Gray Chinese Government example essay topic

Why did Self-Strengthening Fail? Self-strengthening was aimed to preserve traditional Chinese ideals (Confucianism) and to incorporate modern Western technology into their society. It was "learning the superior techniques of the barbarians to control the barbarians" as Wei Yuan stated. However, self-strengthening failed due to a number of reasons: lack of co-ordination, lack of money, lack of skilled people, traditional Confucian attitudes, limited scopes and government corruption.

One of the most harmful to the self-strengthening movement was Chinese attitude to reform. Chinese people were very traditional therefore unwilling to change. There was a lot of opposition towards Chinese studying abroad. For a decade after 1872, 30 boys per year were sent to study in Connecticut.

Chinese people back home disliked this as the boys become "too westernised" and had started dressing like westerners. Hsu suggests that the Chinese people despised Westerners; this was shown in 1874 when the "British-built short railroad from Shanghai to Woo sung was ripped off its bed by angry mobs because the locomotive ran over a spectator. Two years later the governor-general was pressured by the local gentry to buy this foreign railway and have it totally wrecked". Another reason as to why the Chinese attitude to reform was damaging to self-strengthening is the fact that there was no widespread support from Chinese society for industrialisation.

Apart from arsenals and textile mills that manufactured uniforms being set up in China, industrialisation never got the support it needed from Chinese society. According to Gray Chinese government rejected the opportunity of foreign investment and participation to help build railways, open modern mines, introduce the telegraph and to send diplomatic representatives abroad. When the proposal to help achieve these things was offered by Robert Hart, Zong li Yamen accepted the memorandum and it was sent to the Throne where it was "dismissed immediately": introduction of foreign capital was not accepted by the Chinese government. There was a lack of skilled people, which contributed to the failure of the self-strengthening movement. Transmission of technology was stunted in 1881 when the scheme of sending boys abroad to study was terminated. According to Gray, it wasn't until the first years of the 20th century that there was a significant amount of boys being trained abroad and exerting intellectual influence in China.

The Chinese had an opportunity to become educated by Westerners but they turned against it because of the fact that their students were becoming too westernised too quickly. The programme to send students abroad was in itself very limited. Only 30 boys a year from 1872 to 1881 were sent to study in American schools. Hsu states that "the government-supervised merchant undertakings, which continuously suffered from... nepotism".

This is a very good example of a lack of skilled people working for the government because most of the people who were involved in nepotism probably did not have the right qualifications for the job they were subjected to. China at this time was not economically endowed. One of the reasons for this was corruption of the Dowager Empress who had misused money that could have been spent on naval funds but instead it was used to "construct the Summer Palace for the amusement of the dowager in retirement" as according to Hsu. Another example of mishandling the Chinese economy was the fact that profits "were distributed to shareholders as dividends rather than reinvested for growth" as stated in Hsu.

The Chinese also rejected the opportunity for Western investment. Gray states that the Chinese government rejected the proposal for foreign investment and participation in the building of certain infrastructure. There was also discouragement of private investment. The Chinese also had to pay "vast military expenses and indemnities": "the Japanese invasion of Formosa in 1874 and annexation of the Liu-ch " iu Islands in 1879; the British attempt to open Yunnan in 1875; the Russian occupation of Ili in Sinkiang, 1871-81; the French seizure of Annam and the war of 1884-85; and the Japanese aggression in Korea and the war of 1894-95" to name a few.

There was also no encouragement of private investments: "no legal changes which might protect and encourage enterprise... no encouragement of private enterprise in basic and defence-orientated industries". Only later did the Chinese realise that there must be "changes in law and in official practice towards merchants before investors would have the necessary confidence". There was corruption within the Chinese government which was a factor to the failure of self-strengthening. The Dowager Empress spent 30 million taels of naval funds to construct the Summer Palace for her "amusement in retirement" as Hsu has stated. The 30 million taels were supposed to fund the navy. Hsu also suggest that Li Hong zhang was "not noted for high morals and character".

Apparently, Li left behind and estate of 40 million taels which his followers "squeezed and milked the factories and enterprises under their charge mercilessly". Self-strengthening had a very limited scope of activity. According to Hsu, self-strengthening only stretched as far as improving "firearms, ships, machines, communications, mining, and light industry. No attempts were made to assimilate Western institutions, philosophy, arts, and culture". Basically, Western technology and the Confucian system that Chinese society was based on did not work together. This is due to the fact that Chinese people were unwilling to adapt to Western philosophy, art and culture because of their traditional Confucian ideals.

The Chinese had a lack of co-ordination especially when it came to war. In 1884 the Fukien fleet fought alone in the French war because the Nanyang and the Peiyang fleet "refused to go to the rescue... under enemy attack" as according to Hsu. In the Japanese war of 1894-95 the Nanyang fleet "maintained neutrality while the Peiyang fleet alone fought the Japanese navy". The Chinese also had a lack of control over some provinces. There was weakening of central power and an incline of power in the provinces. This was due to the rebellions that took place during the time of self-strengthening such as the Nian rebellion (1853-68), the Muslim rebellion (1855-73) and the Taiping Rebellion (1950-64).

The self-strengthening movement failed due to many reasons. One of the most important is the attitude that the Chinese had towards modernization. Their Confucian based system disallowed much room to grow: only few steps of modernization were accepted within the Chinese society.