City of Spies: Difference between revisions

* Shanghai in [[World War 2]] and just before was justly famed as a [[Wretched Hive|city of wickedness.]] It was also a city of spies. It was an island of something like stability amid the chaos in the hinterland where there was not only [[We ARE Struggling Together|general warlordism]] but a three way war between the Nationalists, Communists, and Japanese. Refugees too poured in from-wherever-sometimes from the other side of the world, depending on who had lost what whim of political violence. Not to mention the Taipans(merchant princes in Asia) of Chinese and foreign citizenship, and the crime lords and theirthe various political loyalties or lack thereof of all of these. And the just plain hired guns who would do anything for a buck. Strategically it was a place for Great Powers to have a finger in for various reasons, notably just keeping an eye on what was going on in China, but sometimes for some other reasons. Germans for instance found it a handy place to coordinate their network watching maritime traffic.