Righteous
and Harmonious Fists
The
test of wills China waged over the crew of an American spy plane was
certainly not the first time it's tussled with a western nation on its
own soil. In fact, compared with events past, the recent fracas is
barely a blip on the radar screen. Just look to the turn of the last
century. China was embroiled in conflicts with more than just the United
States - and the disputes turned bloody as can be. Fed up with decades
if other countries - Austria, France, Germany, Russia, Great Britain,
Italy, Japan and the United States - partitioning China into areas of
financial, and sometimes religious, control, the Chinese rose up in 1900
to kick the foreigners out. The massive peasant uprising, supported by
the state, came to be known in the west as the Boxer Rebellion, named
for a secret society of hand-to-hand fighters who called themselves the
I-ho ch' an ("Righteous and Harmonious Fists"). The fighters
believed the boxing regimen they followed made them invulnerable, even
to gunfire. They were quite successful, for a time - and then the
foreign powers got serious. They sent in an international force, led by
a contingent of 2,500 U.S. sailors. The peasant Boxers were no match. On
September 7th, 1901, China signed the Boxer Protocol, by which it
compensated the U.S. and other nations for financial losses incurred
during the uprising.
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