The US and Britain supported Sun Chuanfang, a warlord who controlled the eastern part of China, including Shanghai. After Chiang Kai-Shek's troops entered Shanghai and promised to protect American and British interets in China, America started suppoting Chiang. The US was not neutral in the Chinese civil wars.
>>He wrote specifically about not going radically from one system to another...
Sun tried more than seven times to use force to overthrow the existing governments, the central govt. in Beijing and the local governments in Guangdong, after ROC was established. Sun wanted power. Sun was not G. Washington.
Power and Liberty cross roads at some point.
The Boston Tea Party comes to mind. At that time the American tea market was largely controlled by smugglers (American merchants). England's East India Company was going bankrupt and needed to get rid of surplus tea...and at the same time take over the American market, and save their company.
Those American merchants found a way to deal with the competition...
Not to mention the British were abusing the people's Liberties with their policies...
Power in their case did not grow only out of the barrel of a gun, but out of the fatness of their wallets.
Can you believe those Americans? They started to believe they were equals with the crown...