The Post War Period
After the Japanese surrender, the Communists and the Nationalists continued their civil war. The Americans and British tried to re-instate their presence as it had been before the war, but to little avail. Nationalist China signed an agreement with the Allies in 1943 making China an Equal Partner, and thus abrogated the Unequal Treaties of a century previous.
On April 21, 1949, Communist forces crossed the Yangtze River, capturing the Capital Nanking. And with the Communist takeover of Peking in late 1949, the European exploitation of China was over, though steamers continued to work the river. The SS Shenking of the Butterfield and Swire Line made an epic rescue of stranded civilians from Shanghai, running them across the China Sea to Keelung, Formosa.
One steamer sank in 1947, drowning 400 people. Mao and the Chinese Communist Party journeyed upriver by steamer in 1959 to Lushan to the Lushan Conference to discuss the Great Leap Forward. However, little is known in the west about this period, as China became a closed country. Many retired North American steamers were sent to Japan or Taiwan for scrapping. Some were pressed into mainland china service. By the 1970s China embarked on its own ship and engine building programs, and steamers have since been replaced by diesel tugs, freighters and ferry boats.
Read more about this topic: Steamboats On The Yangtze River
Famous quotes containing the words post, war and/or period:
“Fear death?—to feel the fog in my throat,
The mist in my face,
When the snows begin, and the blasts denote
I am nearing the place,
The power of the night, the press of the storm,
The post of the foe;
Where he stands, the Arch Fear in a visible form,
Yet the strong man must go:”
—Robert Browning (1812–1889)
“I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.”
—John Adams (1735–1826)
“The route through childhood is shaped by many forces, and it differs for each of us. Our biological inheritance, the temperament with which we are born, the care we receive, our family relationships, the place where we grow up, the schools we attend, the culture in which we participate, and the historical period in which we live—all these affect the paths we take through childhood and condition the remainder of our lives.”
—Robert H. Wozniak (20th century)