Late Qing reforms
Late Qing reforms (Chinese: 晚清改革[1]; pinyin: Wǎnqīng gǎigé), commonly known as New Policies of the late Qing dynasty[2] (Chinese: 清末新政; pinyin: Qīngmò xīnzhèng), or New Deal of the late Qing dynasty,[3] simply referred to as New Policies, were a series of cultural, economic, educational, military, diplomatic, and political reforms implemented in the last decade of the Qing dynasty to keep the dynasty in power after the invasions of the great powers of the Eight Nation Alliance in league with the ten provinces of the Southeast Mutual Protection during the Boxer Rebellion.
[4] The reforms were often considered more radical than the earlier Self-Strengthening Movement which came to an abrupt end with China's defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895.
Despite the reforms and other political struggles the revolutionaries led the 1911 Revolution which resulted in the fall of the Qing dynasty.
[5] In April 1901, the Qing dynasty established the Administration Office to supervise the overall plan for reform, appointing Ronglu, Yikuang and Li Hongzhang as managers, nominating Zhang Zhidong and Liu Kunyi as coordinators.
[6] On January 19, 1904, viceroy of Yun-Gui Ding Zhenduo and Yunnan provincial Patrol Lin Shaonian submitted the application for political reform to the imperial government.
At the beginning of the July, Viceroy of Liangjiang Zhou Wei asked for the implementation of the "separation of the three powers" political system.
At the end of summer, 1906, the delegation returned to China and submitted a report arguing that “The only way for the state to be powerful is constitutionalism”.
On September 1, 1906, the Empress Dowager Cixi promulgated an imperial decree, announcing preparatory imitation of constitution.
In 1909, after Pu Yi, the last emperor of the Qing dynasty, succeeded to the throne, the provincial advisory councils were elected.
In 1908, the imperial government also began to set up autonomous research institutes in the urban area, and draft the "Regulations of the Provincial Consultative Councils", which was scheduled to be completed in 1914.
In 1901, the imperial government abolished the test of traditional Chinese Martial and founded the training system for officers.
The report called for the regular dispatch of central government officials to the provinces to actually check that imperial decrees were being followed something which was not the case previously.
A western-style system of medical and logistical services was also recommended from the frontline to base hospitals in the interior.
[16] In 1902, Beiyang Fleet officer Sa Zhenbing proposed four methods for reviving the Imperial Chinese Navy.
[19] However, there is still debate among the academic community regarding the actual effect that these reforms had on the Chinese people, historian Immanuel Hsü claiming that, apart from the successes in "...the abolition of the civil service examinations… the establishment of modern schools… and the sending of students abroad…”,[20] the reforms were "…essentially a noisy demonstration without much substance or promise of accomplishment…".
to have been a substantive beginning for China's reorganization which was destroyed after the death of the Dowager Empress in 1908 by the intransigent stand of conservative Manchus in the Qing court.
