{"id":11812,"date":"2023-02-24T12:30:32","date_gmt":"2023-02-24T12:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focus.cbbc.org\/?p=11812"},"modified":"2025-04-23T09:33:27","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T09:33:27","slug":"britains-hidden-debt-to-the-chinese-in-wwi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focus.cbbc.org\/britains-hidden-debt-to-the-chinese-in-wwi\/","title":{"rendered":"Britain’s hidden debt to the Chinese in WWI"},"content":{"rendered":"

The story of the Chinese Labour Corps (CLC) during World War One is both touching and fascinating. As the political climate between China and the West becomes more combative, Clive Harvey \u2013\u00a0 author of the 2017 book Yang\u2019s War<\/em> \u2013 sheds light on a powerful historical partnership between the major powers that is rarely spoken of … but should be<\/h2>\n

Chinese tenacity runs deep. If you go back, 100 years or so, doubters might more readily settle for this verdict. It was one I resolutely reached as the aftermath of writing my first historic novel, Yang\u2019s War.<\/em><\/p>\n

It is perhaps hardly surprising that a now indisputably supreme world power would have little appetite for reflecting on less prestigious past times. Less still once humiliation corrupts the memory. I hesitate to quote Churchill, yet \u201cthe farther back you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see\u201d seems rather apposite in this context.<\/p>\n

I am no historian on all matters Chinese, but delving ever deeper in writing Yang\u2019s War<\/em> I became addicted to the blatant determination of a people hell-bent on revival. In the face of adversity, at a level unthinkable to many others in their own histories, the story of the Chinese Labour Corps (CLC) in World War I is nothing less than awe-inspiring.<\/p>\n

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How why and when China, a vulnerable fledgling republic, came to take part in WWI is a cautionary conundrum if nothing else. As the largest labour force anywhere in WWI, it is nothing less than astonishing that WWI history has remained muted about them being there at all let alone the difference they ultimately made to the outcome of that war. How it transpired that upwards of 140,000 souls were involved merits closer scrutiny.<\/p>\n