the Collaborators

October 30, 2019

This post is an example of the dangers of bias that blinds individuals to reality.

Recently, I had a run-in on Quora with an alleged woman who claimed that many Chinese collaborators that cooperated with the Japanese in Manchuria between 1931 and 1945 were Han Chinese. This alleged woman went on to claim that today many of them were powerful members of China’s government. From his/her comments, it was easy to imagine this anonymous person foaming at the mouth in rage as they pounded on their keyboard. When I challenged this person to provide links to support their allegations, there was no reply.

If any Chinese are alive today that collaborated with the Japanese in Manchuria and China between 1931 and 1945, and were at least 18 years old at the time they enlisted, the oldest would have to be 106; the youngest 92.

For instance, Henry Puyi was allegedly one of the most influential collaborators that worked with the Japanese, and he wasn’t even Han. He was Manchurian. The Japanese initially installed Puyi as Head of State in 1932, and two years later he was declared Emperor of Manchukuo with the era name of Kangde. Puyi was twenty-six in 1932, and he died in 1967. Puyi was never a member of the Chinese Communist Party.

The Japanese invasion of Manchuria took place on September 18, 1931, eighty-eight years ago.  According to historical records, “In total, it was estimated that all pro-Japanese collaborationist Chinese forces (in all of China) combined had a strength of around 683,000. … And there were numerous other collaborationist units that operated in other parts of China under the Japanese. The most notable were the armed forces of the separate puppet state of Manchukuo.”

NOTE: In 1931, China’s population was almost 475-million people. That means the collaborators made up close to one-tenth of one percent of the population.

In addition, Britannica.com says, “They (in 1937, the People’s Liberation Army led by Mao) eventually reached northwestern China, which was closer to the area that by then was occupied by Japanese troops. Led by Mao Zedong, the communists responded to the growing anti-Japanese sentiment of their countrymen by calling on the KMT to join with them in expelling the Japanese.”

Xi Jinping, China’s current President was born in 1953, eight years after the end of World War II. Including Xi Xinping, there are 25 members of China’s Politburo, the group that holds the most power in China. The oldest four members of the Politburo were born in 1950; the youngest in 1963. None of them were alive during World War II.

China’s National People’s Congress has 2,980 delegates. Npobserver.com reports, “The 2,980 delegates are on average 52 years old, with most (1,632 or 54.8%) in the 50–59 age group. The youngest six delegates are 22 years old, while the oldest delegate, Ms. SHEN Jilan from Shanxi, is 88; she has been a delegate since the 1st NPC.”

There is only one delegate older than 80, and that is Ms. SHEN Jilan from Shanxi. Jilan was born the year Japan invaded Manchuria and turned 14 when World War II ended. I doubt that Jilan was running around in diapers collaborating with the Japanese. According to the China Daily, “She has been a farmer for her whole life. She is also a lifetime national lawmaker. … Shen is from a remote village in the mountains of Taihang, a revolutionary base of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in North China’s Shanxi province.”

I think it is too easy for anonymous individuals to make any claims their twisted minds think up and then share them through the internet. It is also obvious that there are too many people that believe these false and misleading allegations. I mean, just look at how many Americans think President Donald Trump is the “Chosen One” because Trump says so. If you do not know what that means to Trump’s hard-core followers, the “Chosen One” is someone anointed by God to save the world … or America from socialists and Communists.

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of My Splendid Concubine, Crazy is Normal, Running with the Enemy, and The Redemption of Don Juan Casanova.

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Why does Frank Dikötter keep lying about China?

October 23, 2019

Frank Dikötter wrote what is called an ARGUMENT published by Foreign Policy.com. Dikötter alleges that “The People’s Republic of China Was Born in Chains” and “The Communist Party calls 1949 a liberation. But China was far freer beforehand.”

Dikötter has a right to his biased opinions about China, but he is wrong to the point of being a liar.

For instance, David C. Schak reports, “Throughout most of Chinese history the majority of Chinese have lived in poverty. As the hundreds of famines that have killed millions of Chinese attest, Chinese poverty has often been absolute, i.e., lacking the very material resources needed to sustain life and maintain health.”

Later in his paper, Schak says, “The fall of the Qing Dynasty and the dynastic system in 1911 changed China significantly, but the major change to the condition of the peasantry was from armed conflict. Between 1911 and the communist takeover in 1949, China suffered thirty years of warfare: battles between warlord armies over territory; the Northern Expedition leading to the establishment of the Nationalist government in Nanjing; the extermination campaigns against the communists; the very deadly war against the Japanese (1937-45); and the resumption of the civil war from 1946 to 1949. Aside from the destruction caused by the battles themselves, marauding armies often confiscated crops and forcibly conscripted men, leaving the peasants with no resources. Moreover, competing warlords each taxed the peasants, sometimes many years in advance.”

Then there is Chiang Kai-shek, a brutal dictator from 1928 until his death in 1975.  Along with Mao Zedong, he is listed as one of the top nine killers of the 20th century. “Surprisingly, Chiang Kai-shek ranks number four, killing ten million people from 1928 to 1949.”

In 1927, When Chinese workers (some of them belonged to the Chinese Communist Party) attempted to organize labor unions and negotiate working conditions with better pay, Chiang Kai-shek, ordered his army to slaughter them. This resulted in the Shanghai massacre of April 12, 1927 and started the Civil War between China’s Communist Party and Chiang’s Nationalist dictatorship that would not end until 1949.

Before April 12, 1927, the Chinese Communist Party was one of several political parties that belonged to the so-called Republic of China that was founded by Sun Yat-sen soon after 1911, a republic that never held any elections.

Even after Chiang Kai-shek lost the long Civil War to the Chinese Communists in 1949, he remained the never-elected president of Taiwan. In fact, he declared martial law in Taiwan on May 20, 1949 and ruled with a brutal iron fist until he died in 1975. Martial law would remain in place until July 14, 1987, and Taiwan would not hold its first democratic presidential election until 1990.  That means, between 1949 and 1990, Taiwan was an authoritarian state and not a democracy.

The US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health reports, “In 1949, the life expectancy in China was only 36 years. In early 1980s, it has increased to 68 years. This increase in life expectancy is attributed mostly to improved nutrition and lowering of mortality due to decrease in infectious diseases. Though population, disease and mortality statistics of modern China are spotty and sometimes questionable, common consensus among the researchers is that since 1949 the public health situation in China has improved tremendously (after the Chinese Communist Party ruled the country).”

Mao might be as guilty as Chiang Kai-shek for brutality, but when Mao died in 1976, the average lifespan had dramatically increased from age 36 to 64.63. In addition, in 1949, China’s population was 541.6 million people. By the time Mao died, China’s population had reached 930.7 million people, an increase of more than 389 million people.

It is obvious that Frank Dikötter does not know what he is talking about unless he is deliberately spreading lies about China. It is a fact that the Chinese have a better quality of life and more freedom today than they have ever had throughout the history of their country.

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of My Splendid Concubine, Crazy is Normal, Running with the Enemy, and The Redemption of Don Juan Casanova.

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China’s October Golden Week Holiday

October 2, 2019

China and the United States have at least one thing in common, a holiday that celebrates the founding of a country.

For the United States, that day is July 4. History.com says, “On July 2nd, 1776, the Continental Congress voted in favor of independence, and two days later on (July 4th) delegates from the 13 (British) colonies adopted the Declaration of Independence, a historic document drafted by Thomas Jefferson.”

Of course, the United States would end up fighting its war for independence with the British Empire from 1775 – 1783. A war that lasted eight years until the country was really independent. During this conflict, the United States lost an estimated 25,000 – 70,000 killed vs 78,200 British, German and Loyalist troops that lost their lives.

China, on the other hand, waited until after the civil war to celebrate, and it was a long wait from 1927 – 1949, twenty-two years if we do not count the so-called time-out to fight World War II from 1937 – 1945. Some eight million Chinese were killed during a Civil War that was complicated by the Japanese invasion of China that killed an additional twenty-million Chinese.

Imagine what it must have been like to be fighting a Civil War and then getting invaded by another country at the same time.

In China, “National Day holiday is fixed at October 1–7 with adjacent weekend days being mandatory workdays to make up for lost time. This period is also called ‘golden week’ because of the biggest week for tourism in China, when people have a week off to reunite with families and take trips.”

China Highlights.com reports, “Due to preparations for the celebration of China’s 70th Anniversary, many top attractions in Beijing will be closed for a certain period in 2019.” Click the link in this paragraph to discover those facts.

The History of China’s National Day

After the Civil War ended, the People’s Republic of China was established, and an official victory celebration and ceremony was held in Tiananmen Square on October 1, 1949.

The South China Morning Post reported, “Twice a year China sees a mass migration of its citizens as it celebrates Golden Week. … In 1999, an estimated 28-million people travelled for the first Golden Week. In October 2017, 705-million people travelled around China and spent 583.6-billion yuan (US$85 billion).”

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of My Splendid Concubine, Crazy is Normal, Running with the Enemy, and The Redemption of Don Juan Casanova.

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Comparing China to the World through History

September 18, 2019

During the Han Dynasty, China had a population of some sixty million people, about one-fourth of the world’s population at the time, and the Han Dynasty (206 BC to 220 AD) marked the beginning of China becoming the wealthiest and most innovative country on the planet. The first video shows the history of the world from the rise of civilization to the present day.

In that video, keep an eye on China and remember that all but two of China’s dynasties were ruled by the Han Chinese regardless of the name of the dynasty. The two dynasties that were not ruled by the Han were the Yuan (Mongols) and the Qing (Manchus). The beginning of China’s decline started with the Ming Dynasty that was established by a nationalist, isolationist, religious cult (similar to the Donald Trump administration in the United States today), and the decline accelerated near the end of the Qing Dynasty in the 19th century.


Pay attention and you will discover that Tibet was ruled by China’s Qing Dynasty in the early 18th century.

In 1793, even though China had been in decline for two-to-three hundred years, it was still the wealthiest country on the planet as the second video reveals.


Top 20 Country GDP (PPP) History & Projection (1800-2040)

China’s Emperor Qianlong’s letter to King George III of the British Empire reveals how powerful China still was. “The following is one sentence from the response given by Chinese Emperor Qianlong (b. 1711, d. 1799) to King George III of Great Britain (b. 1738, d. 1820) following the first British envoy to China, known as the Macartney Embassy.”

One line from Qianlong’s letter read: “As your Ambassador can see for himself, we possess all things. I set no value on objects strange or ingenious, and have no use for your country’s manufactures.” – China.org.cn

After “Macartney left Beijing, Qianlong issued many documents outlining the need to strengthen the military defense and guard against surprise attacks by Britain. Qianlong issued orders to closely guard the coastal ports. One of the main points Qianlong made was that Britain was demanding that China assign some areas near Zhoushan or Guangzhou for them to set up trading bases to make it easier for them to trade. ‘We must not only observe the coastlines carefully but also prepare a military defense, especially in Zhoushan and Macao. We must prepare our soldiers in advance to avoid Britain capturing (our land).’ This shows that Qianlong was aware of the potential threat Britain posed and could help explain his actions in rejecting British advances.”

There is a 16th-century idiom that says: “If you give them an inch, they’ll take a mile.” In his letter, Qianlong refused to give the British Empire the inch King George III had demanded. Soon after that happened, the European colonial empires and even the United States took that first inch by force.

The second video compares the GDP (PPP) of the top twenty countries starting in 1800, a century before China lost 1st place as the world’s wealthiest and most innovative country on the planet.

If you watch the dates in the second video you will see that China’s decline as the wealthiest country on the planet started during the Opium Wars in the early 19th century. These wars were started by the British and French colonial empires just like Emperor Qianlong had feared, and many of America’s oldest and wealthiest families made their fortunes selling opium to the Chinese.

China did not lose 1st place until 1890 after the French Empire defeated the Qing Dynasty in the Sino-French War (1884-1885) followed by another defeat in 1895 in the First Sino-Japanese War. The final nail in China’s Imperial coffin was the Eight-Nation Alliance (including the United States) that defeated the Boxer rebels and Qing Forces in 1901.

One-hundred-and twenty-three years later in 2013, China regained 1st place and now has the largest GDP (PPP) on the planet with the United States in second place.

“The Gross Domestic Product measures the value of economic activity within a country. Strictly defined, GDP is the sum of the market values, or prices, of all final goods and services produced in an economy during a period of time.”

In addition, over the last few decades, China’s navy has rapidly expanded. As of 2018, the Chinese Navy consists of over 300 ships, making it larger than the 287 vessels comprising the deployable battle force of the United States Navy.

Do you think China will let itself become a victim again, and since the birth of Jesus Christ, how many years has China had the largest GDP (PPP) on the planet?

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of My Splendid Concubine, Crazy is Normal, Running with the Enemy, and The Redemption of Don Juan Casanova.

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September 13th is Mid-Autumn Day

September 11, 2019

China’s Mid-Autumn Festival is similar to the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States. Families and friends in China get together and celebrate a bountiful harvest by coming together to eat, drink, and be happy.

Around the world, Chinese and Vietnamese celebrate this festival. For instance, in San Francisco, not far from where I live, the Chinatown Autumn Moon Festival took place on September 7 – 8, 2019.

During the Mid-Autumn Festival, it is customary to have Moon-Watching parties, and offerings are still made to the Moon.

Also known as the “Full Moon Festival,” the Mid-Autumn Festival falls on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month and takes place when the moon’s orbit is at its lowest angle to the horizon, making the moon appear brighter and larger than any other time of the year.

One historical event linked to this festival is the Moon Cake Uprising.

Near the end of the Yuan Dynasty (1271 – 1368 AD), many Chinese wanted to take back their country from the invading Mongols. Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming Dynasty (1368 – 1644 AD), united the resistance forces. However, it was not easy to organize the different factions spread across the country so the rebels hid notes with details about the rebellion in mooncakes and sent them to the different factions on Mid-Autumn Day. Since then, eating moon cakes have been a Chinese custom during the Mid-Autumn Festival.

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of My Splendid Concubine, Crazy is Normal, Running with the Enemy, and The Redemption of Don Juan Casanova.

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