China Self

1)Compare and contrast the aims and the limitations of modernization in China based on the Self Strengthening Movement. Overall was the Self-Strengthening movement successful? Through series of military defeat and overwhelming foreign power, China created the self-strengthening policy. This basically aimed to improve and enrich the country, build defense against the modern powers, and strengthen it’s army by adopting the western technology and military skills. However there were people who opposed to the movement including farmers, some conservative officials and scholars, and one of the biggest problem was Cixi. Cixi however did agree on adopting the military system and technology from the west but wasn’t fully in favor of adopting foreign culture, system or tradition. Money was also needed to advance the movement but Cixi used most of the funds of naval expense to rebuild her summer palace.
Overall, the self-strengthening movement was not successful. The leader of the country Cixi was only into learning western technology and military skills and didn’t see that westerners are also superior in political and social system. Also the Qing government slowly corrupted due to the strong opposition from conservative officials. As a result, this movement ended after China got defeated by Japan in the Sino-Japanese War. However this still was a valuable attempt of China’s reform and became the first step of China’s modernization.

2)Why did the Hundred Days Reform Movement in China fail, and what were the consequences of its failure?

The Hundred Days Reform Movement was the movement of reform after losing the Sino-Japanese War. China realized how slow and bad they were in science, weapon, and art compared to other countries. To catch up on those countries, China started to operate a system called Hundred Days Reform Movement to westernize as fast as possible. This system was started by Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao in 1898 to remake the entire system of education, economy, and government. To successfully work it out, Kang had gone too far to win the support of most Chinese and convince a majority of the political elite. Cixi, the empress dowager, prohibited the Hundred Days Reform Movement. Cixi thought Kang had gone too far trying to achieve his own goal. To stop Kang and Liang Qichao from developing the Hundred Days Reform, Cixi created a coup that seized the emperor and forced him into seclusion. Also, Cixi ordered the removal of Weng Tonghe, the closest ally to the emperor from the forbidden city. She then made an appointment with Ronglu, army minister and commander of the Beijing to get rid of all the reformers out of the forbidden city. Eventually this led to an end of Hundred Days Reform. There were some consequences after ending the Hundred Days Reform movement. The Western Press, who had pretty much no interest to the reform of China, seethed with anger about China’s betrayal. This created some problems between West and China again.

4. What were the main obstacles to China’s modernization in the late 19th Century?

Tradition was the main problem to China’s modernization in the late 19th Century. Chinese people’s traditional mind was that non-Chinese people were considered as barbarians. To Chinese people, barbarians were considered very unpleasant and rude. Also the emperor at that time wanted to keep China as traditional as possible and didn’t want any western tradition or technology coming into the country, which made the process of modernization slower. The Chinese mentality was very sino-centric, so they never thought westerners are threat. Due to this sino-centric mentality, officials and citizens were very worried about being influenced by the foreign powers. They viewed the movement as dangerous and rushed. Most of China’s population was very conservative, narrow-minded traditionalists and so, they were not keen to change and influence which led to an unsuccessful campaign. The Chinese had to get rid of their Confucian mentality and education so that the younger men of China could hold a more key role in reformity. The Confucian exams would need to be abolished while people would need to move on from the dynastic style of governing. In order for reforms to be successful, people need to become more open-minded, keen on change, and have more knowledge on foreign powers and most importantly accept the foreign people. But because of Chinese tradition and their thoughts on the foreigners as barbarians, the Chinese were very limited to change, and to first reform, they had to get over that hump first.

7) “She must be held responsible for the failure to regenerate the dynasty and moderniz the country.” How valid is this assessment of the influence of Cixi on China between 1870 and 1911?

I think she should be held responsible for the failure to regenerate the dynasty and modernize the country. Although she was in favour of adopting western military technology, she opposed the reform because she was afraid that she might lose authority. She was spending the naval expenses on her summer palace and her conservative and anti-foreign personality also held back the movement. Because Cixi was spending most of the funds on her palace and wasn’t supporting the movement, the Qing government started to fall. Cixi was the head of the court so she did could not set a good example for officials. Eventually, the strong opposition from the conservative officials led to serious corruption within the Qing government. Qing was no longer able to manage the self-strengthening movement.The weakened government and weak military became an easy prey for other countries. The Sino-Japanese War broke out and at the end, China lost to Japan and the country was literally corrupted. Basically, the self-strengthening movement would have made the China strong in political, military, and social system. Because Cixi only thought that adopting western technology and military skills were important and never saw the importance of adopting political and social reform. This is the reason why the movement ended in failure.