On Monday, March 25, Elizabethtown College welcomed Dr. Edward McCord, professor of history and international affairs at George Washington University, to speak on his knowledge of military violence in China and how it has shaped the country.
McCord received his M.A. and Ph. D. in history from Michigan University and is a specialist on the history of China. He studied and lived in China for five years, including Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China. McCord is also the author of the book “The Power of the Gun.”
McCord gave a brief overview of China’s military past and how it formed China today. His main focus was on the Chinese Warlord Era, which took place in China from around 1916 to 1927. It was a “time of political disunity in China when competing military commanders dominated society and government by virtue of their command of military force,” McCord said. China was not seen as one nation but was split into many different regions.
McCord explained that the Warlord Era was a “very competitive situation.” The warlords wanted to increase their armies and take over neighboring regions. According to McCord, soldiers in this era were largely uneducated and unmarried. McCord addressed the usage of the saying, “You don’t use good iron to make nails, you don’t use good men to make soldiers.” This caused many of the Chinese people to look down on the soldiers and regard them with less respect. Men were thought to be less of a man if they were not married. Along with being uneducated and unmarried, many of the soldiers were underpaid. “Underpaid soldiers often loot,” McCord said. It cannot be assumed that all soldiers looted, but many did, and it made many people think that their own army was harming them.
McCord shared a story of a family who owned a business in this era and were victims of looting from not just one group of soldiers, but four different groups of soldiers. He described how the first army of soldiers stopped at the family’s shop and demanded all of their money. The second group of soldiers came in later to demand the same, and the family explained that they had already given all of their money to the first group of soldiers. The second group of soldiers then took all of the goods at the store. When the third group of soldiers arrived, no money or goods were available for them to steal. The soldiers became angry, shot and killed the mother and father, and then left the shop. Finally, the fourth group of soldiers set fire to the shop. The only survivor of the family was the 9 year-old daughter. McCord shared this story to demonstrate the horrific treatment of civilians from some of China’s own armies.
“Burn, kill, rape and rob, there is nothing they can’t do,” McCord said. McCord explained that some of these attacks by the soldiers on civilians were carried out in order to demonstrate their power. Luckily, Nationalist and Communist parties emerged in the 20th century. These parties introduced armies that were well-disciplined and educated. The leaders of these armies told their soldiers that they would not take anything from civilians unless they paid for it. This helped to bring China out of disorder.
“It was an eye-opening look on a very narrow, specialized subject,” stated junior Natalie Hrynkiewicz, a peace, war and non-violence student who sat in on this lecture. Sophomore Caitlyn Whirt, a student in the Peace and Conflict in China course, said, “The speaker knew a lot of information that I was able to tie into what I am learning in my class, and his take on the subject was very intriguing!”
Another lecture on peacemaking will take place Wednesday, April 17 in Leffler Chapel and Performance Center at 7:30 p.m.