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LATE CH1ING RESPONSES TO IMPERIALISM, DISCUSSANT'S REMARKS By John Schrecker, Princeton University In the late 1890's, the imperialist onslaught against China reached a climax with the establishment of broad economic concessions , the creation of spheres of influence, and the emergence of a widespread feeling that the Middle Kingdom was about to be dismembered. In recent years, China's response to this crisis has begun to come under historical scrutiny. Though there are still comparatively few products of detailed research available, their general tendency is clear. As might be expected, what is emerging is that the Chinese response was not as unimportant and passive as was once supposed, but instead was rather significant, vigorous, and, in certain areas, surprisingly successful. The four articles in the present symposium are an important contribution to this revisionist study of the late Ch'ing. Not only do they present useful information on and analysis of specific topics, but, taken together, they provide a basis for comparing the views of a representative spectrum of significant groups active in the first decade of the century, ranging from the Chinese government to the student radicals of Shanghai and Tokyo. - 6 Probably the first thing to be noted from the papers is that they support the increasingly accepted notion that the most crucial feature of the late Ch'ing response to imperialism was the development of a nationalist perspective on China's foreign problems. That is to say, what united even these disparate groups was their commitment to full sovereignty and equality for China and their concomitant belief that decisive steps were required if earlier blemishes on the nation's status were to be removed and new threats rebuffed. This attitude is apparent in the governmental efforts at economic and military reform described by Messrs. Rosenbaum and Kennedy, as well as in Mr. Rhoads' analysis of mass nationalism at Canton. It was, however, also crucial for Mrs. Rankin's student radicals whose virulent anti-Manchu attitudes grew out of their belief that the Ch'ing was unwilling or unable to defend China's interests. However, while every article brings out the nationalist response to imperialism, it is also clear that the various groups adopted different approaches and tactics in order to carry out the injunctions of their nationalist perspective. The most significant split which emerges seems to be that between the government bureaucracy and those groups outside of the government and in opposition to it. - 7 Two of the articles deal with the government. Mr. Rosenbaum discusses an official success, the effort to regain control of railways after the turn of the century, and thereby unearths yet another example of the unexpected effectiveness of late Ch'ing foreign policy. In addition, his article provides a good illustration of several of the important elements which made up this policy. First of all, there was a firm ideological commitment to really achieving full sovereignty for China and not simply to restricting those foreign activities which might pose an actual and direct threat of foreign control. For example, Rosenbaum describes how the Ministry of Posts and Communications "expressed a hypersensitive concern with slights to Chinese sovereignty" and even where "serious grievances no longer existed" remained "determined to wipe out the last vestiges of imperialism. " In addition , the government was willing and able to develop new institutions , such as the Ministry of Posts and Communications, where this was required to achieve the goals which had been established. Beyond this, private activities were also encouraged where they might help to advance the government's purposes. In particular, this was done to make use of the capital and the skills of private entrepreneurs as well as to foreclose the possibility of the foreign domination of China's economic resources. Finally, however, as - 8 in the case of railroad development, where the use of foreigners and foreign capital was required, the government sought to obtain them in a manner which would minimize the infringements to Chinese sovereignty. Accordingly, one of the most common themes apparent in official documents of the period was the attempt to treat foreign economic relations as purely "commercial" rather than as "political" or "diplomatic" matters. One method of doing this...

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