Boxer Rebellion Quotes
Japan and 7 Western countries had sent military troops to China ostensibly to protect “foreigners” who were the victims of the irrational violence of the Boxer Rebellion--{641726} and {641727}. The Chinese government was unwilling and/or unable to suppress the Boxers--{641838}. Regardless of the justification, this was an act of war—an invasion contrary to international law. The Chinese national forces were not only too weak to take on the Boxers but were no match for the 8 powers’ well equipped military forces. None-the-less, the Empress decided to fight. In the early fighting the Chinese Imperial forces killed the German Minister to China, Baron von Ketteler, thus precipitating full scale war.
The “Boxer Rebellion” was a very strong, populist, violent movement in China at the turn of the Century. The hostility was not directed against the Empress or the Government, but against the non-Chinese foreigners who were, theoretically and by treaty, under the protection of the Chinese Government. Cixi and the government had to decide to Crack Down on the Boxers, Support them, or remain passive. The movement was so strong and the government so weak, that is was not clear that the government could prevail in what would amount to a civil war. The Empress in effect vetoed the crackdown option on the grounds stated. With this quotation she made a fateful decision for China and the Foreigners and for her own legacy. She had been considered by Westerners one of the great rulers of the world of not of all time, and she was in many ways. But she made the wrong choice from the Western point of view; thousands of Westerners became casualties of the Boxer irrational xenophobic violence with the government doing little to stop it. Soon, she herself came to regret this policy decision--{641730}.
During her adult life, she was the de facto ruler of China. Officials then did little or nothing to curb the attacks on the various foreigners and foreign power that occupied and exercised some control over parts of China. The Government itself could do little as it was too weak militarily with many key officials bribed by the foreign powers. The Boxers were a grass roots xenophobic movement devoted to getting the foreign powers out of China by violence.
This quotation helps to explain the 19th and 20th century hostility of many Chinese to Missionaries and Christians. The missionary involvement in and interference with the Chinese justice system, together with their one-sided advocacy for Christians regardless of rectitude developed a resentment by the majority of Chinese who had a tradition of religious tolerance—see {34001}.
Two senior Chinese officials Yuan Ch`ang and Hsu Ching-ch`eng, realizing the implications and the vengeance the Western Powers would take on the Empress and China if the order were carried out, rewrote it to require that all foreigners be “protected.” This version went out to all governors except that of Shansi who had received a previous execution order {612690} . When the Empress discovered the change, Yuan Ch`ang and Hsu Ching-ch`eng were both summarily beheaded. However they saved thousands of Western lives and China from an even greater disaster.
The Boxers were against Western and Christian influence. The Government was too weak to protect the foreigners or the Chinese Christians. So the Western Powers used their soldiers and diplomats to defend the Western Enclaves and Christian Churches not unlike the situation with the Taliban in Afghanistan a century later.
The Empress had earlier decided not to try and suppress the Boxers when they started attacking foreigners--{641838}. But now things had gotten out of hand and many ordinary Chinese people—especially Chinese Christians-- were suffering Boxer abuse. Cixi thought the government had to “ally” with the Boxers in the hope that she could influence directions in the future. This, of course, made her anathema in the West and forever damaged her reputation and legacy in Western history.
Pride, sense of dignity and self-respect are powerful and dynamic forces that have been constantly underestimated by occupiers and invaders throughout history. In the case of China, it was not the foreign militaries per se that were responsible for the resentment but the diplomats, merchants and missionaries using the protection and threat of the foreign military that did most of bullying.
See {641838} for a quote about the policies that she came to regret.
