中国读本丛书-谋幸福 谋复兴 谋大同:中国共产党是怎样的党(英)

China is an ancient civilization with a long history. With its diligence and wisdom, the Chinese nation created the world’s leading ancient civilization and made a significant contribution to the development and progress of mankind. However, in modern times, some Western countries have gone through the bourgeois revolution and completed the industrial revolution one after another, and have rapidly become stronger. At this time, the Qing dynasty opted to cut itself off from the outside world, being ignorant of the general situation of the world and arrogant. It cruelly exploited its people internally, which made the people suffer a lot. By the 1930s and 1940s, the decline of the Qing dynasty was deepening day by day, and crises loomed from within and the outside. In 1840, Britain, then the number one capitalist power in the West, launched the Opium War to invade China, opening the door of China with strong ships and artillery, forcing the Qing government to sign the first unequal treaty “Nanjing Treaty” and forcing China to cede territory and pay indemnities. Since then, Western aggressors have swarmed in, and successively launched the Second Opium War, the Sino-French War, the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895), and the Siege of the International Legations, forcing the Qing government to sign one humiliating treaty after another, which severely infringed China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. The imperialist countries either invaded and occupied China’s territory, or blackmailed China’s “reparations”. They divided “spheres of influence” on Chinese land, set up concessions, station troops, and used the privileges granted by unequal treaties to manipulate China’s financial and economic lifeline, thus dominating Chinese politics and grabbing huge interest in China. Under the dual oppression of imperialism and feudalism, the Chinese people, especially the peasant group, which accounts for the vast majority of the Chinese population, became increasingly impoverished and bankrupted in large numbers. They lived a life of hunger and coldness with no political rights. The level of poverty and unfreedom of the Chinese people was rare in the world.