I read Professor Percy Allen’s interesting article (P&I, 28/03/24) and was astounded by the claim based on a list of “invasion” he was given that China was historically an imperial nation and thus dangerous.

The fact that China was an imperial nation is as beyond a shadow of doubt as the Pope is Catholic. China was an imperial power since it was unified by Qin Shi Huang in 221 BC. However, by extrapolating from the list that China is, by implication, expansionist and therefore dangerous, tells the reader that the “compiler” of the list cannot be a historian. I am no historian myself but like Paul Keating says when he was accused of being out of touch with present day intelligence: “I’ve got a brain, and I can think. I can read, and I read every day …”

Firstly, the history of China is so involved that the list is meaningless. A quick check on just one incident listed as “Qing invade Mongolia” points out simplistic inferences. The Yuan Dynasty (1271 to 1368) was a Mongol dynasty. Mongolia had been part of China since the Mongols invaded and established the Yuan Dynasty. That lasted until around 1921 when Outer Mongolia, with the help of the Russians broke away and came under Soviet influence. Therefore in historical terms, the distinction of whether it was or wasn’t Chinese is difficult to make, although today we consider Outer Mongolia as an independent country through the passage of history. As I understand it, Mongolia as a whole was ruled by the Qing dynasty from 1635 to 1911.

I was surprised by the........

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