China cannot explain away its past aggressive policies
Regarding Xu Wu's recent Opinion piece on Western misconceptions about China: The piece suggests that if historical behavior has contemporary relevance, China's nonaggressive behavior in the past may be taken as a guide to its future aspirations and inclinations. China's own historical records repeatedly contradict the fundamental premise that it did not engage in imperialistic, aggressive, or predatory actions over its long existence.
Oracular inscriptions clearly show that even at its inception with the Shang dynasty, lengthy expeditionary campaigns intended to defeat and enslave contiguous peoples were already ...