Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c7.s9.t5.14

v1.c7.s9.t5.14

Apparently it looked strange that a champion of armed revolution like Sun Yat-sen would be favourably disposed for a non-violent and non-cooperation movement. But he had a wide vision to look at the strategies and tactics of the national struggle from various angles. He dwelt upon the active and passive ways in fighting imperialism: active, like awakening the national spirit, seeking the solutions of people’s power and livelihood, and face-to-face against foreign aggression: passive, ie “non-cooperation, to weaken the role of imperialists, hence safeguarding the national position, avoiding the fate of total extinction.” While he thought that the non-cooperation movement was an effective economic weapon in fighting the foreign rule the people will have to resort to armed struggle to overthrow it. Sun Yat-sen also advocated India-China unification. He wrote in 1923 that “All the oppressed peoples should unify their efforts to fight against the tyranny of foreign aggressors.” “India and China are the backbone of the oppressed peoples in Asia.” In deference to his wishes, the Guangdong revolutionary government and the Kuomintang Party adopted as one of their foreign policies the unification with all the oppressed people, especially with India.