The First Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895) was one of the turning points in modern Chinese History. In the eyes of the Qing Leaders, Japan was a small and weak country and China was big and strong. However, they were astonished that China was defeated by Japan in the war.
This paper aims at finding out the main cause of the defeat of China in the war. Although the war ended over a hundred years, historians are far from reaching an agreement on the main factor which caused the defeat of China. Some believe that Li Hongzhang was responsible for the loss in the war. Others claim that the thorough and active planning of Japan was the reason for her winning the war. My paper examines the view of rival historians such as Professor Qi Qizhang and Professor Su Yishan and comes to the conclusion that the loss of China was not the fault of Li, but the weakness of China. In my opinion, it is clear that the defeat of China was mainly due to poor management of her internal and external affairs. Moreover, the superior military power of Japan and the role played by the world powers at that time was important as well.. The essay ends with a conclusion that the failure of China was mainly due to her weakness rather than the work of Japan.
I chose this topic not only out of my interest but to discover the changes in modern Chinese History. Last year (1995) was the hundredth year after the defeat of China in the First Sino-Japanese War. Plenty of books and videos in Chinese about the war are available and useful. Still, I am aware of being misled by over-relying on those Chinese sources. I hope this essay provides an objective and unbiased look at the main factor which caused China's defeat in the War.
In 1894, the Tonghak Rebellion broke out in Korea. After receiving a request for help from the Korean King, Qing China sent 14,000 people troop to Pyongyang. Japan claimed she would like to protect the Japanese there and also sent troops to Korea. It was stated in the Treaty of Tianjin (1885) that Japan had the right to send troops to Korea to protect her people. On 25th July, the Japanese Fleet attacked the Chinese commercial ship "Gaoshang", which was hired from the British to transport Chinese soldiers, fiercely and without a declaration of war. One thousand two hundred Chinese soldiers died during the attack.
On 1st August, China declared war on Japan. However, the Chinese were soon defeated in the Korean field. The Chinese Beiyang Fleet was destroyed by the Japanese United Fleet in the Battle of Yellow Sea as well. After the Japanese troops won these decisive battles, they started crossing the Yalu River into Manchuria from Korea. A second force landed on the Liaodong Peninsula, captured Lushun in November 1894 and swept across south Manchuria. In early 1895, the Japanese attacked Weihai and soon took control over the area. Thus, the Beiyang Fleet was bottled up. Admiral Ding Ruchang of China committed suicide in February after the fall of Weihai. The following month, the Japanese forces in Manchuria joined up and were soon moving towards Beijing. China asked for peace. On 17th April 1895, the Qing government was forced to sign the Treaty of Shimonoseki. It was an unequal treaty to China. It stated that China should:
¡P recognize the independence of
Korea;
¡P pay 200 million taels of silver to Japan as an indemnity;
¡P cede Liaodong peninsula, Taiwan and Panghu to Japan in perpetuity;
¡P open Shasi, Chongqing, Suzhou and Hangzhou for trade, and residence;
¡P give Japan the right of the Most-Favored-Nation Treatment.
The result of the First Sino-Japanese War was a shock to most observers. Before the outbreak of the war, the defeat of Japan seemed to be quite certain. The Europeans ranked the Chinese Fleet much higher than that of the Japanese. China was a big country with a huge population. The army was strong in terms of manpower. However, the destructive defeat of China proved that most observers were wrong. One may ask why Japan, a small island country, had the power to defeat the huge Chinese Empire?
There are many reasons for the defeat of China in the Sino-Japanese War. The Chinese military forces were under poor leadership and were undisciplined. Worse still, they were poorly equipped. On the other hand, the Chinese political problems also played an important part in the loss of the war. First of all, Li Hongzhang relied on the good will of western powers to mediate with Japan. Secondly, there were long and serious arguments over peace or war in the Qing Court even when the war had started. The two reasons mentioned above and the absurd celebration of the Empress Cixi's birthday were all held responsible for China's defeat. On the contrary, the modern and well-equipped Japanese Army, capable leadership by Emperor Meiji and active preparation work done by Japan all contributed to Japan's success in the war.
Some modern historians such as Professor Qi Qizhang and Professor Su Yishan believe that neither Li Hongzhang nor Empress Cixi was the most important factor for China's defeat. The cause of the defeat of China lies in the weaknesses of China itself. If we examine the factors that led to China's defeat, we may find that under such preparation and situation, any country could have defeated China. Fukuzawa Yukichi who was the pioneer of Meiji Modernization said, "China was defeated by her poor performance rather than our force."
Korea, situated between China and Japan, was a tribute state of China for a long time. Although Korea was not a big country, it was a great concern for the national security of both China and Japan, just like Poland to Russia and Germany before the Second World War. China regarded Korea as her buffer state in the East, since it could be a base of enemies to attack Manchuria on land or Shangdong by sea. On the other hand, Korea could also act as a base for enemies to attack the Japanese Islands. Therefore, Korea was an important place to both China and Japan. The two countries both wanted a closely related government in Korea. However, as Korea had long been China's tribute state, Japan had no way to establish a pro-Japanese Government in Korea. Therefore, the only way was to start a war against China and to conquer Korea.
Japan is an island country and has very limited resources. The Japanese thought the only way to solve the problem was to acquire more land and more natural resources through wars. Therefore, traditionally the Japanese Emperors had the ambition to acquire Asia and dominate the world. Their first target was Korea, and then China, India and the world. This plan was first suggested by a Japanese Shogun in the late 16th century. In 1868, after the Meiji Emperor was restored into power, Japan soon started the Meiji Modernization programme and began to draft out a clear plan of war against Korea and China. In 1885, the Japanese Prime Minister, Ito Hirobumi said, "The Self-Strengthening Movement of China happens only on paper. In fact nothing has been improved. Japan should build up a stronger empire through modernization as soon as possible, and wait for a chance to attack China."
At the same time, an outer clan in Japan sent a petition to Emperor Meiji, suggested that:
"After Britain and France have gained enough concessions in China, the next place they seek for interest must be Japan. By preventing so, we should first conquer a province of China. Internally, it can strengthen our power; externally, it can show our strength to the world. In my opinion, Fujian, just on the opposite coast of Taiwan, should be our first target.¡K"
In 1887, the Military Staff of Japan drew up a draft of "Expedition to Qing China" which stated that,
"When we have a war with China, our main force should attack Beijing. Some troops are also needed to conquer the Changjiang River. After a deceive victory, we may force China to cede Liaodong, Shangdong, Zhejiang, Taiwan and Panghu to us, ¡Kand later to separate the whole Chinese empire."
So, it was quite clear that the First Sino-Japanese War was a result of long term preparation of Japan and it's ambitions in acquiring more land and resources.
Li Hongzhang, who was the most powerful person in foreign affairs during the
late Qing period, knew the importance of Korea to China. He knew that Japan
was the real enemy of China, not the Western countries. In one of his memorandum
to the Zongli Yamen (Foreign Ministry department of China) in 1871, he wrote,
"We would rather let Russia occupy Ili, we cannot let Japan have a chance
on Korea." Therefore he organized the establishment of the Beiyang
Fleet which aimed at protecting Northern China and Korea in 1888. However, other
than that nothing was done. Most of the Chinese then did not believe that Japan
was planning to wait for a war. Even after the outbreak of the war, most scholar
officials of the Qing court still believed that the war was just an "accident".
Japan began precise planning long before the war broke out and so she had a
longer time for preparation. The fact could be well reflected by her military
maps. The maps were precise and clear, and were renewed by the military department
every year. However, the military maps of China were the ones which have been
used since late Ming Dynasty and so were no more inaccurate. Those maps were
just like the tourist maps we use today, were not precise enough for military
use. It showed both the preparation work and the international understandings
of the Qing Government were poor.
The poorly equipped Army and Navy of the Qing government was another factor that led to the defeat of China.
The "strongest" army of China then was the Anhui Army headed by Li Hongzhang. However, some twenty years before the war broke out, some Western observers complained the Anhui Army for their weakness: "The soldiers...lived in a too comfortable place that would lower their fighting morale. The commanders were incapable.…NNo salary would be given to the soldiers and most of them wanted to runaway and go back to their hometowns...No gunpowder was given to firecrackers, and the gunpowder put in the guns was the wrong one." Worse still, even at the end of the war, many Chinese soldiers were still armed with spears or swords! On the contrary, all Japanese soldiers were armed with the latest military equipment. The Japanese Imperial Army were well paid, and the fighting morale of them was high. How could a soldier in the late 19th century still use spears or swords to fight against the gunpowder? In fact, the military leaders in China had seen the problem but they ignored it. The reason behind was that they did not think that a war would really happen. It was quite clear that China would lose the war when the Anhui Army met the Imperial Army.
On the other hand, the Chinese naval power seemed to be better. The ranking of the Beiyang Fleet, according to the Western observers was the eighth in the world. The United Fleet of Japan was only the eleventh. The flag ship of China was weight of 7,310 tons, but the flag ship of Japan was 4,278 tons only. From these general figures China gained the upper hand. However when we compare the two fleets in details, we would have another conclusion. Firstly we compare the ages of the warships. The Beiyang warships were aged from 5 to 13 years, and the warships of the United Fleet were only 5 to 9 years old. The younger the age of the warship, the faster the ship would be. In a naval battle, the decisive factor is the speed of the warships, not the number of guns it has-It was the latest concept in naval battles then. However the Chinese warships were old and slow. Moreover, insufficient artillery as well as gunpowder was given to the Beiyang warships. It made the Fleet unable to beat the well armed and faster Japanese warships. So, China only had a numerical superiority in her military force.
Although both China and Japan gave military reforms a priority in their modernization programs, the outcome of the war reflected the different degrees of success in the modernization programs of the two countries. The Meiji Modernization was a success, but the Self-Strengthening Movement of China was not so successful. It was because Japan was enthusiastic in it, but China was not. The modernization programmes in China did not work, since most of the Chinese leaders were very conservative. They still thought that China was superior. They did not believe that modernization was important in making China strong again. They were not zealous in learning from the West. Most of the money provided to improve the military forces in China was lost due to serious corruption. However Japan was very different from China. The Japanese were zealous in learning of Western civilization. Through education, not only the leaders of the country, but also the common people in Japan, realized the importance of modernization. Therefore, Japan could have a whole-hearted modernization movement but China did not. No wonder Ito Hirobumi said in 1885, the Self-Strengthening Movement of China happens only on paper and in fact nothing have been improved."
Historians such as Immanuel C.Y. Hsu and Hu Sheng suggested that Empress Cixi and Li Hongzhang were the persons who should be blamed for the defeat of China. Comparing the role of Empress Cixi of China and Emperor Meiji of Japan, we may find some distinctive differences. Empress Cixi's misuse of the naval funds for the construction of the Summer Palace, trust in the eunuchs, and the general degeneration of moral standards predestined the defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War. A British adviser once recommended that China should purchase two fast ships before the war. However, it was turned down by the Empress simply because she needed funds for her birthday celebration. Instead these two ships were bought by Japan, and one of them, the Yoshime, established a splendid record in naval battles against China. Corruption was also a serious problem for China then. It was estimated that 53 hundred thousand taels of silver was the amount of fund for the establishment of the Beiyang Fleet at the beginning. However at the end only 11 hundred thousand had been used to build up the fleet. The remaining was misused by the Empress and her favorite eunuchs. Therefore when Li Hongzhang asked for money to reinforce the fleet, financial department always used the excuse of "insufficient funds". Without enough funds, it was impossible to build up a stronger navy.
However, Emperor Meiji of Japan was a different person. After he knew the need of a modern navy for Japan, he donated a large sum of money, 300 thousand Japanese yen to build the United Fleet. In 1893, he established the General Wartime Headquarters in Hiroshima. When the war broke out in 1894, he went there to monitor the war. On the contrary, at the time when the Japanese had conquered the Liaodong Peninsular, the Chinese Empress was celebrating her 60-year old birthday in the Summer Palace!
Li Hongzhang was the commander-in-chief of the Anhui Army and Beiyang Fleet. He was responsible for diplomatic and military affairs regarding Korea. Yet the poor performance of his navy and army was caused not only by the poor equipment, but also the poor leadership of the generals under his controls. At the very beginning, Li's military staff Zhoufa warned:
"The Japanese has prepared for a war for a long time, our army is not able to resist their attack. Our solution is to gather more troops to stage at Korea as fast as possible to defend our interest."
Li wanted to settle the war through negotiation at the beginning and chose to wait for Russia or Britain to mediate. Moreover, he did not believe Japan would really start a war. Therefore he refused to send more troops to Korea. Li allowed himself to be misled by Cassini into believing that the Russian Government would intervene and force Japan to cease the war. When the promised intervention failed to materialize, Li desperately turned to Britain and the United States and asked for help. He did not know that the powers all wanted to fish in troubled waters. They would not help China to mediate with Japan at all. Besides, the Chinese generals in Korea such as Yi Zhichou did not manage his army well. They allowed their army to grab Korean's property and did not take notice of Japan's aggression. Yi did not resist the enemy. He just waited to be captured. Therefore the Japanese troops defeated the Anhui troops in the Korea quickly.
Japanese had a clear goal in the war. Their only motive was to win. However, in China, even when Liaodong was being captured by Japan, the Qing Court still had the argument of war or peace with Japan. Without a clear goal and capable leaders to direct the war, the defeat of China seemed to be inevitable.
The strategy employed by China was also a decisive factor in the war. China did employ very limited strategy in the war. The troops at the front were disunited, and the orders from the Qing Court was changing all the time. In the Qing Court, Li Hongzhang and Empress Cixi wanted peace, but the Emperor Guangxu wanted a war. The generals did not know which side they should stand for. So Yi Zhichou, the Main General of China at the Korean front did not build up any resistance against the Japanese troops. Yi Zhichou simply ran away when the Japanese attacked his troops.
In respect of the naval battles, China used the wrong strategy as well. Since Li knew that the speed of Chinese warships was slow compared with the Japanese warships. Therefore, Li believed that it is not wise to have a sea battle with Japan. He wished to save more Chinese warships by avoiding a sea battle. As a result he ordered the Beiyang Fleet to keep patrolling inside Buhai Sea and not to go beyond it in the hope of saving more Chinese warships. The command meant that the Chinese Fleet chose the defensive way. The United Fleet of Japan, however determined to take action to prove that they were the strongest navy in Asia. Japan decided to challenge the naval power of China. Therefore, a naval war was inevitable. The Admiral of the Beiyang Fleet, Ding Ruchang was a commander of land troops and he did not have any experience in a sea battle. He just used the same strategy in fighting a naval battle just as on land. Moreover, the Beiyang Fleet lacked support from other Chinese Fleets. The reason of this was the over estimation of Beiyang's power by the Court as well as other Admirals. The other reason was that without the order of the Chinese central government, other fleets such as Nanyang, Guangdong and Fujian would not move to the Yellow Sea to help the Beiyang Fleet. Therefore, China suffered a defeat in the Battle of the Yellow Sea when she met the well-trained United Fleet.
By contrast, Japan performed a series of right strategies against the weakness of the Chinese Army. The Japanese Commanders knew that the Chinese troops in Korea were not well prepared for a war, so they made a sudden attack on Chinese troops and they won. At sea, they just used the fast warships to attack the slow Chinese warships. Japanese guns were faster and more accurate and they gave Beiyang Fleet a fierce attack. Therefore, it was not surprising that the Japanese won the naval battles, since they were equipped by modern weapons and directed by proper strategies.
Japan was able to use the right strategies against China during the war time because of the extensive work of her spies. Mutsu Munemitsu was the Japanese Foreign Minister then. In his memoirs, Kenkenroku provides the evidence regarding this matter. He wrote, "the secret telegram of China was not a secret to Japan at all. We knew how to interpret it all. The reason was the information provided by our spies in China." Before 1894, the Japanese spies in China collected the accurate station points of the Chinese troops. The weakness of the Beiyang Fleet was also well known to the Japanese military department two weeks before the Yellow Sea Naval Battle. The possible strategies that would adopted by China in the war was well estimated by Mutsu Munemitsu as well. It explained why Japan would be successful in a secret attack on the Chinese-hired British ship (Gaoshang). The sound spy network contributed to the success of Japan in the battles.
Last but not the least was the unity of the nation during the war. During the time of the war, not many people in China knew that they were having a war with Japan. They only knew the Birthday celebration of the Empress. Before the war broke out, the newspapers in Shanghai exaggerated the power of the Chinese troops and simply concluded that China would have an easy victory. However after the war broke out, the reports had changed sharply. They then began to exaggerate the Japanese army then, and concluded that China had no chance to win. That help in diminishing the morale of the troops in Korea. Moreover, the state policy was still basically medieval. The Chinese government and people are two separate entities. The war hardly affected the people at all. It was fought mostly by Li Hongzhang's Beiyang Fleet and Anhui Army.
On the other hand, the Tokyo Daily News reported every battle fought in Korea
and China and even the response of the Chinese after each battle. The Japanese
then were all concerned about the war. They read the news every day. In this
way, the Japanese showed their unity in fighting China. So some historians even
commented that the war was fought with the wholly consolidated might of the
Japanese nation.
Therefore, western observers described the war as one between Li and Japan. To China, victory in that situation was impossible, as only his regional forces pitted against the entire might of the Japanese empire. The defeat also exposed the regionalism problem of China. In China, the regional governors had great power. They were directly appointed by the Emperor, and administrated one or two provinces, which was even bigger than a country in Europe. They acted like a "king" in their region. The governors administrated all aspects in the region, as well as the military affairs. They had the power of deciding whether to send troops in fighting a war or not. It's natural that every governor wanted to have peace in their region, and did not want to suffer a defeat in war. A defeat in war may also mean that they were going to be dismissed. As a result, no other troops but the Anhui Army which was headed by Li Hongzhang participated in the war with Japan. Without the support from other Chinese troops the Anhui Army seemed to be unable to beat the strong and modernized Japanese Imperial Army. In this case, the regionalism hindered the victory of China.
Different historians have different opinions on the main reason that caused the defeat of China in the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895. I agree with Professor Qi Qizhang's idea that the failure of China in the war was mainly due to the poor management of the internal and external affairs, not the responsibility of Li Hongzhang nor the superiority of Japan. It is not justifiable to suggest that it was all Li's fault. Although Li was described by the Western observers as an old, confused man", and was in fact a traitor planted in China by Japan" However, I do not agree with this point of view. Li, as we know so far, worked on the behalf of the Qing Government during the war rather than an "traitor" of Japanese government as described by some Western observers. All his effort was trying to place China into a better position in case of negotiation. His work was not aimed at creating time for the Japanese to have a war on China, although he did so in the war.
The Scholar Officials then claimed that everything would be fine was Li replaced. I think even if Li was replaced by someone else China would still have lost the war. After the Anhui Army was defeated in the Korean field, the Chinese Emperor replaced Li by other government officials, but Liaodong was still occupied by Japan. So Li should not be blamed as the only reason responsible for the failure of China though he was the one who was responsible for the foreign and military affairs of China.
Japan won the war, and some historians said Japan's superior force was the main reason of China's defeat. The decisive victory of the Japanese Fleet in the Naval Battle of Yellow Sea as well as the Imperial Army in the Korean field had shown that her force was superior to those of the Chinese. The works of the Japanese spies were also remarkable. However, the weakness of China was actually caused by herself. The poor equipment of the Beiyang Fleet was due to the misuse of the naval fund by the Empress Cixi. The low fighting morale of the Chinese troops was due to corruption. The delay in making a decision on war or peace was due to the different opinions held by the Chinese Emperor and the Empress. Li's poor foreign strategy to wait for negotiation made the Chinese troops not enthused over putting up war resistance against Japanese forces. Together with the incorrect estimation of China's forces which became very strong after the Self-Strengthening Modernization Program all these problems were responsible for the defeat of China. Worse still, Japan knew China very well by the work of spies, but China did not know Japan at all. China still thought that Japan is a small country that would not dare to start a war against China. All these made China inactive in building up resistance against Japan.
Therefore, just as Qi Qizhang said, "On the Chinese side, no single one should bear the whole responsibility of the defeat in the war. The actions taken by the Chinese leaders had created the failure in the war. In fact not only Japan, any power would defeat China if they declared a war on China¡K" Thus, in my conclusion, the weakness in every aspects caused by the Chinese leaders, should be the main cause that created her defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-95).
David Wong Wing Chung
Decemberr 1996
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