Prologue
Taken from "Soviets & Fascists Clash in Manchuria" an article published in the MANCHESTER GUARDIAN, June 1954.
PEKING - Chinese officials continue to condemn 'brazen acts of communist aggression' following the reinforcement of Zhenbao Island with tanks and rockets by the Red Army last friday. The Chinese President has, reportedly, evacuated his cabinet to Qinghai due to the perceived threat of Soviet air raids. Streets in the Chinese capital are deserted, save for the Blueshirt volunteers drilling and throwing up barricades, and furious activity at the military barracks and academies.
Soviet Premier Lazar Kaganovich has remained characteristically silent, with Soviet news outlets referencing only 'the ongoing special military operation to defend Zhenbao from the fascist yoke.' Tensions between the Chinese Republic and Soviet Union have run high since the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact was signed in January, 1942. Soviet-Japanese conspiracies robbed the rich province of Xinjiang in 1943, and subsequently border clashes occurred along the Sino-Soviet frontiers following the capitulation of Japan's Young Officer Movement at the end of the East Asian War. US President Kennedy, who was deployed in Saipan during the war, has called for both sides to withdraw their forces from the frontier, lest 'the storm of war return to the ancient state of China...'
Taken from "The Shortest History Of China" by Linda Jaivin, 2023.
In 1932, Japanese planes launched from ships in Shanghai harbour conducted a devastating air raid on the city, targetting civilian areas. It was to be the first terror bombing in Chinese history but by no means the last. To counter Japanese aggression the KMT needed to swiftly reorganise the government, industrialise the major cities, and integrate the various warlord armies into the National Revolutionary Army. Members of the KMT right under an old comrade of Sun Yat Sen named Wang Jingwei eventually won over Chiang to their proactive position, arguing that in order to fight off the inevitable Japanese invasion, China needed a modern army. To establish this modern army they would need a partner, likewise consigned to the periphery of world politics, to provide training to China's vast yet disorganised regiments of peasant soldiers. This partner was found in Germany. The Germans would send Alexander von Falkenhausen to establish an officer training school in Nanking in 1934. Wang Jingwei, from his position in the Foreign Ministry, would lead China into a decisive alliance with Nazi Germany one year later...
Taken from 'Zhanghzhui', 3rd Century BC
"Once upon a time, I, Zhuangzi, dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was Zhuangzi. Soon I awakened, and there I was, veritably myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man. Between a man and a butterfly there is necessarily a distinction. The transition is called the transformation of material things."
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