Macao (1999)

Macao (1999)

Macao (or Macau) is a tiny peninsula of eight square miles located 40 miles west of Hong Kong on the southern China coast. It became a Portuguese settlement and trading center in 1557; Portugal paid the Chinese government rent for the land until 1849, after which it became a de facto Portuguese colony.

By the late 20th century Macao had just under half a million people, about 96 percent Chinese, 2–3 percent Eurasians of mixed Portuguese-Chinese ancestry, and 1 percent Portuguese from Portugal. Despite long Portuguese control, few Chinese residents learned Portuguese, the official language of the colony. As a result few Chinese worked in the government. Most Eurasians, called Macanese, were bilingual; many of them worked for the government bureaucracy.

The government was nonelected until 1974, when a revolution in Portugal brought in a liberal government there that enacted new laws established by a partially elected legislative assembly. The main sources of government revenue were tourism, light industry, and gambling casinos.


Negotiations for the return of Macao to China began in the 1980s. However, China gave priority to its negotiations for the return of the much more important British colony of Hong Kong, and it was not until agreement had been reached for Hong Kong’s rendition that talks between Portugal and China began in earnest.

Because of the asymmetry of power between China and Portugal the Chinese government imposed most of the terms of Macao’s rendition. A Joint Declaration was signed in April 1987, and a Sino-Portuguese Joint Liaison Group was created in 1988 to manage the transition and prepare for the handover in 1999.

As in the case of Hong Kong, Macao was given the status of a Separate Administrative Region (SAR) and assured of autonomy governing many aspects of its life for 50 years. However, China could control its foreign affairs and defense, a Chinese-appointed chief direktur would head its administration, and the Chinese People’s Congress would have tanggapan say in judicial decisions.

The handover took place at the end of 1999. According to Macao Basic Law, the government of Macao consists of a Western-style partially elected legislature, with a framework of separation of power among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government, an independent judiciary, and freedom of expression and the press.

Li Zongren (Li Tsung-jen)

Li Zongren (Li Tsung-jen)

Li Zongren (Li Tsung-jen) was an important military and political leader of Guangxi (Kwangsi) Province, along with Bai Chongxi (Pai Chung-hsi), between 1925 and 1949. He joined the Kuomintang (KMT, or Nationalist Party), founded by Sun Yat-sen, and commanded the Seventh Army; it played an important part in the Northern Expedition (1926–28) that brought the Koumintang to power.

Li distinguished himself as a skilled military commander in the Northern Expedition and the Sino-Japanese War, where he commanded the Nationalist troops in an important victory in 1938 at Taierzhuang in Shandong (Shantung) Province.

Li and Bai, however, represented the Warlord Era, joining the KMT in part to preserve and expand their regional power by controlling their army as distinct units that often disobeyed the central government. Their group is called the “Guangxi clique” and fought against the central government in Nanjing (Nanking) between 1929 and 1930. They also allowed the fleeing Chinese Communists to pass of through Guangxi during the Long March.


When the National Assembly convened in Nanjing in 1948 to implement the new constitution, Li was elected vice president of China (Chiang Kai-shek was president). Li became acting president when Chiang resigned in 1949. However, Chiang still retained most of his power and the loyalty of key army commanders, and when Li failed to negotiate a settlement with the CCP in the civil war, Chiang abruptly resigned, and Bai chose to flee to Taiwan.

After Li’s departure for New York, Chiang resumed the presidency in Taiwan. Li refused to join the Nationalists on Taiwan and was impeached in absentia. The United States became an outspoken critic of Chiang’s rule. Li remained in the United States until 1966, when he returned to mainland China and voiced support of the Communist government. He died shortly afterward.

Lin Biao - Chinese Communist General

Lin Biao

Although his contributions to the development of modern Communist China are overshadowed by those of Chairman Mao Tse-tung, the leader of both the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the country, Lin Biao nevertheless played an important role.

Lin Biao was born in Wuhan, China, in 1908. The son of a landowner, he joined the Socialist Youth League in 1926. Attending the Whampoa Military Academy he met another future communist leader, Zhou Enlai.

After the collapse of the Qing (Ch’ing) dynasty in China in 1911, much of China countryside was ruled by warlords. During the 1920s there was a push to reunify the country. Two of the main groups were the new CCP, formed in 1921, and the Kuomintang (KMT), the Nationalist Party.


The emerging leader in the KMT was Chiang Kai-shek. Lin Biao managed to survive the purges, and, along with Mao and the remaining communists, escaped into China’s interior. He participated in the Long March; 30,000 survived out of 100,000 who had begun the trek. They included leader Mao, Liu Shaoqi, and Zhou Enlai.

When the Japanese invaded China in 1937, Lin Biao utilized guerrilla tactics to fight the invaders behind enemy lines, something that gave the CCP patriotic prestige. At the end of World War II, war broke out again between the CCP and the KMT. The CCP created the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), in which Lin Biao served as a commander.

On October 1, 1949, Mao proclaimed the creation of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Lin continued to play a major role in both the government and the military and commanded “volunteers” from China in the Korean War (1950–53); he was promoted to the rank of marshal.

Old chinese poster depicted Lin Biao and Mao Zedong

In 1968 Mao embarked on the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution to attack his critics and regain control of the party. Mao set out to eliminate his competition. Lin Biao worked closely with Mao and fought against the faction led by Liu Shaoqi, who had been state chairman since 1999.

Lin was also instrumental in assembling Mao’s writings into the Quotations of Chairman Mao, or the“Little Red Book,” which received nationwide distribution.

Lin’s power rose when Red Guards, Mao’s young supporters, began to fight one another adding chaos that grew into anarchy. The minister of defense was called by Mao to meet the enemy to suppress the Red Crossein 1967. For this he was annointed vice chairman of the CCP and Mao’s successor at the 9th Party Congress in 1969.

Lin Biao plane crased in Outer Mongolia

However, Mao became increasingly suspicious of him as the Lin’s power grew. Conversely Lin’s impatience to replace Mao culminated in a failed assassination attempt in 1971. Lin and his wife attempted to flee to the Soviet Union, but the plane that their air force officer son piloted crashed in Outer Mongolia, and all were killed.

Lin’s rise and fall demonstrate the murderously unstable politics in Maoist China.

Li Zongren (Li Tsung-jen)

Li Zongren (Li Tsung-jen) was an important military and political leader of Guangxi (Kwangsi) Province, along with Bai Chongxi (Pai Chung-hsi), between 1925 and 1949. He joined the Kuomintang (KMT, or Nationalist Party), founded by Sun Yat-sen, and commanded the Seventh Army; it played an important part in the Northern Expedition (1926–28) that brought the Koumintang to power.

Li Zongren (Li Tsung-jen)

Li distinguished himself as a skilled military commander in the Northern Expedition and the Sino-Japanese War, where he commanded the Nationalist troops in an important victory in 1938 at Taierzhuang in Shandong (Shantung) Province.

Li and Bai, however, represented the Warlord Era, joining the KMT in part to preserve and expand their regional power by controlling their army as distinct units that often disobeyed the central government. Their group is called the “Guangxi clique” and fought against the central government in Nanjing (Nanking) between 1929 and 1930. They also allowed the fleeing Chinese Communists to pass of through Guangxi during the Long March.

When the National Assembly convened in Nanjing in 1948 to implement the new constitution, Li was elected vice president of China (Chiang Kai-shek was president). Li became acting president when Chiang resigned in 1949. However, Chiang still retained most of his power and the loyalty of key army commanders, and when Li failed to negotiate a settlement with the CCP in the civil war, Chiang abruptly resigned, and Bai chose to flee to Taiwan.

After Li’s departure for New York, Chiang resumed the presidency in Taiwan. Li refused to join the Nationalists on Taiwan and was impeached in absentia. The United States became an outspoken critic of Chiang’s rule. Li remained in the United States until 1966, when he returned to mainland China and voiced support of the Communist government. He died shortly afterward.

Nurhaci - Manchu Tribal Chief, Dynastic Founder

organization that would culminate in his grandson’s becoming the first emperor of the Qing (Ch’ing) dynasty in China.

The people who later called themselves Manchus were Jurchen nomads descended from the Jurchens who founded the Jin (Chin) dynasty that ruled northern China between 1115 and 1234. Early in the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), the Jurchens lived in southern Manchuria amid agricultural Han Chinese.

The Ming government divided the region into three commanderies (provinces), encouraged agriculture among all the population, and held the tribal chief of the non-Han people accountable to the commanders appointed by the court.

The Ming government also fixed tribal territories and controlled the succession of the chiefs, who rendered tribute at court at regulated intervals. As Ming power weakened in the late 16th century, so did its control over the tribes, enabling the Jurchens to consolidate into a tribal-feudal state.


Nurhaci was a minor tribal chief in the Jianzhou (Chienchow) commandery. He knew Chinese and traveled to Beijing (Peking) on tribute missions. Early in his career he waged war against and defeated other Jurchen chiefs expanding his power.

In 1599, he had a new alphabet created for writing Jurchen (the Jin had created a writing system that died with the dynasty). In 1601, he created a “banner system” for organizing his military, loosely based on the Ming frontier military system called the wei, which militarized the Jurchens into a war machine.

All Jurchen men were grouped into eight banners, which Nurhaci, his relatives, and allies commanded. The banners also functioned as rudimentary administrative units that controlled taxation, conscription, and mobilization. Its members farmed in peacetime, and its men were called up to arms when needed.

With success in war, conquered lands were granted to the banners and the original cultivators became serfs to the banners; however the land allotments were not granted in cohesive units to prevent regionalism. Thus the banner system also became the nucleus of a bureaucratic state. Because the captives became bondservants and serfs, bannermen were able to focus on military duties.

In 1616, Nurhaci announced the creation of a state called the Later Jin, proclaimed himself its “heaven-designated emperor,” and renounced allegiance to the Ming.

He was successful in capturing important cities in Manchuria, including Liaoyang and Shenyang (Mukden), where he established his capital and welcomed defecting and captured Ming officials to join his government. Nurhaci was wounded in an unsuccessful battle against the Ming in 1626 and died as a result later that year.

Nurhaci was a talented leader who transformed his tribal people and organized them into a frontier state, in part by adopting Chinese techniques and methods of administration. He capitalized on the problems of a weakening Ming dynasty to build the foundations that would enable his descendants to rule all China.

Treaty of Nerchinsk

Treaty of Nerchinsk

The Treaty of Nerchinsk, 1689, was China’s first treaty with Russia and was important because it settled the boundary between the two empires and began diplomatic relations on an equal footing. In the mid-17th century, Russia’s eastward conquest across Siberia reached the Amur River region on the boundary of the newly established Qing (Ch’ing) Empire in China.

In 1675, Russia sent Nicolai G. Spathary as ambassador to the Chinese court, and he was received by the Kangxi (K’ang-hsi) emperor; he learned all he could about China but otherwise returned home empty-handed.

Kangxi’s early years were focused on suppressing a serious revolt in southern and southwestern China (called the Revolt of the Three Feudatories, ended in 1681) and the Ming loyalist movement on Taiwan (ended in 1683).


Next he dealt with Russia’s advance to areas claimed by China by ordering General Pengcun, at the head of 10,000 soldiers, 5,000 sailors, and 200 pieces of artillery, to take on the small Russian force at Albazin in 1685, which he captured and then returned home.

The reinforced Russians however returned, rebuilt their fort at Albazin, and continued to raid the Amur region. China did not wish to continue a protracted conflict that might drive the yet unpacified Olod Mongols to the Russian fold.

Thus the two countries agreed to negotiations at Nerchinsk in 1688. The Chinese delegation was headed by Prince Songgotu and had two Jesuit priests, Jean-François Gerbillon and Thomas Pereira, as interpreters. The Russian delegation was led by Fedor A. Golovin.

Each delegation was supporter by a large contingent of soldiers, the Chinese one being much larger. The Treaty of Nerchinsk was signed on September 7, 1689. It had six articles and was in five languages, Chinese, Manchu, Mongolian, Russian, and Latin, with the Latin version being the official text.

The treaty delineated the boundary between Russian Siberia and Chinese Manchuria along the Argun and Amur Rivers to the mouth of the Kerbechi, and along the Outer Xingan (Hsing-an, Stenovoi in Russian) to the sea.

The Russian-built fort at Albazin was to be demolished and Russian residents there were to be repatriated. It also provided for the right of residence and trade between peoples of the two countries, the issuing of passports, and the extradition of fugitives.

The Treaty of Nerchinsk was negotiated between two equal countries. Russia gained 93,000 square miles of hitherto disputed territory that included Nerchinsk while China secured Albazin and peace with Russia that would allow it to deal with and eventually defeat the western or Olod Mongols. Most significantly it regularized Chinese-Russian relations and began the periodic exchange of diplomatic missions between the two countries.

Late Ming Dynasty

Late Ming Dynasty

The Ming dynasty of China (1368–1644) was founded by a commoner, Zhu Yuanzhang (Chu Yuan-chang), who ruled as Emperor Hongwu (Hung-wu), 1368–98. He expelled the Mongols and began the recovery of China.

His son, Emperor Yongle (Yung-lo), ruled from 1402 to 1424 and was also a capable general and administrator. Together they expanded China’s borders, strengthened the defenses, and pursued policies that led to economic recovery and agricultural revival.

The schools that they founded and the examination system that they revitalized to recruit government officials would serve the empire well during long decades when minors and weaklings occupied the throne. However a succession of capricious and weak rulers eventually led to eunuchs’ controlling power and massive corruption that resulted in domestic revolts, unwise foreign wars, and dynastic collapse.


Emperor Hongwu instituted an autocratic style of government and both he and Yongle exercised their power vigorously and effectively. However while Hongwu treated eunuchs as mere palace servants, Yongle began to entrust them with administrative duties, but under his firm control.

Yongle died leading his fifth campaign against the Mongols. His son was already ill and died within a year, passing the throne to his son, who ruled for 11 years as Emperor Xuande (Hsuanteh). Xuande was succeeded by his eight-year-old son in 1436.

Such short reigns were damaging in an autocratic system of government where continuity in leadership was an asset. Minors on the throne required regencies by empress dowagers, who notoriously relied on eunuchs rather than ministers for advice.

Most Ming dynasty eunuchs came from poor families in northern China and were noted for their greed and extortion. Boy emperors who were isolated from normal human contacts grew up dependent on them as friends and advisers.

For example Emperor Zhengtong (Cheng-t’ung) appointed his eunuch Wang Zhen (Wang Chen) commander in chief and the two men set out together in 1494 with a large army against the Mongol Esen Khan. The army was cut to pieces, Wang died, and Zhengtong was taken prisoner.

Although the Mongols were too weak to take the offensive, this disaster ended Chinese military superiority over the nomads and put the Ming government on the defensive on the northern frontier. In the mid-16th century, Mongol chief Altan Khan would raid China’s northern borders at will for two decades.

At the same time, Japanese pirates and Chinese renegades raided and looted the southern coast inflicting huge damage. In the 1590s, Japanese warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi invaded Korea. Suzerain China had to send a huge army to aid the Koreans for six years, at enormous cost.

Two long reigns in the 16th century (Jiajing or Chia-ching between 1520 and 1566, and Wanli (Wan-Li) between 1572 and 1620) brought a measure of stability, largely due to able ministers in the early part of each reign.

However both monarchs were grossly negligent of their duties, isolating themselves from government officials and relying on power-hungry palace eunuchs, with the result that the bureaucracy became increasingly demoralized. A government that was unresponsive to social and economic problems would eventually be brought down by peasant rebels from northwestern China led by Li Zicheng (Li Tzuch’eng) in 1644.

Ming China prospered, however, despite inept political leadership. The population increased from about 60 million at the beginning to possibly 200 million by 1600. In addition to great metropolitan centers such as Suzhou (Soochow) and Hangzhou (Hangchow), many intermediate-sized market towns emerged.

Society was egalitarian and the flourishing printing industry facilitated the spread of education so that the sons of millions of families could realistically aspire to obtain an education, pass the state exam, and join the elite.

Popular culture represented by the theater and opera flourished in the cities. In addition, a new genre of literature developed during the Ming. It was the novel, written in the vernacular and depicting men and women of all social classes.

The government’s principal source of income was the land tax, assessed on land owned by farming families and not on the number of males in a household. This system of taxation gave farmers greater freedom to choose employment and allowed the development of industries. Silk and cotton manufacturing prospered, as did the porcelain industry, which led the world.

While China had traded with South and Southeast Asia and beyond for over a millennium, the Portuguese entered the trading scene in 1516, opening direct seaborne Sino-European commercial relations.

Portuguese merchants were followed by men from the Netherlands, England, France, and other European nations. Westerners brought European products, but more significantly New World crops such as maize, sweet potatoes, and tobacco, with enormous impact on Chinese agriculture and diet.

More immediately European demand for Chinese silks, porcelain, and tea brought an influx of silver to China. In 1581, the first Jesuit missionary landed in China. Jesuits would be important during the late Ming and early Qing (Ch’ing) as cultural ambassadors between China and Europe.

They introduced Western sciences, mathematics, astronomy, cartography, and firearms to China and the ideals of Chinese philosophy to Europe, laying the foundations of Sinology, or study of Chinese civilization in Europe.

The 16th century was an kurun of great changes in Europe and China, where modern societies were beginning to develop. Despite inept Ming emperors the educational system and civil service continued to provide for a prosperous and advancing civil society.

However by the beginning of the 17th century, many signs pointed to the fact that the country was exhausted. An ineffective government could not simultaneously deal with internal rebellions and border incursions by nomads.

The last Ming emperor hanged himself as rebels swarmed into the capital; a beleaguered frontier general then invited the Manchus, a minority ethnic group living on the northeastern borders of the Ming empire, to help him put down the rebels. Astute Manchu leaders seized this opportunity to ascend the throne and founded a new dynasty.