J. O. P. Bland Quotes
One thing, and one thing only, prevents the establishment of a stable Central Government at Peking, and this is the insatiable greed of money which possesses every Chinese who attains to public office.
Actually he also blamed the students who had become very active in politics in disgust with the corrupt politicians. But the students could block things but were not able to constructively come up with any alternatives. See {613112}.
J. O. P. Bland, 1863-1945, (John Otway Percy Bland), English Journalist, Historian, and Foreign Intelligence Operative, Describing China in 1919, China, Japan and Korea, 1921
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
A revolution in 1911 had toppled the Manchu Dynasty. The republican government which won the revolution then lost the peace and their President, Yuan Shikai, became a dictator and crowned himself Emperor. After his death in 1916, China was in chaos; crime, starvation, no law, with no real government was able to be established. Bland observed that Students had become very active filling a huge vacuum, but they became an obstacle to anything that was practically attainable and was less than perfect according to Western democratic notions. There were forces powerful enough to prevent a government from forming, but non strong enough to form one that could survive. The vast majority of the professional politicians were very corrupt. See {613111}.
Ideally, public officials would be honest and work for average societal wages, but historically that has rarely occurred in history after revolutions or major changes where idealism was the major driver for public service. But this, when it exists, tends to fade.
- Born: November 15, 1863
- Died: June 23, 1945
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John Otway Percy Bland, who wrote as J. O. P. Bland, was a British writer and journalist, best known as the author of a number of books on Chinese politics and history. He lived in China for most of the period 1883–1910.
