No one in my ancestry ever imported slave labour or exploited it. My ancestors on the one hand were enslaved and brought halfway around the world to be exploited; my ancestors on the other side were driven from their lands and mbuttacred en mbutte by 18th and 19th century "colonial powers." So how does this apply to me exactly?
America, until WW I, was largely unconcerned with world affairs outside of its borders. Even after WW I, Warren G. Harding ran for president in 1920 - and won by a landslide - by promising a "return to normalcy". A return to Pre-WW I American isolationism was a large part of his platform of "normalcy". Americans yearning for isolationism from the "powers" of the Eastern Hemisphere was also a major factor in the United States' late entrance into WW II.
Are you referring to Japan's seizure of Manchuria in 1931 and the resultant conflict which continued until around 1945, when the Chinese *invited* the Russians into their borders to help hasten the end of the conflict? The Russians, after all later shipped whole factories out of the industrial regions of the Northeast back into Russian territory...
Perhaps you're referring to the 1941 when the United States embarked on a program of "mbuttive military and financial aid" to the Chinese Nationalist Government? Or January 1943 when the U.S. and Britain revised treaties with China, bringing to an end "a century of unequal treaty relations"? Or a few months later when China and the U.S. signed an agreement for the stationing of American troops in China?
Or perhaps you're referring to America's attempts to act as intermediary between the Nationalists and Communists fighting for control over China in 1946? A truce was signed in January 1946, but when fighting between the Nationalists and Communists resumed, the American forces withdrew from China (early 1947). Of course, as everyone knows, the Communists took Beiping (then re-named back to Beijing) in January of 1949 without a fight.
So, in summary, you seem to blame China's economic woes from the first half of the century on America and the Europeans, even though China was struggling in a protracted conflict with Japan over Machuria and mainland Chinese resources; the internal struggles between the Nationalists and the Communists were ripping the country in two; the Russians marched in - helped defeat the Japanese - and marched right back out with everything they could grab? The United States offered China military aid, treaty concessions, and financial aid during the first half of the twentieth century. After all, China was the sworn enemy of Japan - and "the enemy of my enemy is my friend."
Personally I stand with Mark Twain on that issue. I don't think we should have granted Cuba independence either. Ahhh, the Phillipines. Funny you should mention them, as they supported the U.S. in its struggle against the Spanish. After all, they provided critical intelligence to the United States - that the Spanish had no mines or torpedoes and could not sink warships entering Manila Bay. EmilioAguinaldo (a Filipino insurgent against Spanish) raised 12,000 troops and kept the Spanish forces locked up in Manila until American troop reinforcements arrived from San Francisco. Sounds like the Filipinos didn't want the Spanish around either...
One of the great things about the American system of justice - and I don't know how it translates to multi-national justice - is that a man cannot be convicted for not committing a crime. Even if you feel the only reason the man didn't commit the crime was because he didn't have the opportunity. Now where you come from, you might be able to convict those who would have, but never did commit a crime because they didn't have the opportunity; but not here.
