: Doesn't sound like something that's taught
: as everyday history to the average Chinese
: person then? A case of the PRC remembering
: historical events only when it is convenient
: for them to do so?
My thoughts exactly. Very much characteristic of a totalitarian regime, of course. My totally non-expert theory as an interested and moderately well-read layperson is that the Chinese have long considered the humiliations they suffered at the hands of the imperial powers in the nineteenth as a shameful chapter in their history. In just the past couple of years the regime seems to be assert a new confidence on the world stage, and perhaps that includes going on the offensive when it comes to past humiliations.
(A good thing to a large extent, of course. Blaming China for what was done to them is like blaming the victim in any crime.)
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