The Future of China in the World-System

        "At the present time it is probable that there is more good brain
matter and more devoted men working out the modernization and the
reorganization of the Chinese civilization than we should find directed to
the welfare of any single European people.  China will presently have a
modernized practicable script, a press, new and vigorous modern
universities, a reorganized industrial system, and a growing body of
scientific and economic inquiry.  The natural industry and ingenuity of
her vast population will be released to co-operate upon terms of equality
with the Western world.  She may have great internal difficulties ahead of
her yet; of that no man can judge.  Nevertheless, the time may not be very
distant when the Federated States of China may be at one with the United
States of America and a pacified and reconciled Europe in upholding the
organized peace of the world."

        H.G. Wells, THE OUTLINE OF HISTORY (New York: Macmillan, 1920),
II:464.

        Except for the bit about the United States, the old prophet seems
to have been fairly prescient.  And this was written fewer than ten years
after the downfall of the Manchus.

        Warren