China's Encounter with the Modern West: Refusal, ‎Learning and Transformation

In the 19th century, after a long period of isolationism, China came under pressure from the West to open to foreign trade and relations in the 1800s China simultaneously experiences major internal strains and Western imperialist pressure that backed by military might which China cannot match,as a consequence China’s position in the world and self-image is reversed from leading civilization to subjected and torn country. This paper focuses on China's approaches and policies in the face of modern Western States. This dramatic confrontation dates back to the late eighteenth century with the increasing expansion of Western merchants around the Chinese sea, the first is the supreme isolation and refusal policy, which was adopted with regard to the calculation of the cultural, economic and security costs of expanding relations with the West. With the failure of this policy and the arrival of the Westerners by force, the approach to adaptation of the modern techniques and tools of war was raised, Then, ‎ beyond the technology of war, ‎ the learning approach emerged: Westernization according to the Confucian tradition. Which led to the overthrow of the empire and the establishment of the Republic of China in 1912, This approach, led by Chian Kai-shek, turned into a full Westernization based on the learning of developed democracies, eventually launched in Taiwan and similar in Hong Kong and Macao, at the same time, in the mainland of China under the leadership of Mao, a Marxist approach adapted from the Soviet Union was on the agenda which was ultimately reviewed by Deng Xiaoping, and has been replaced by a pragmatic approach to adopting policies that have yielded successful results in Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan, as a result, China has become an emerging power and is returning to status that has been lost since the beginning of the Century of Humiliation.