Back To The Future | Can Donald Trump break Beijing’s ‘one China’ obsession?
Through force and diplomacy, many renowned figures have tried to divide the country, and all have failed. Still, the new US president seems to want the issue back on the table and, if so, he has a steep, historic hill to climb
In December 1919, US president Woodrow Wilson gave his friend and prominent banker Thomas Lamont a secret mission: go to China and persuade the warring Chinese to end their civil strife and accept a two-China proposal.
Despite their best efforts, the mission to divide China would fail, as have all others before or since. Now US President Donald Trump has signalled he might want to give it a try, but if so, history proves he has a very steep hill to climb.
Wilson, a visionary statesman, meant well almost 100 years ago. He hoped to reconcile the differences between two rival governments struggling to control the whole of China. Ever since the 1911 revolution, the once-great Asian empire had been divided between a military government in Peking (Beijing) and a nationalist one in Canton (Guangzhou), with several warlords each occupying land the size of a European country in between.
The American president was eager to stop the fighting. China had the world’s largest population, but the civil war endangered millions of people and denied the country a chance to develop its economy. It also made China easy prey for its predatory neighbours Russia and Japan.
Wilson wanted bankers to help China by financing the modernisation of its industry. But no banker would provide loans to a nation without knowing who would be the ultimate guarantor of debt. Ending the civil strife would be a crucial first step, Wilson reasoned.