East Asian Empires

East Asia was in a state of fluctuation. The once-powerful Qing Empire in China was left reeling from the Opium Wars and Western intervention. Japan saw this as an opportunity to fill the void. Japan sought to gain power and influence in East Asia through modernization and westernization. Japan began trading with western powers more than with China. At this time, China’s experience was not going well with empires. While they were once the powerhouse of East Asia, the Opium Wars left them in shambles. Japan took advantage, taking over as the powerhouse of East Asia but as a more westernized nation.

The primary source about Mo Guokang helps to elaborate on some of the problems with the Chinese government during World War II. The article talks about how Mo Guokang was a “committee member” of the government of Wang Jingwei but had no talent or education. Mo was not qualified to be in such a position but due to her connection to Chen Gongbo. The article describes both Chen and Mo as traitors too. The source portrays Mo as someone who was not qualified to be in their position in any way but found someone more powerful, who they consider a traitor, to help keep them in power. This source is said to be a tabloid article, so it might be very biased, but it still shows at least one person view on the Chinese government at the time. They saw a lot of corruption and bad in it and they wanted to write about it, maybe this was an attempt to expose them.

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