Beware the Dragon China: 1,000 Years of Bloodshed

by Durschmied, Erik

• ISBN13: 9780233002316
• ISBN10: 0233002316
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-05-01
• Publisher: Carlton Publishing Group

Summary

As one of the world's most populous countries, China has always flexed its muscles beyond its borders, the result being a thread of conflict woven into the fabric of the nation's history. In the mid-13th-century Mongol hordes obliterated an army of Europe's finest knights, and 700 years later China went to war with Japan, took on UN forces in Korea, and squared up to the Soviet Union and America. Over the centuries in between, the Chinese sought bloody conflict with Muslims, Jews, Christians, and Buddhists and survived political conflicts that claimed tens of millions of lives. Today China stands on the threshold of global economic domination with an economy estimated to become twice as wealthy as those of the US, Britain, France, Germany, and Italy combined within a generation. This unique history traces China's passage through 1,000 years of war, colonial adventurism, and internecine politics in an effort to understand what this huge and unstoppable country has become, as well as what the future holds for a fragile world in which China is quickly becoming a dominant superpower.

Author Biography

Erik Durschmied is the author of 15 books, including Blood of Revolution, The Hinge Factor, and The Weather Factor.

Table of Contents

Timeline	p. 9
Prologue: Heaven's Choice	p. 11
1218-1348: Thunder from the East
A Wolf's Rage	p. 16
The Savage Chevauchee	p. 28
The Battle of Nations at Liegnitz	p. 39
Last Exit to Hell	p. 51
The Divine Miracle	p. 56
The Cult of Blind Terror	p. 62
The Flaming End of 1,001 Nights	p. 67
The Turn of the Tide	p. 76
Chronicle: 1348: The Yellow Scourge	p. 80
1554-1911: Gunboat Diplomacy
A Fleet of Monstrous Dragons	p. 84
Devils Knocking at the Door	p. 98
The Lin Zexu Memorandum	p. 104
The Pearl River Grouse Shoot	p. 111
Tiger Day, Tiger Hour	p. 118
The House of a Thousand Blossoms	p. 126
The Taiping Madness	p. 131
The Ever-Victorious Army	p. 138
A Legion's Stand	p. 145
The Big Land Grab	p. 152
Burn! Burn! Burn! Kill! Kill! Kill!	p. 156
Chronicle: 1911: The King is Dead!	p. 179
1911-1949: A Crack of Doom
Watershed	p. 182
Saturday, Bloody Saturday	p. 193
The Rape of Nanjing	p. 197
"Vinegar Joe" and "the Peanut"	p. 211
Chronicle: 1945: The Day the West Lost China	p. 219
1949-1997: The East Is Red
Caught on the Treacherous Tide	p. 226
Rehearsal for a Bigger Show	p. 232
A Cold Nyet	p. 237
The East Wind Prevails over the West Wind	p. 248
"Keep 'em dying!"	p. 257
The Nuke Option	p. 267
And Not So Quiet Flows the Ussuri	p. 272
The Davydov Query	p. 277
Breaking the Impasse	p. 286
Chronicle: 1997: A Detail of History	p. 291
Today and Tomorrow: Young Dragon Rising
Crushing Liberty's Cry	p. 294
"Wild and arrogant planes"	p. 300
Chronicle: 2008: A Gold Medal for Global Goodwill	p. 316
Epilogue: The Dragon Factor	p. 319
Notes	p. 325
Acknowledgements	p. 335
Bibliography	p. 336
Index	p. 343
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