The Danger of Arrogance (4/5)

August 17, 2010

China’s 18th century arrogance is evident in the letter the Qianlong Emperor wrote to King George III.

Emperor Qianlong’s letter to King George III says, “As your Ambassador can see for himself, we possess all things. I see no value on objects strange or ingenious, and have no use for your country’s manufactures.…

“Hitherto, all European nations, including your own country’s barbarian merchants, have carried on their trade with our Celestial Empire at Canton. Such has been the procedure for many years, although our Celestial Empire possesses all things in prolific abundance and lacks no product within its own borders.

“There was therefore no need to import the manufactures of outside barbarians in exchange for our own produce. But as the tea, silk and porcelain which the Celestial Empire produces, are absolute necessities to European nations and to yourselves, we have permitted, as a signal mark of favour, that foreign hongs should be established at Canton, so that your wants might be supplied and your country thus participate in our beneficence.”

At the end of the letter, Emperor Qianlong warns King George III what will happen to any merchants who try to circumvent his laws and says, “Do not say that you were not warned in due time! Tremblingly obey and show no negligence! A special mandate!”

This exchange took place in 1793.  At that time, the Chinese didn’t need anything from any country.  In fact, for more than a thousand years, the Chinese had been more technologically advanced in printing, paper production, weaponry, etc than any country on the planet.

See Foreign Devils and Barbarians or return to the Danger of Arrogance – Part 3

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

The Danger of Arrogance (3/5)

August 16, 2010

King George III ruled the British Empire from 1760 to 1820. During his reign, he concluded the Seven Years’ War (1756 – 1763), fought the American War of Independence (1775-1783), the War of 1812 (1812 – 1815) and Napoleon from 1805 to 1815. 

After Napoleon’s defeat, the British Empire expanded between 1815 to 1914 until it added about 10 million square miles of territory and 400 million people to the British Empire.

It was once said that the sun never set on the British Empire. 

I got 214,000 Google Internet hits on “British Empire arrogance”. 

Info Britain says, “Further illustrations of imperial arrogance are provided by the Boer War, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, towards the end of the time of Empire. At this time Cecil Rhodes actually thought that Britain could rule the world, and such arrogance led to one of the darkest episodes in Britain’s imperial adventure.”

See how China is Holding a Vital Key to Humanity’s Future or return to the Danger of Arrogance – Part 2

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

The Danger of Arrogance (2/5)

August 16, 2010

An “old” friend spoke with arrogance when he said that the US would spank China if they didn’t behave, which is evidence that arrogance doesn’t infect only a nation’s leaders.

If America and China were in fact arrogant, it wouldn’t be the first time powerful countries acted that way. In fact, both nations could learn from history what happens when arrogance from too much power influences actions.

The Qing Dynasty  (1644 – 1911) was China’s last Imperial Dynasty, and during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor (1736 – 1796), the borders of China were expanded to their greatest extent in more than two thousand years. His reign was also a time of great prosperity for China.

With such accomplishments and power, it should not come as a surprise when the Qianlong Emperor  rejected King George III’s request to increase trade between Britain and China—an arrogant rejection which would return to haunt China within forty-six years when Britain, acting arrogant, forced China to comply.

See When the Generals Laughed or return to the Dangers of Arrogance – Part 1

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

The Danger of Arrogance (1/5)

August 15, 2010

Power breeds arrogance.  In fact, a schoolyard bully who is larger and stronger than most is arrogant.

When I Googled Blogs on “American Arrogance”, there were about 400 thousand hits. Then I Googled “China Arrogance” and almost 112 thousand hits came back. The numbers change when Googling the rest of the Internet.

It would seem that many feel that the US and China are arrogant, and why not?  After all, China and the US have the world’s largest economies and the most powerful military machines.

The Diplomat writes that China’s rising-power exuberance is becoming a problem, and the post is titled “China’s Dangerous Arrogance”.

About American arrogance, Mostly Water says, “American intervention in states without effective governments has been almost uniformly disastrous.”

Then Project Syndicate said, “Success breeds confidence, and rapid success produces arrogance. That, in a nutshell, is the problem that both Asia and the West face in China…”

The Eurasia Review writes, “That twenty years after the Soviet collapse, America reportedly has 702 overseas military bases in about 130 countries and another 6,000 bases in the US and its territories.… Do we really need to maintain that many US military bases abroad? …What is America doing in Iraq and Afghanistan? It’s called “nation building”. What business is it of America to be building other’s nations? It’s really none of their business. It’s nothing more than the arrogance of power.”

See Cultural Differences and the Ignorant American

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

China Rejects Western Pressure on Human Rights

August 13, 2010

One place to read anything positive about China is in the “China Daily” or a few Blogs written by people like me, who have been to China and do their homework to know what’s really going on.

In China rejects Western standards on human rights, Xinhua (7-3-2010), Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Fu Ying says that the “West” ignores China’s political progress.

In fact, there has been much political progress since Mao died in 1976. See China’s Capitalist Revolution to learn more.

I’d like to rewrite Minister Fu Ying’s statement to say that most of the “Western media” and conservative and liberal political action groups in the US ignore China’s progress for a reason. These groups have a political agenda against anything that has the word “Communist” in front of it. To them, China is still a Maoist country that they fear, and they do not want to hear the truth.

Minister Fu Ying is correct when she says that the Western point-of-view on human rights in China is spread by “political extremists”.

The Tibetan separatists represent about one percent of the Tibetan population, and the Muslim separatists from China’s northwest are the same as the Islamic fundamentalists the West is fighting on the other side of the border in Afghanistan.

The other loud voice is the Falun Gong, a cult with enough money to support a traveling international musical troop, a TV station and a newspaper. That has to cost a small fortune, so where does that money come from?

Well, we know from Congressional hearings that the CIA supports the Tibetan separatists, so it isn’t a stretch to figure out who supports the Falun Gong and the Muslims.

I suggest you watch the three videos and tell me who isn’t guilty of human rights violations.

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

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