Frederic P Miller

Anarchism in China Frederic P Miller

Publisher Marketing: Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. The origins of Chinese anarchism are traceable to the early Chinese Nationalist movement. The predominance in the late 1800s of the Nihilist movement and anarchist communism in Russia, which borders China, was a major source of anarchist influence on the nationalist movements in China. The use of assassination as a tool in the anti-Manchu movement as promoted by groups like the Chinese Assassination Corps was similar to the widespread use of heroic self-sacrifice and assassination by Russian anti-czarist groups like The People's Will and pan-Slavic nationalists like The Black Hand. Even though anarchism and nihilism are distinct and separate ideologies, at that time the popular press in Europe and China generally conflated the two. At the International Conference of Rome for the Social Defense Against Anarchists, anarchism was defined "as any act that used violent means to destroy the organization of society" . This association with political violence promoted an early interest in anarchism among some Chinese radicals. Because of the lack of Chinese-language materials, however, this early influence was very limited.