China and International Relations

------Andrew 20106717

The development of China and international relations is just like the growth of a butterfly. First, it is a pupa, praceled with a thick cover and almost having no connection with the outer world. Then, the day for it to take off the cover and rush out comes, and it suffers a lot on the day. At last, it becomes a beautiful butterfly and fly around easily and leisurely.

Looking back the history, we can devide the relations between China and international world into three typical patterns.

First, it is the relations of China and international world before 1840, which is just like a pupa praceled with a thick cover. Before 1840, China has been a feudalism country more than 2,000 years and it pursues the policy of secluding the country from the outside world. There are almost no connections between China and other countries except for Monk Tang”s going west to India and some Arabic countries to fetch some Buddhist classics at Tang Dynasty and ZhengHe”s sailing to the Atlantic at Ming Dynasty. It is not until the Italian missionary Marco Polo”s coming to China that the Chinese rulers come to know that there are some other countries on the earth besides China. China”s ancient feudal rulers and the

general public have always been in the dream of a Greatest Kingdom before, until the dream was broken in 1840s.

Secondly, it is the relations of China and other countries between 1840 and 1949, when Chinese people suffered a lot. This is just like the sufferings a pupa take when it is rushing out. In 1840, Britain started the Opium War and opened China”s big gate, since when China has suffered more than 100 years” humiliation and mortification. During that time, the western capistalistic countries invaded China one after another, they occupy China”s land illegaly, blackmail reparations, control China”s Customs and rob China”s treasures, bringing Chinese people into hot water. At first ,China is forced to contact with the outer world because of the fear of the western countries. Then, some far-sighted person began to realise that China should learn from the west. So, the Westernization Movement springs up, which was aimed to learn the western countries” advanced science and technology and open China”s own factories. However, the movement turned to be a failure at last. Then came the Chinese Constitutional Reform and Modernization, which was to learn capitalistic countries” political systerm. However, it was a failure too. Though both of those two movement are failed, it indicates that Chinese people are going out and it was such a progress.

Lastly, it is the relations after 1949, which is like a butterfly that takes off. The Second War ended in 1945 with Japan”s surrender. The people”s republic of China was founded in 1949, which ended the western countries” invasion. In 1978, Chinese president Dengxiaoping proposed the reform and openness policy, which means that China is ready to get connection with other countries. In 2001, China joined the World Trade Organization, since when, China joined the international long competition race with other countries.

Nowadays, China is playing a more and more important role in the world, with its economic rapidly growthing and comprehensive national power strengthened. So, we can say that China is getting more and more closer with the international world.

Looking back the three parts of China and international relations, we can see that it is just like the growth of a butterfly. Before 1840, China secluded the country from the outside world, which is just like a pupa praceled with a thick cover. Betweem 1840 to 1949, the western countries invaded China and China has suffered a lot, which is like the suffering of a pupa to rush out from the cover. After 1949, the People”s Republic of China is founded and China is rising up just like a beautiful butterfly.