The U.S.-China Trade Dispute: Rehashing the First Opium War

In the United States, discussions of the current arguments over trade overwhelmingly present the issues purely from a U.S. perspective, apparently forgetting that the Chinese view is just as important. Western analysts above all often seem unaware that trade with the West is one of the most sensitive issues in modern Chinese identity. Every schoolchild learns that it was Western traders who shattered the Qing dynasty, China's last imperial government, ushering in the "Century of Humiliations" that only ended after Mao Zedong's victory in 1949. The view from Chengdu -- or any other of China's booming cities, for that matter -- is always suspicious that Westerners will try to bully China over trade. Contemporary arguments are merely the latest act in a longer drama, in which the West continues a tradition of exploiting China and denying it its rightful place in the sun. Chinese leaders cannot afford to take a...