Human civilization has a verifiable history no more than 10,000 years, and its development process was trivial in comparison to the billions of years of evolution of the universe and the 4.5 billion years of Earth development. But the history of human civilization was indeed very complicated. This is because there are separate continents and oceans on the surface of the earth. The oceans divide the continents into four major land mass and countless islands. Human beings are land inhabiting creatures rather than ocean living species. Therefore, human beings must develop on land, and the invention of ocean transportation is also to explore new land for human development. This basic principle is dictating the progress of the human development and civilization. After evolving from animals to human beings living in groups, it is a continuous process of ‘human social development, that is migration, development, immigration, and organization in successive cycles.
Since the earth has five continents and countless islands, the time, the development progress and the order of migration and growth as well as the starting sequence of various human groups in different places on Earth have become the ‘variables or changing factors’ in the evolution history of human civilization. Therefore, in less than 10,000 years, human beings originated in various places have an uneven evolutionary history on the five continents. Of course, some different cultures have emerged. The similarities are plenty, but the speed of progress is different because of the starting time, the geographical environment and climate of the five continents are drastically different. Consequently, different level of civilization and cultural characteristics are manifested. Furthermore, the evolution of human genes, mutations caused by geographical and climate changes as well as by ethnic mixing such as intermarriages between immigrants, will cause different effects, such as body feature, skin and hair color, etc. These changes highlighted the physical differences in appearance of human groups more than traits of human characteristics. Today, human beings have basically overcome the communication and transportation over the seas and the skies. From now on, it is an inevitable trend for human beings on earth to become a common community. Racial discrimination on earth should be eradicated, although it still existed today remaining as one of the principal causes for human conflict and war.
The largest and oldest nation in the world should be China. China is a large and complex nation. Chinese history and culture are the longest, continuous history and the most extensive and inclusive culture of the 56 ethnic groups and 1.4 billion population. In the history of the evolution and development of China, it is obvious that she was once the most powerful and prosperous country in the world, and her people not only lived in Asia and the Pacific Islands, but also traveled all over the world. During her Ming Dynasty, the Ming Emperor had sent General Zheng He to lead a marine fleet to explore other continents seven times. Zheng's ship was five times larger than the later Columbus ship (travelled to Bahamas, America), and today there were many physical evidences to prove that Chinese had visited the American continent, including today's California. The evidences included giant anchors discovered near California shore, Chinese characters carved on ancient rocks in Midwest America, art facts, maps, and even genes match between Chinese and native American Indians. Ming Emperor made unwise assessment believing that all places far away from central China were backward not worth spending vast national treasury to explore. The emperor forbad further ocean exploration and made China adopting a closed-door national policy. This policy was continued until the Qing Dynasty, but it eventually invited the invasion of eight nations which brought catastrophe to China for one hundred years.
During this catastrophe, many Chinese coastal residents emigrated overseas, among them Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangsu and Zhejiang were the principal suppliers. Today, there are a large number of Chinese diaspora in the United States, Europe, Africa, and Australia, not to mention Asia. Many of these Chinese have taken root locally, some even for several generations, they have become nationals of the local country. The world traditionally calls them Chinese, and many people also consider themselves as overseas Chinese, living there temporarily, and returning to their ancestral homeland later or after death. This is a philosophy in Chinese culture recognizing one’s ancestors and lineage of ancestry. This philosophy still exists today. It is not only practiced by Chinese, but also by the Europeans, Africans, and Jews. Chinese people simply hold a stronger concept in paying attention to ancestral genealogy and valuing in building lasting family ancestral memorial halls.
Since the beginning of the 21st century, China's reform and opening-up has been very successful, and the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and culture has been flourishing. This is of course the result of the joint hard work of the Chinese government and its people. Unfortunately, the rise of China has made some countries uneasy, some countries jealous, and some countries envious. Oversea Chinese living in these countries are affected differently. The United States is the world's No. 1 power, but it is especially (unreasonably) in fear of China’s rise and consequently targeting her as the principal critical competitor. Under her anti-China policy, it has actually caused domestic anti-China and even anti-Asian sentiments to rise, and racial hate crimes to explode.
This kind of populist thinking also affected the mentality of politicians, thus an absurd policy of treating all Chinese as suspicious spies was quietly launched in the U.S. Furthermore, the U.S. had increased effort in using political ideology as anti-China tool. For example, cross-Taiwan strait issue has been increasingly used to provoke China which also caused divisions among Chinese Americans. In addition, the U.S. had sought any international issue that could be used to provoke China, but it would affect Asian American relations (China-India, China-Philippines, China-Japan, China-Korea, and China- ASEAN issues). This approach would definitely worsen the racial discrimination problem in the U.S., one could not help but suspect that the U.S. foreign policy was motivated by white supremacy thinking. The United Kingdom, Australia, and some European countries, which followed the U.S. in her anti-China policy, not only had opposing opinions on China policy domestically but more importantly their Chinese immigrants had become more and more pro-China sentimentally.
Except for a few Chinese dissidents who were kidnapped by political ideology, the rise of China was originally viewed by most overseas Chinese as a proud fact. Under the enhanced anti-China media smear and military provocation, the attitude of the overseas Chinese had become even more sympathetic to the rejuvenation of China. On a careful examination, China's behavior has shown no intention of aggression or threat to other countries at all. It is just an act of a large country to safeguard her interests for her own citizens. Other big countries should respect, and other small countries should accept China as an independent nation, just like all countries had always accepted the behavior of the United States. If a big country had no strength, it would be bullied like the Qing Dynasty was. A big and powerful nation must act in a measured manner. Excessive behavior is hegemonial. And being weak will suffer. The overseas Chinese all over the world understand this truth better than others, because China has a long history with ample cases for studies, especially the harm and humiliation recorded in her modern history.
The Chinese people can better understand, through the Chinese history, the causal relationship and the benefits and consequences of running a country and being governed. Based on the current observations, the Chinese all over the world have a much more rational understanding and attitudes towards the China issue. The West has overly slandered communism and did not recognize the positive deeds achieved by some communist governments. Because of China’s rise and her lifting hundreds of millions people above poverty, the Chinese all over the world has gradually discovered that a socialist system is not a static communist system, but a progressive 'democratic' system, where voting is just a method with various forms and itself alone does not represent democracy. True democracy is manifested when the majority of the people can realize the wishes of the people. The attitude of the Chinese all over the world, whether in Asia, North and South America, Europe, Africa, or Australia, is gradually trending towards this truth.
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