Obraz Chin w raportach dyplomatycznych Stanisława Patka z lat 20. XX wieku

Stanisław Patek (1866–1944) was a diplomat, politician, and lawyer. In the years 1921–1926, he was the Polish envoy to Tokyo, Japan, and, up to 1924, the envoy to Peking, China. Patek’s analysis of the economic and political situation in the Far East in the 1920s was extremely colourful and accurate. He presented the whole chain of international events that determined the situation in the region, rivalries between the great powers, and their consequences for the world’s policymakers. The ongoing processes and phenomena in this region were of special importance both for the Second World War, with its impact on the international system in the second half of the 20th century, and for the present situation. China, divided and then united, competing and fighting with Japan, gathered all the threads of the politics of the great powers, such as Soviet Russia and the United States. China was becoming an integral part of world’s politics, although not to such a great degree as at present.