(The authors are experts on various Economic issues, Strategic Affairs Science & Technology & International Relations. Dr. Siddharth Singh is working as Assistant Professor, Department of Economics in DAV, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India and Dr. Kunwar Alkendra Pratap Singh is an Assistant Professor, Department of Physics in Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India) The People Republic of China (or China) and its policies have always been a matter of deliberation among people around the world. The Anti-Satellite Test, aggressive space manoeuvres and stances, One Belt One Road Initiative and Chinese Debt Trap diplomacy have raised eyebrows of the analysts. The spread of Covid-19 from the Chinese soil has made people curious about China again. Why is China so aggressive towards the outside world? What gives China a sense of being China? What gives Chinese the sense of what it is to be Chinese? The answer to these questions probably lies in the history of China. Here we analyse the shaping of the Chinese ideology in context of the Opium Wars. When we examine the early modern history of China, we notice that there have been numerous events in the history of China which is responsible for the shaping of its current ideology. The Chinese have so many territorial disputes with its neighbours and with other countries. The Chinese have territorial disputes with India over 'Arunachal Pradesh' and 'Ladakh'; with Indonesia & Taiwan over the 'Nathuna Island' (Chinese claiming it to be their traditional fishing ground); with Philippines over 'Scarborough Shoal'; with Japan and Taiwan over 'Senkaku Islands'; with Tajikistan over 'Pamir Mountains' etc. The aggressive policy of China with its neighbours has presumably been because of the history of humiliation faced by it at the hands of outside powers. The Chinese have a perception of Cultural, Religious, Social and Political dominance. The 'Sino Centric' image of China has led them to believe that the foreign countries and communities are inferior as well as barbarian, especially 'Culturally Barbarian'. Chinese treated themselves to be the 'Centre of Universe' surrounded by foreign enemies and the Chinese Confucianism was considered to be a superior ideology than any other system. However, the changing paradigms in the early modern history posed new challenges for China which the Chinese refused to accept and this led to humiliation and misery for the Chinese. The Chinese history is the history of years of conquest, occupation, absorption, and assimilation. This gives China the characteristics of a Civilization state rather than a Nation state. China has emerged as an entirely new paradigm on world diaspora which needs to be studied from a new perspective. In the narrative of the National Museum of China, the modern history of China opens with the Opium Wars. It shows the Opium wars as the sins committed by the western imperialism. Mao came to the rescue of the Chinese against the western humiliation and conquest. The narrative is titled as 'The Road to Rejuvenation' (it could have simply been called 'The Opium Wars' or 'The 1839/1856 Wars'), the title itself reflects the role of historical events in shaping the Chinese mindset. Historically, Chinese goods have been in great demand in the Western countries. The Qing dynasty's introduction of Silver as the medium of exchange led to a drain of wealth for the British, as a result of which the Opium was introduced in China with the idea to balance the books with Asia in general and China in particular, and this way, the Opium opened the long impenetrable markets of China for the western powers. The Opium was smuggled into China through British East India Company. The large quantities of Opium were smuggled aggressively by the British when they took control of Opium producing areas in British India. The Opium turned the trade deficit of London into trade surplus with China. In due course, the opportunity was grabbed by other countries like the United States, Portugal and other European countries. Despite several decrees by the Chinese the western countries continued to smuggle Opium into China. With the passage of time the Chinese reserves started dwindling and the number of Opium addicts in the country increased. The situation became very gloomy, compelling the Chinese emperor Daoguang to impose restrictions on Opium trade. This made Britain angry and it sent the Navy demanding compensation from the Chinese. This led to the First Opium War (1839-1842) between the Chinese and the British. As a result of British victory in the First Opium War, the British gained more control over the Opium trade, Chinese ports were opened for the British and Hong Kong was given to Britain. The other western powers sought this as an opportunity to enter the Opium trade market with China. The Second Opium War (1856-1860) started when the Chinese authorities seized a Chinese ship (bearing British flag) for illegal activities. It was waged by the Chinese and French leading to the defeat of China at the foreign hands. The British, the Americans and the French flooded China with Opium. The western powers forced China to legalise Christianity and Opium. The defeat in the second Opium war and its aftermath led Chinese to feel very much humiliated by the western powers. The Opium wars have been like 'National Wound of China' which has deep imprints on the minds of the Chinese. The two wars embarrassed China. The treaties of surrender imposed unfavourable conditions on Chinese. In the next few years Chinese faced social unrest followed by Yellow river flood in 1887. The Japanese won Korean peninsula and Taiwan from China. The empress Cixi declared war against nine (United Kingdom, Russia, France, Japan, Germany, Italy, Austria, Netherlands and United States of America) nation coalition army. The Chinese army was defeated and the local people faced severe atrocities by the western powers. The Qing dynasty was getting weakened with each passing year and in 1912 it was overthrown in a revolution. China was declared Democratic Republic. The revolution of 1912 was the beginning of the great revolution which China was going to witness in 1949. The United States, Britain, Japan and Russia established relations with the new government. The absence of central power led to failure of unification of China and emergence of small provinces. For the next thirty years there was mass unrest in China which forced China to focus on its internal matters. There were many invasions by the foreign powers in the next few years. Japan and Russia invaded the Manchurian region (1930's) and Japan again invaded (1937) handing continuous defeats to China. The Nanjing (the then Nanking) Massacre (the citizens of Nanjing were murdered and raped by Japanese forces) left a long lasting impression on the Chinese. The decades of suppression and humiliations have broken China, at this juncture, Mao Zedong emerged. There was a prevalence of disparities among the Chinese, so Mao, who was the President of the Communist Party, took advantage of it. He raised an army majority of which were poor peasants. The Chinese population led by Mao tasted victory, after a long time, defeating Japanese forces, and driving them out of mainland China. Mao declared the formation of PRC, the 1958 saw another turn of events in the form of the Great Leap Forward policy. The policy aimed at industrialization of the agrarian societies. The government took over all the private firms and migration of large labourers from rural areas started to provide labour for the thriving industries. The overstated estimates of production, forced import of heavy machines in exchange for crops from Soviet Union and other actions of the Communist officials led to the failure of the Great Leap. The result was the famine of 1956. The Great Chinese Famine resulted due to the 'œFour Pest Campaign' of Mao. The economic impact of the Great Leap has its impact for nearly twenty years. Mao plans backfired and he has to take a backseat in the government. The Cultural Revolution (students, frustrated peasants and soldiers were motivated to denounce authorities) brought back Mao to the power. The twentieth century saw China shaped according to the whims of Communist government which has its roots in the post-Opium era. That is why the period from 1839 to 1939 had a great role in shaping the current mindset of China and Chinese consider it as an era of disgrace and humiliation and the treaties of the time as unfair. The Chinese present has its roots in the past and the past has been an era of disgrace, humiliation and mistrust over the foreign nationals. The treaties and agreements are seen as a threat to Chinese sovereignty. The aggressive policies of the present are repercussions of defensive policies of the past. The China of today is standing on strong nationalistic sentiment, particularly 'Developmental Nationalism'. A new approach would be required to understand the China of the present.