Modern China: The Fall and Rise of a Great Power, 1850 to the Present, Jonathan FenbyNo country on earth has suffered a more bitter history in modern times than China. In the second half of the nineteenth century, it was viewed as doomed to extinction. Its imperial rulers, heading an anachronistic regime, were brought low by enormous revolts, shifting social power patterns, republican revolutionaries, Western incursions to "split the Chinese melon" and a disastrous defeat by Japan. The presence of predatory foreigners has often been