Paul French and Jonathon Fenby kept the evening light and contemplative during an animated debate on the history of China between World Wars I and II. French is author of Through the Looking Glass: China’s Foreign Journalists from Opium Wars to Mao; while Fenby has written ten books on China, including most recently a history of modern China and a biography of Chiang Kai Shek. They gossiped about Chiang Kai Shek and his inability to entertain interviews with foreign journalists longer than 15 minutes (he had hemmoroids) and whether Marshal Zhang Xueliang in 1936 kidnapped Chiang to unify the Chinese in the fight against the Japanese; or whether he did it so he could get Manchuria back, which the Japanese had captured when he was in Beijing having surgery.

French was of the mind that Chinese leadership of the fragmented territories of the nation at that time was nuanced than modern commentators give the so-called warlords. Some of them built schools, converted citizens to Christianity, even put in place social welfare systems. Though Fenby (and this author) disagreed the country was close to a federal form of government as one finds in the United States, both speakers agreed the greatest warlords were Chiang and Mao himself; the two absolutely hated what the other stood for, and would stop at nothing to destroy their mortal enemy. Even if it meant eternal conflict for their own country.

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