The 18th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party has ushered in a new generation of Chinese leaders, who grew up, and were even born, after the Chinese People's Republic was founded in 1949. A couple days ago, Xi Jinping, the new general Party secretary, took this team of leaders to visit an exhibit on China's development trajectory of the past 170 years. After the visit, Xi Jinping elaborated on the Chinese dream of reestablishing China's place in the world of nations. As a result, the phrase "Chinese Dream" has become a buzzword in the public forum.

The Chinese dream is not new. It has been a dream for more than 170 years. Ever since China's defeat in the Opium War, the British imperialists, together with the Western pack of wolves, began their preying on the Chinese people. They took over Chinese customs and enjoyed extra territorial rights on Chinese soil, like they did with their other colonies. The difference is that most other Third World countries usually only had one colonial master, while several imperialist powers carved up a part of China as their sphere of influence, because China was too big for any one of them to subjugate alone.

As the foreign powers encroached upon Chinese sovereignty and Chinese resources, China, which led the world in science and technology until 1500, became powerless in defending itself. The British and French forces entered Beijing during the second Opium War, forcing Emperor Xianfeng to flee. In 1900, the eight-power allied forces entered Beijing again, and Emperor Guangxu and Empress Dowager Cexi were on the run. The foreign forces ransacked the Chinese capital, setting the royal palaces on fire, killing and raping the civilian population wantonly and demanding the Chinese government execute hundreds of Chinese officials the foreign occupation authorities identified as instigators of the boxer rebellion.

Up to 1850, China was still the biggest economy in the world. But as the foreign powers took over Chinese customs, the Chinese lost its most important sovereign power: to control its own customs to protect its national industries. Chinese tariff on imports was limited to 5 percent, and any foreign countries could dump its products in China, crushing Chinese industries. On top of that, every time a foreign power defeated China, it demanded huge war indemnities. The British got 8 millions ounces of silver after defeating China in the first Opium War, 16 million ounces of silver after the second Opium War. The French got 8 millions ounces of silver as its share. The Japanese got 300 million ounces of silver after defeating China in 1894 over Korea, on top of getting the Chinese territory of Taiwan and surrounding islands, including Diaoyutai Islands, which equaled four years of Japanese National Revenue and two years of Chinese national revenue. In 1900, when the foreign allied forces beat China, they demanded 500 million ounces of silvers as war indemnities. The Chinese government had to borrow from these same foreign governments with high interest to pay for the war indemnity. Fighting and defeating China had become the best business possible in the world at the time.

In the face of foreign aggression and oppression, the rotten Manchu empire was defenseless. Chinese people became second citizens on their own soil. Foreigners could get away with murder, rape and other violence without any consequences on Chinese soil. The Chinese people became the sick man of Asia. The British imperialists placed a sign outside one of its parks in Shanghai that said: Chinese and dogs are not allowed. The Chinese people were treated no better than dogs on their own soil.

Since that unfortunate day of defeat in the Opium War, the Chinese dream has been to stand up among the nations of the world as upright as anybody else. For that lofty objective, millions of Chinese made the ultimate sacrifice. On Sept 30, 1949, Chinese leader Mao Zedong was finally able to declare to the world at the first Chinese Political Consultation Conference that the Chinese people had stood up.