By Kim Jeong-hyun
A variety of celebrations for the centennial anniversary of the Xinhai Revolution, or the 1911 Chinese Revolution, took place throughout the world, including China, Taiwan, Japan, the United States and Korea this year.
What implications does such a celebration in Korea have? The revolution has a significant meaning in the history of not only China but also East Asia.
Most of all, the success of the Xinhai Revolution gave birth to the Republic of China, the first Asian republic, which represented a milestone in the modern history of China and had a great impact on neighboring countries.
Independence fighters from Korea and Vietnam regarded the revolution as an incident that let Asian nations dream of republicanism and solidarity for weaker countries in the region. They also believed that their nations were in the same situation as China.
After Japan’s forced annexation of Korea in 1910, Korean patriots fled to China to seek political asylum and participated in the revolution with expectations that they could get Chinese support for their nation’s independence.
The Xinhai Revolution played a role in helping Korea’s government-in-exile, which came into being in Shanghai in 1919, adopt a republic system. In that respect, the revolution was an important incident that could enhance understanding of Korea-China relations.
As a result of the revolution, the Han Chinese succeeded in their anti-Manchurian national movement against the Qing Dynasty, encouraging weak nations in East Asia to launch their own national struggles for independence.
As the China-centered international order in East Asia collapsed with the downfall of the Qing Dynasty, Mongolia and Tibet on China’s periphery sought liberation from rule by the Han Chinese in a similar way that the Xinhai Revolution called for the end of Manchurian rule.
However, the Xinhai revolutionaries saw such a demand for independence as Western colonial powers’ strategy to divide and conquer China. So they reacted to the demand by arguing for military action against Mongolia and Tibet, revealing their territorial concept based on traditional Sinocentrism.
This Chinese attitude was a far cry from the independence fighters of Mongolia, Tibet, Korea and Vietnam who wanted China to support their own independence.
The revolutionary years were a period that helped foster modern nationalism advocating the reconstruction of a strong China.
In order to block Japanese imperialists from advancing onto the Korean Peninsula and China’s northeastern regions (Manchuria) after the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, the Chinese government drafted its basic position regarding territorial and border issues between China and Korea. It laid the groundwork for modern-day China’s sovereignty and territorial recognition.
For example, Wu Luzhen wrote a report, “Yanjibianwubaogao,” in 1908 after surveying China’s northeastern frontier regions. The report appears to be a prototype of nowadays’ controversial Northeast Project that claims all the history of present Chinese territories belongs to its history.
China tried to attach a special meaning to the 100th anniversary of the Xinhai Revolution by insinuating that the starting point for a strong China emerging as one of the G2 nations with the U.S. dates back to the revolution.
This move is a great change from China’s long-held position that has so far stressed the importance of the history of the Chinese Communist Party, while pointing out the limits of the revolution.
It is welcome that China is seeking to re-evaluate the Xinhai Revolution based on a pluralistic recognition of history. However, we should not forget that such a move may lead to recognition based on Sinocentrism. China and its neighbors took different approaches to observe the centennial anniversary of the revolution from different perspectives reflecting their respective reality.
To Korea and other countries, the revolution was seen as the manifestation of an anti-Manchurian national movement that was intended to extricate China from the ethnic minority’s rule.
In this regard, the revolution has emerged as a subject worth extensive research that can provide the logic for criticizing China’s theory of “a unified multiethnic state” that is aimed at justifying Chinese efforts to incorporate the history of ethnic minorities into that of the present-day Han Chinese.
Kim Jeong-hyun is a research fellow at the Northeast Asian History Foundation. The writer can be reached at kjhdoh@nahf.or.kr.