The Principle Of Nationalism: Lecture Two

The Principle Of Nationalism: Lecture Two

 Delivered on February 3, 1924.

Speech by Dr. Sun Yat-sen

Translated by Francis Wilson Price(畢範宇 牧師)

FROM ancient times, the increase and the decrease of population has played a large part in the rise and fall of nations. This is the law of natural selection. Since mankind has not been able to resist the forces of natural selection, many ancient and famous nations have disappeared without leaving a trace. Our Chinese nation is one also of great antiquity, with more than four thousand years of authentic history. Although from time immemorial we have been profoundly affected by natural forces, yet Nature has not only perpetuated the race but has made us extremely prolific. We have grown to four hundred millions and are still the world's most numerous and largest nation; we have enjoyed the blessings of Nature in greater measure than any other nation, so that through four millenniums of natural experiences, human movements, and varied changes we see our civilization only advancing and our nation free from decay. One generation has succeeded another and we are still the world's most cultured people. Hence a certain class of optimists, just because the Chinese nation has survived innumerable disasters in the past, hold that the nation cannot perish in the future, come what may. This sort of talk and hope, I think, is wrong. If it were a matter merely of natural selection, our nation might survive, but evolution on this earth depends not alone on natural forces, it depends on a combination of natural and human forces. Human agencies may displace natural agencies and "the work of man overcome Heaven." Of these man-made forces the most potent are political forces and economic forces. They have a greater influence upon the rise and fall of nations than the forces of Nature, and our nation, caught in the current of modern world movements, is not only feeling the pressure of these two forces but is being overwhelmed in the evils that result from them.

    China in these thousands of years has been twice crushed by political power to the point of complete subjection, during the Mongol and Manchu dynasties. But both these times we lost our country to a smaller not a larger people. Hence, although China has been twice subjected politically, the race has not been seriously injured.
But political and economic forces work more rapidly than the forces of natural selection and can more easily extirpate a great race. China, if she were affected only by natural selection, might hold together another century; but if she is to be crushed by political and economic power, she will be annihilated by the peoples of the Great Powers. And should the whole number not perish this way, there are still the natural forces to wipe us out. From now on the Chinese people will be feeling the pressure simultaneously of natural, political, and economic forces. So you see what a critical time it is for our race!

    China has been under the political domination of the West for a century. During the past century China has lost a huge amount of territory. The Powers' attitude was formerly something like this: since China would never awaken and could not govern herself, they would occupy the points along the coast like Dairen(大連), Weihaiwei(威海衛), and Kowloon(九龍) as bases for "slicing up" China. Then when the Revolution broke out in China, the Powers realized that China still had life, and therefore gave up the idea for partitioning her. When the Powers had their greedy eyes on China, some counter-revolutionists said that Revolution would only invite dismemberment; but the result was just the opposite, for it frustrated foreign designs upon China.

    Further back in history, our territorial losses were Korea, Taiwan (Formosa), the Pescadores, and such places, which as a result of the Sino-Japanese War, were ceded to Japan. Still further back in the century, we lost Burma and Annam. China did put up a slight opposition at the time to giving up Annam. In the battle of Chen-Nan-Kuan (Southern Frontier) China was really victorious but was so overawed later by France that she made peace and was compelled to cede Annam to France. Annam and Burma were both formerly Chinese territory; as soon as Annam was ceded to France, England occupied Burma. Still earlier in the history of territorial losses were the Amur and Ussuri river basins and before that the areas north of the Ili, Khohand, and Amur rivers--the territory of the recent Far Eastern Republic--all of which China gave over with folded hands to the foreigner without so much as a question. In addition there are those small countries which at one time or another paid tribute to China--the Loochoo Islands, Siam, Borneo, the Sulu Archipelago, Java, Ceylon, Nepal, Bhutan.

    In its age of greatest power, the territory of the Chinese Empire was very large, extending northward to the north of the Amur, southward to the south of the Himalayas, eastward to the China Sea, westward to the T'sung Lin(蔥嶺，即 帕米爾高原).

    After the Chinese Revolution, the Powers realized that it would be exceedingly difficult to dismember China by political force. A China which had learned how to revolt against the control of the Manchus would be sure some day to oppose the political control of the Powers. As this would put them in a difficult position, they are now reducing their political activities against China and are using economic pressure instead to keep us down. Economic oppression is more severe than political oppression. Political oppression is an apparent thing. The common people are easily provoked by political oppression but are hardly conscious of economic oppression. China has already endured several tens of years of economic domination from the Powers and nobody has felt irritated at all.

    The result is that China is everywhere becoming a colony of the Powers. The people of the nation still think we are only a "semi-colony" and comfort themselves with this term, but in reality we are being crushed by the economic strength of the Powers to a greater degree than if we were a full colony. China is not the colony of one nation but of all, and we are not the slaves of one country but of all. I think we ought to be called a "hypo-colony."

    Now how do other countries meet foreign economic pressure and check the invasion of economic forces from abroad? --Usually by means of a tariff which protects economic development within these countries. Just as forts are built at the entrances of harbors for protection against foreign military invasion, so a tariff against foreign goods protects a nation's revenue and gives native industries a chance to develop. The idea of a protective tariff is to put a heavy duty on imports. The high duty makes foreign goods expensive so that they cannot circulate, while native goods free from duty are reasonably priced and widely distributed.

    What is the situation now in China? Before China had a foreign trade, the goods used by the people were hand-manufactured by themselves. The ancient saying "man tills and woman weaves" shows that agriculture and cloth making are old industries in China. Then foreign goods began to come in. Because of the low tariff, foreign cloth is cheaper than native cloth. Since, moreover, certain classes of the people prefer the foreign to the native cloth, native industry has been ruined. With the destruction of this native hand industry, many people have been thrown out of work and have become idlers. This is a result of foreign economic oppression. So, political oppression can be easily seen even by the ignorant classes, but economic oppression is an intangible thing which none of us can easily perceive. One can even load heavy burdens on oneself. Since China opened foreign trade, the unfavorable balance of trade is steadily becoming rampant.

    Then there is the economic domination of foreign banks. The Chinese psychology now is one of distrust toward the native banks and of extreme confidence in the foreign banks. Some people are even willing to store up foreign paper currency in perference to Chinese silver currency. And the reason is that the common people have been poisoned by the influence of foreign economic domination.
    Besides the foreign bank notes, there is bank exchange. We Chinese in the ports trust the foreign banks also in the exchange of our money. But, in making exchange for the Chinese, the foreign bank charges not only the customary bank rate of one half per cent but seizes profits in other ways.

    The power of the foreign banks in China is seen also in their bank deposits. If a Chinese has money and wants to deposit it in a bank, he does not wait to ask whether the Chinese bank has a large or small capital or gives high or low interest. As soon as he knows that the bank is managed by his own country men, he immediately feels that it is probably not safe and that it would not do to risk his deposits there. He does not ask whether the foreign bank is reliable or not, whether it pays high or low interest; if he hears that the bank is run by foreigners and hangs out a foreign sign, he swallows the sedative, feels very safe and invests his money. Even if the interest is very low, he is quite satisfied. Thus the foreign banks, with no trouble except that of handling the money, take Chinese capital and earn interest from it. The reason for all this loss of interest to foreigners is again the vitiating influence of foreign economic control. The total profits of the foreign banks alone, in paper money issues, in exchange and deposit banking, must be around $100,000,000 a year.

    Besides the foreign banks, there are freight rates. Chinese goods sent abroad have to depend on foreign bottoms, and even goods sent to interior points, as Hankow, Changsha, and Canton, are carried largely by foreign ships. If China exports $100,000,000 worth of goods to Europe, she must pay $10,000,000 for freight.

    There is yet one more loss to consider--that from the speculation business. Foreigners in the concessions take advantage of a weak point--avarice--in the Chinese character and provide daily opportunities for small speculation, and every few years some big opportunity which arouses the gambling passion of the Chinese to fever heat. And the ordinary small speculative businesses amount, in the end, to high figures.

    Because of this economic mastery of China and the consequent yearly damages, our society is not free to develop and the common people do not have the means of living. This economic control alone is worse than millions of soldiers ready to kill us. And while foreign imperialism backs up this economic subjugation, the living problems of the Chinese people are daily more pressing, the unemployed are daily increasing, and the country's power is, in consequence, steadily weakening.

    Within the last hundred years, China has begun to suffer from the population problem: the Chinese people are not increasing, while other populations are growing. Now we are suffering also from political and economic domination. If we can no longer find a solution for these three pressing problems, then, no matter how large China's area or how great her population, another century will see our country gone and our race destroyed. Now that we realize the seriousness of political domination and the even greater seriousness of economic domination, we cannot boast that China's four hundred millions will not be easily exterminated. Never before in all her millenniums of history has China felt the weight of three such forces at one and the same time. For the future of the Chinese nation we must find a way to break them!