the eternal frontier: an ecological history of north america and it's people

History weighs heavily on the Chinese people and plays an integral role in this narrative. The PRC might be the immediate beneficiary of Beijing’s attempted resource grab, but the issue is rooted in the weakness of CHINA during the “Century of Humiliation” before the Communists drove out the foreign oppressors. So, too, are their territorial claims made throughout Asia-Pacific waters. The Chinese believe Taiwan is part of CHINA, not necessarily the PRC. Ethnic Chinese the world over celebrated Hong Kong’s retrocession to CHINA, not the PRC. Although the PRC is equated with China, for many people CHINA is something very different than whoever or whatever rules the mainland at any moment or another.

Nationalism might be the most powerful force in the PRC today. To paraphrase Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings, there is a time when the age of Western liberalism may come crashing down, but it is not this day! This day we fight! And we do so more effectively the better we understand what we face. Nevertheless, the PRC is not an unstoppable colossus set on global domination with America doomed to eternal submission. That makes addressing its behavior more difficult. The People’s Republic of China mixes ideological, national, and practical motives. Divining its intentions is far more difficult. At least the regime’s behavior is evident to all. And Beijing will pose the greater challenge over the long term.

Although Russia and Ukraine have grabbed the spotlight, before that the crisis-du-jour was China and Taiwan. America remains the world’s most powerful nation, but foreign crises appear to be a constant for the Biden administration.

The eternal frontier: an ecological history of north america and it's people