Westernization In China Essay

China and Japan both had very relatable experiences from the 1800s to present times, as they both have had to completely or partially abandon prior political polies that were deemed no longer applicable. For example, in 1978 Chinese Chairman Deng Xiaoping abandoned a vast majority of the policies that Chairman Mao Zedong had implemented during his reign. Though Mao considered them all fundamental to communist China, they often did not work or caused more harm than good. For the Japanese, they initially attempted to resist the outside influence of the Americans in the early 1800s, however they were no match against them and implemented Westernization to become a better nation.

In the 1800s China had been the East Asian epicenter already for

Authorities of the Qing dynasty banned the import of opium, but this only made the demand for the drug increase, due to its addictiveness. They were able to smuggle this drug into and around the city of Guangzhou due to assistance from Chinese middlemen and corrupt officials. The Qing became alarmed by the quick spread of this illegal drug, as its usage undermined public morals, promoted corruption among officials, and the outward flow of Chinese silver that allowed the British a favorable trade balance over the

This is due to the Meiji Modernization that successfully transformed Japan “into a modern industrial and military power in the late 1800s.” The Japanese created an industrial economy that only paralleled to those of Western countries. Additionally, they transformed the improvised imperial government from the 1870s into a Western-style constitutional monarchy with a democratic parliament. From this point the Japanese wanted to prove themselves and their nationalist abilities to the rest of the world, and they did exactly that with their victory over the Chinese in 1895 and Russia in