Why Sun Yat-Sen Was An American Thinker: The man who ended more than 2,000 years of imperial rule in China was more heavily influenced by American principles than most people realize.

American Thinker ^ | 04/12/2022 | Laura Lam

[untenured]

Sun was not born in Hawaii, although he spent much of his later childhood there and had become fluent in English by the time he went back to China.

But he was a socialist through and through. The army he headed, based near British Hong Kong (whose openness and vitality he and others benefited from) helped overthrow the last emperor, a child, but he was out of office within months and China fell into graft and civil war, and well after he died finally into the catastrophe of Maoism.

He was a naive fool, obsessed with the idea that foreigners and foreign capital, having brought technology and the ideas of human rights, women’s rights more generally, the scientific method, industrialization and social change to a society, though with a very long civilization magnificent in some ways compared to others, that had never known any of these things.

Like the left everywhere, he took the present for granted and wanted to hammer it into something better, never giving any though to how it came to be.

[untenured]

Sun Yat Sen was not a power hungry man and in fact, ceded his presidency to a warlord named Yuan Shi Kai in order to avoid civil war.

Not true, or at best incomplete. He needed Yuan’s support to overthrow the monarchy, and agreed in advance to turn the presidency over to him after the emperor was gone, to be followed by free elections. The latter never happened, and indeed never have subsequently in China.

[untenured]

He was a naive fool, obsessed with the idea that foreigners and foreign capital, having brought technology and the ideas of human rights, women’s rights more generally, the scientific method, industrialization and social change to a society, though with a very long civilization magnificent in some ways compared to others, that had never known any of these things.

Oops! Sorry for cutting off the sentence. Should read: He was a naive fool, obsessed with the idea that foreigners and foreign capital, having brought technology and the ideas of human rights, women’s rights more generally, the scientific method, industrialization and social change to a society, though with a very long civilization magnificent in some ways compared to others, that had never known any of these things, was responsible for all of China’s problems.

[ckilmer]

Its generally recognized that he was a naturalized american citizen. what’s under contention is as to whether he was born in the USA.

Are there any birth certificates for him?

[ckilmer]

can you point to the american birth certificate?

[Lurkinanloomin]

Hawaiian birth certificate, Hawaii was not part of the US at the time.

https://imagesofoldhawaii.com/certificate-of-hawaiian-birth/

[ckilmer]

Is there a sun yat sen birth certificate?

[ckilmer]

Do both taiwan and the PRC acknowledge that sun yat sen held an american citizenship but deny that he was born in Hawaii?