Identification

• Britain's defeat of China in the so-called "Opium War" of the early 1840s led to the decline of imperial China. It subsequently gave birth to Chinese nationalism.
  
  

History

• After the Opium War, various Western nations sought to exercise influence over parts of China, limiting Chinese sovereignty. Nationalist leaders--since Sun Yat-Sen in the early 20th century--have sought to restore a sense of pride.
  
  

Treaty of Versailles

• The Treaty of Versailles in 1919 transferred to Japan a Chinese province that had been under German influence. Thousands of Chinese students protested, and some student leaders formed the Chinese Communist Party in 1921.
  
  

Expert Insight

• Professor Liu Kang of Duke University points out that China's ruling Communist Party is more a product of nationalism than Marxist ideology.
  
  

Japan

• Japanese atrocities against the Chinese in the 1930s and during World War II also contributed to nationalist sentiments in China.
  
  

Continued Tensions

• Annual pilgrimages by Japanese leaders to a Tokyo shrine that contains the remains of some convicted war criminals continue to stoke nationalist sentiments in China against Japan.