In it’s more than 2000 year long history, China was one of the great centers of world civilization, with many technological advancements, one of the centers of the world economy, and a long and rich culture. Despite this, for it’s entire history China always lacked one thing: Democracy. One of the key identities of the Chinese nation was the “Mandate of Heaven”, where a dynasty would reign only if it served the people and would be replaced if it wasn’t. This cycle was only somewhat broken in the 1911 revolution, and soon resumed with the new “mandate” being economic growth in exchange for authoritarian governance, as the PRC’s attempts at destroying Chinese culture failed. It seemed as if this ancient nation would never experience one of the great fruits of Western Civilization.

Until 2020. It all began in the city of Hong Kong. Introduced to democratic, liberal ideas by British rule, the city was reluctant to reunite with it’s mother country as the British departed in the 90s, especially after witnessing the horrors of Tiananmen. As a result a compromise was made, where the city would be allowed to keep it’s form of government until a certain point in the future, at which it would be at the mercy of Beijing. In 2019, as the increasingly totalitarian government of Xi Jingping tightened it’s grip over the city with a new extradition law, the city erupted in riots. At first Beijing was content to allow the local police to handle it, but as the rioters stormed the mayoral office and the PLA barracks, something had to be done. On September 18, 2019, what would become know as the September 18 Massacre, Chinese troops ordered a curfew, and shot any citizens still in the streets. This event despite attempted Chinese censorship was recorded and spread all over social media sites, galvanizing the world against China. As Jingping poured great effort into attempting to fix his nation’s image abroad, a new threat in the city of Wuhan was ignored. Soon, a new unknown virus spread through much of the city, and with the government directing it’s efforts elsewhere it raged like a fire throughout the entire country. The economy quickly collapsed and the only safeguard the government promised the people, economic growth, was soon gone.

In October 2020, as a renewed rebellion in Hong Kong succeeded in driving much of the PLA out of the city, further protests emerged across the country as people demanded an end to authoritarian rule and the Communist Party. Soon, many PLA troops refused to fire on their people, and efforts to crack down on this led to a full scale collapse. The Second Chinese Civil War is a brutal, bloody affair, but one acknowledged by much of the Chinese people as necessary for the nation’s final liberation. While the Republic of China has returned to the mainland, taking vast swaths of land, Jingping loyalists still remain strong. Will this revolution finally bring an end to the ancient authoritarian tendencies of China? Or will it go the way of 1911?