China at the end of the imperial era

China

It was the end of the 19th century, during the heyday of the Industrial Revolution and the Age of Imperialism. Meiji Japan and Qing China engage in modern warfare. The Sino-Japanese War was a defining moment for all of East Asia. The outcome of the war impacted not just its major players (China and Japan) but also Korea and Taiwan. The Sino-Japanese War highlighted the ways that globalization and industrialization were influencing global politics and international relations. With Japan's victory, the world also understood that a balance of power had shifted. Japan's military might had been massively underestimated, while China's power had weakened.

Japan had made much greater strides than China during the Industrial Revolution, in terms of upgrading its infrastructure and migrating towards a modern economy. Although both countries remained mistrustful of the West, they had yet to develop any strategic plan to form a united anti-American or anti-Western coalition that would prevent Western Imperialism from encroaching on East Asia. Japan took up the slack left by the West, and set its eyes on expanding the Meiji Empire. With expanded military strength, due in part to its production of modern weaponry since the Meiji Restoration, Japan set its eyes on Korea.

China would have been poised to defend itself against Japan's encroachment had it secured its own domestic policies. Korea was at the time a tribute state of China ("Overview of the Sino-Japanese War," n.d). While China seemed to be a formidable foe, it had in fact fallen behind the times in terms of weapons technology and strategic warfare. The Self-Strengthening Program, Qing China's counterpart to the Meiji Restoration, was a weak response to the threat of Western Imperialism. Instead of following through with the intent to import Western technology to develop modern weapons, the Empress Dowager and her Court stymied modernization. The intent of the Self-Strengthening Program was to retain China's core Confucian culture, while at the same time embracing whichever technologies and information could help the country compete on the global stage. China had its eye on the development of railroads and shipyards, as well as mining and light industries that could modernize the economy ("China in Decline"). The Self-Strengthening Movement even allowed for the translation of key Western texts, when those texts would aid in an understanding of science, government, and the economy ("China in Decline").

Japan, on the other hand, dealt with Western Imperialist threats with more foresight and efficiency. One of the factors that ensured Japan's victory in the Sino-Japanese War was Japan's greater social cohesion. During the Meiji Restoration, the government radically restructured Japanese society, from a feudal model to a modern democratic one. China did no such thing. By neglecting the importance of social and political reforms, China missed out on an opportunity for thorough modernization that would have helped it fare better in the Sino-Japanese War.