China's People's Liberation Army is famously the largest in the world, with more than

two million soldiers on active duty.

Less well known, perhaps, is the role America played in shaping it.

In 1862, in the midst of America's Civil War, the Qing Dynasty in China was also in turmoil

thanks to a huge rebellion led by a man who proclaimed himself to be the brother of Jesus Christ.

At its peak, the Typing Rebels ruled over perhaps 30 million Chinese.

The answer to this insurrection was a mercenary from Salem, Massachusetts, called Frederick

Townsend Ward.

After a fighting career that included stints in Mexico and Crimea, Ward took command of

the Qing Dynasty's ever-victorious army, which played a key role in defeating the Typing

Rebellion.

Ward was eventually killed in a battle near Xi Xi in Ningbo Province, shot in the stomach

in September 1862, while back home McClellan and Li were fighting the Battle of Antietam.

But the tactics and equipment Ward introduced in China were imitated by subsequent Chinese

armies, an early case of technology transfer.

America has long since ceased to be a model for China.

Meanwhile America's suspicion of China's Communist Party has grown into full-blown hostility.

But despite the mutual antipathy, the countries are bound together by a global supply chain

that neither can easily unwind.

This is Chex and Balance.

I'm John Prado, the economist's US editor, and each week we take one big theme shaping

American politics and explore it in depth.

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