160 



CHINA. 



them from imports. The difference between ex- 

 ports and imports is therefore less than these 

 figures show, and when account is taken of the 

 land trade by the frontiers of Tibet and Mon- 

 golia, the expenditures of foreign vessels and 

 travelers in China, the remittances of Chinese 

 abroad, amounting to perhaps $12,000,000 in gold 

 from California alone, and the exports of gold 

 from China, the balance is in China's favor, the 

 net imports of silver in 1898 being 4,750,000 taels. 

 The country does not suffer from scarcity of sil- 

 ver, but there has been an inconvenient dearth 

 of copper cash since the intrinsic value of the 

 copper they contain rose above that of the silver 

 for which they are exchanged. 



Navigation. During 1897 the number of ves- 

 sels entered and cleared at Chinese ports was 

 44,500, of 33,752,302 tons, of which 34,566, of 

 32.519,729 tons, were steamers, and 9,934, of 

 1,232,633 tons, sailing vessels. Of the total num- 

 ber 21,140, of 21,891,043 tons, were British; 18,889, 

 of 7,819,980 tons, Chinese; 1,858, of 1,658,094 tons, 

 German; 653, of 660,707 tons, Japanese; 464, of 

 423,122 tons, French; and 333, of 269,780 tons, 

 American. 



Railroads. The railroad in operation for sev- 

 eral years from the Kaiping mines to Petang has 

 been built through to Taku, Tientsin, and Linsi, 

 and is being continued to Shanhaikwan. The 

 railroad from Tientsin to Pekin, 73 miles long, 

 was opened on June 30, 1897, and since August, 

 1898, a railroad, 12 miles long, connecting Shang- 

 hai with Woosung, has been in operation. A vast 

 railroad system has been for years under discus- 

 sion, and foreigners have been willing to provide 

 capital on sufficient security, usually coupled 

 with demands for commercial and political ad- 

 vantages. Concessions had already been granted 

 before the beginning of 1899 for over 3,000 miles 

 of railroads in the northern provinces and the 

 valley of the Yangtse-Kiang, to be built at a 

 cost of upward of $120,000,000. The most impor- 

 tant of the projected lines will connect Pekin 

 with Hankau, the center of the Yangtse trade, 

 with the prospect of its being continued through 

 to Canton. 



Posts and Telegraphs. The postal service 

 has heretofore been carried on by means of spe- 

 cial messengers and by relays of runners under 

 the direction of the military department. On 

 Feb. 2, 1897, an imperial post office was organ- 

 ized under the management of the director of 

 maritime customs. China has since notified the 

 Swiss Government of her adhesion to the regula- 

 tions of the Universal Postal Union. 



Telegraph lines, built primarily for military 

 purposes, connect Pekin with the posts on the 

 Russian frontier of Manchuria, with Korea, with 

 Niuchwang, Chifu, Shanghai, Canton, and all the 

 other ports on the seaboard and on the 'Yangtse 

 river, and by an extension from Canton with Yun- 

 nan, joining the Indian system at Manwyne, in 

 Burmah. The line along the Yangtse has been car- 

 ried through to Chungking, in Szechuen, and into 

 Mongolia. By a connection with the Russian 

 system in the Amur valley there is overland 

 communication with Europe. 



Internal Politics. The reform projects of 

 Kang-Yu-Wei, who obtained an influence over the 

 Emperor in 1898, were crushed at the outset by 

 the Empress dowager, who, fortified by the au- 

 thority of the Board of Censors, which is inde- 

 pendent of the throne, and with the aid of her 

 relative Yung-Lu, afterward made generalissimo 

 of the armies, and the support of all the old 

 mandarins whose posts were to be abolished, 

 practically deposed the Emperor, placed him in 



confinement on pretense of his illness, had the 

 most active reformers decapitated, with the ex- 

 ception of Kang-Yu-Wei, who escaped to Hong- 

 Kong by the aid of the British consul at Shang- 

 hai, degraded most of the officials who had taken 

 part in the reform movement, and kept the rest 

 silent by the fear of a like fate. This palace 

 revolution was carried out by the aid of the 

 Manchus, and the great posts were consequently 

 given to them rather than to Chinese statesmen, 

 like Li-Hung-Chang. The reformers had received 

 encouragement from the British representative, 

 and hence their defeat and disgrace resulted in 

 the ascendency of Russian influence at Pekin. 

 The offices that the Emperor had abolished under 

 the influence of the reformers were all restored. 

 The provincial and local authorities resumed the 

 powers that had been concentrated in special 

 boards at Pekin. The grain tribute was re-estab- 

 lished. The right of memorializing the throne 

 was again limited to high officials. The exam- 

 inations were once more based entirely upon the 

 Chinese classics, instead of partly on modern 

 knowledge. All Chinese newspapers were or- 

 dered to be suppressed, and writing for them 

 was made a punishable offense. The new Board 

 of Trade, Manufactures, and Agriculture was 

 abolished. Some reforms, declared to be neces- 

 sary and beneficial, were promised in vague edicts, 

 which did not define what they were. In the 

 course of a few months it became apparent that 

 the Empress was not in principle opposed to all 

 progress and reform, but that she had checked 

 the sweeping changes sanctioned by the young 

 Emperor because they threatened to convulse the 

 nation. Financial and military reforms had the 

 sanction of the Empress so far as they were 

 possible, nor was she opposed to the introduction 

 of Western methods and science into the national 

 system of education. The edict of the Emperor 

 in favor of an imperial university at Pekin was 

 not countermanded by the Empress, who selected 

 a member of the reform party as director of the 

 new university, of which Dr. W. A. P. Martin 

 was made chancellor. The university was started 

 with 6 professors of different nationalities and 

 380 matriculated students. A Russian school 

 was established at Pekin under official Russian 

 auspices. A rebellion in Nganwhei, Kiangsu, and 

 Honan in the early part of 1899 required the de- 

 velopment of all the local military strength of 

 those provinces. In May an imperial decree was 

 issued requiring local officials to receive and 

 treat with Roman Catholic missionaries on terms 

 of equality, a bishop having the rank of a gov- 

 ernor, a priest that of a prefect. In legal proceed- 

 ings between Christian converts and other Chinese 

 the missionaries are warned against interfering 

 for the protection of their parishioners. Several 

 proclamations against peculation, extortion, and 

 other official abuses show the consciousness of tha 

 Empress of the defects of the political organiza- 

 tion of China and her desire for a reformation. 



The Struggle for Concessions. The rivalry 

 between the European powers, especially between 

 Great Britain and Russia, which in the previous 

 year was manifested in a struggle for naval sta- 

 tions and lease of territory, was continued in 

 1899 in a contest for concessions to build rail- 

 roads, with incidental mining and other privi- 

 leges. In v Manchuria the Russians were actively 

 engaged in constructing their railroad to Talien- 

 wan, and improving the harbor there and the 

 military harbor of Port Arthur. Wherever they 

 went forces of soldiers were taken with them. 

 The Germans organized various companies to ex- 

 ploit mines and construct railroads in Shantung. 



