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a he ad start of 51 years over the west in the development of cannon120, the
Orientals were still making their artillery from iron, while Europeans had
figured out how to craft a more powerful version using brass.
China regarded itself as literally the center of the world, the only
country that counted. And they had an easy way to remain number one in
their own minds: they walled themselves off. For two generations, the
Chinese had built boats the size of apartment buildings with which they had
plied the seas and exchanged information with the other countries of the
eastern world. The Chinese emperor's fleet of 317 giant vessels, staffed with
a crew of 27,000, had shown up in the harbors of Viet Nam, Cambodia, India,
the Arab Middle East, and even Eastern Africa.121 But just before Europe
could reach out for contact, China's bureaucrats ordered that all such ships
be outlawed and that interchange with other countries be stopped. The
functionaries actually forbade Chinese merchants from even dealing with
outsiders--on pain of death.122 The Chinese spurned Western knowledge,
discouraged the spirit of inquiry in their own country, and buried their heads
in their ancient texts.123 Said one scholar, "The Truth has been made manifest
to the world. No more writing is needed."124 In 1839, Lin Tse-hsu wrote
contemptuously to Britain's Queen Victoria: "Of all that China exports to for-
eign countries there is not a single thing which is not beneficial to people....
On the other hand, articles coming from outside China can only be used as
toys."125
For 400 years the Chinese maintained the illusion that they were still
untouchable, invincible and above challenge.126 Then in the 19th century the
Europeans returned with advanced gunboats, marched troops into China's
cities, and showed just what the Chinese had accomplished by wallowing in
illusion.127 In the late 1890's, the Europeans began, in their words, "carving
up the Chinese melon." The French took Guang Zhou Bay, the Germans
snatched the city of Ch'ing-tao, the Russians expropriated the Liao-tung
Peninsula, the British expanded their hold on Hong Kong and seized the port
of Wei-hai-wei, and even the Japanese snatched their share of the fruit.128
Foreigners were capable of inflicting any form of atrocity they chose.
Kaiser Wilhelm, in fact, claimed that he would deal with the Chinese so
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