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The Betrayed Ally: China in the Great War

Posted: December 16th, 2016 | No Comments »

The shelf of books on China and the Great War is not yet at groaning but it is decidedly better stacked than it was a few years ago (and a nod to Xu Guoqi for his work prior to the centenary). Of course there is the Penguin China WW1 series available very affordably on kindle (see details here). Now we have Christopher Arnander and Frances Wood with Betrayed Ally to add to the collection…

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The Great War helped China emerge from humiliation and obscurity and take its first tentative steps as a full member of the global community. In 1912 the Qing Dynasty had ended. President Yuan Shikai, who seized power in 1914, offered the British 50,000 troops to recover the German colony in Shandong but this was refused. In 1916 China sent a vast army of labourers to Europe. In 1917 she declared war on Germany despite this effectively making the real enemy Japan an ally. The betrayal came when Japan was awarded the former German colony. This inspired the rise of Chinese nationalism and communism, enflamed by Russia. The scene was set for Japan’s incursions into China and thirty years of bloodshed. One hundred years on, the time is right for this accessible and authoritative account of China’s role in The Great War and assessment of its national and international significance

 



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