S3E38: China's Military & Geopolitical History

History Behind News Program

From mounted horses to hypersonic weapons. This is the story of the global competition of great powers. It’s a story that China has always been a part of, sometimes as the victor, sometimes as the vanquished. In this episode, my guest, Dr. David A. Graff, compares China’s Military might and history to Tibetans, Turks, Mongols, Arabs, Russians, and then the British Dr. David A. Graff of Kansas State University's Dept. of History, HbN's guest for this subject, analyzes how China’s massive state organization and awesome resources empowered China’s military to defeat others. In this post, you'll learn how internal politics and rebellions limited China’s military expansions and geopolitical ambitions. You may also appreciate how history itself, pressures China’s military and government to reclaim what they believe to be their historical borders, including Taiwan.

In this episode, Dr. Graff discusses many fascinating topics, including the following:

1) Why in China they consider the Tang Dynasty as China’s Golden Age?

2) The cavalry - its power and limitations, a theme in China's long imperial history.

3) How China beat and was beaten by the Tibetans, Turks, Mongols and Manchurians.

4) A pivotal battle that changed history. Or maybe not so much!

5) Why did the Ming Empire mothball the Treasure Ships – an armada that dwarfed Europe’s navies.

6) How the Qing Empire, China’s arguably most successful imperial dynasty, was blindsided by the West.

7) China’s military recruitment challenges – from the Ming Empire to President Xi: Born To Fly, a recent Chinese movie similar to Top Gun.

8) Why is Taiwan a question of legitimacy for the PRC? Dr. Graff is a professor in the Department of History of Kansas State University and the director of the undergraduate program in East Asian Studies. His research focuses on Chinese military history, especially that of the Tang dynasty. He is currently completing a translation of what remains of Li Jing’s “Art of War,” an early Tang military text, and is also working on a study of internal politics and labor relations in the provincial armies of the late Tang period.He is one of the two editors-in-chief of the Journal of Chinese Military History and has also served as secretary of the Chinese Military History Society since its founding in 1998.Dr. Graff has been the holder of the Richard A. and Greta Bauer Pickett Chair for Exceptional Faculty since 2017.He is the author of several books on China’s military history, including the following:

• Medieval Chinese Warfare 300-900 (Warfare and History),
• The Eurasian Way of War: Military Practice in Seventh-Century China and Byzantium (Asian States and Empires), and
• A Military History of China.

To learn more about Dr. Graff, you can visit his academic homepage. Click here for an explanation of this episode's image.

More on China?

We got more. Click here to read, listen and watch our series on China.

I hope you enjoy these episodes.

Adel

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