Starting in the 1910s, American money and ideas helped usher in China’s age of openness. Civil society developed, literature blossomed, Chinese universities grew in size and influence, and Chinese scientists collaborated with some of the keenest minds in the world. But, while private American initiatives supported the best China had to offer, the US government seemed stuck in a time warp—backing a series of warlord governments in Beijing. America’s inability to recognize the wave of the future in China opened the door to a country that would grow into its biggest foe: the Soviet Union.
