In the early nineteen hundreds, Russia was not the only country on the edge of revolution. Like Russia, China had not kept pace with the technological and economic changes that were changing western societies. Most Chinese worked as farmers, just as they had since the Han dynasty. For poor farmers, survival was a daily struggle that could be lost when a flood, drought, or big tax bill hit.
By the early nineteen hundreds, however, change had come to China. Britain had seized control of Hong Kong, and forced China to open it's markets to trade. Japan had taken over the island of Taiwan. Britain and other nations also set zones within China that were subject to their laws, rather than China's. Many Chinese disliked the way their country was being treated by European nations. Some of these people believed the time had come for change.