An Interview with Author of China Mirage

choi

Bradley's 'China Mirage' Portrays A Long-Running US Mistake In Asia. NPR, Apr 22, 2015
www.npr.org/2015/04/22/401427315 ... can-mistake-in-asia
(an interview with author of James Bradley, The China Mirage; The hidden history of the American disaster in Asia. Little, Brown and Co (Apr 21, 2015))

Quoting Bradley:

FDR’s “grandfather was Warren Delano, the American opium king of China.

"this new, Christianized China was going to arise. That's the China mirage from the time of George Washington until today. We're still waiting for Beijing's leadership to stumble, and some grassroots democracy will arise in China. It's a mirage that has no roots in China.

In the first sentence Bradley speaks in the mode of Western dreamers about China: "If we just give a little more money to China, it's going to be Christianized and democratized. The dream is coming. Mao Zedong popped the dream, and we didn't talk to China for 30 years.

"Chiang Kai-shek was the China mirage incarnate. He was going to lead China to become an Americanized, Christianized country - America's best friend in Asia.

Note:
(a) James Bradley (author)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bradley_(author)
(born in 1954 [in Wisconsin])

BA in East Asian history from the University of Wisconsin at Madison (~ 1977)
(b) “Symbol of the new China and Chinese determination is this 52-year-old generalissimo - lean, hard-bitten Chiang Kai-shek - today, the undisputed ruler and idol of China's 400 million.”
(i) Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975)  So, for him to be 52, the year was 1939.
(ii) hard-bitten (adj): “ ‘tough, tough in a fight,’ literally ‘given to hard biting,’ 1715, originally of dogs, from hard + bitten, with the past participle used actively (as in ill-spoken)”
Online Etymology Dictionary, undated
www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=hard-bitten