CHINA. 



109 



intendence of the Neiko. The board called the 

 <Jivil Office supervises the conduct and adminis- 

 tration of the officials, confers titles, and grants 

 rewards and precedence for meritorious conduct; 

 the Board of Revenue manages the finances; the 

 Board of Rites enforces the laws relating to the 

 ceremonies of the court and all public functions 

 ordered by the Emperor and regulates the rites 

 called for by an eclipse or any public calamity; 

 the War Board has charge of military affairs 

 and directs the movement of troops; the fifth is 

 the Board of Public Works; the Board of Pun- 

 ishments is the high court of criminal jurisdic- 

 tion, which tries and judges official delinquencies; 

 the Board of Admiralty, created in 1885, sits at 

 Tientsin and directs naval affairs; the Board of 

 Foreign Affairs directs the administration of sub- 

 ject countries. Each board has a Manchu and a 

 Chinese president. The Board of Censors, which 

 is independent of the Government, under the 

 dual presidency of a Manchu and a Chinese, con- 

 stitutes the final court of appeal and revision, 

 and each of the 50 or 60 members has the 

 right to address complaints to the Emperor re- 

 garding any branch of the administration. The 

 Censors have also the right to criticize publicly 

 the edicts of the Emperor. The Imperial Acad- 

 emy, or Hanlin College, is the official institution 

 of learning. The Tsung-li-Yamen, or Foreign 

 Office, which since 1861 conducted all negoti- 

 ations with the representatives of Western na- 

 tions, was abolished in July, 1901, in accordance 

 with the demands of the Westerp powers which 

 intervened in China to suppress the Boxer rebel- 

 lion. In its place a Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 

 called the Wai-Wu-Pu, was created in July, 1901, 

 which has precedence of the other boards. A 

 Council of the Empire, the Sheng-Wu-Shu, was 

 created also, the members of which are Prince 

 Clung, who is president of the Wai-Wu-Pu, Yung- 

 Lu, Kun-Kang, Chu-Hung-Chi, Chang-Chi-Fung, 

 Liu-Kun-Yi, and Wang-Wen-Shao, who is a mem- 

 "ber of the Wai-Wu-Pu, president of the ' Office 

 of Railroads and Mines, and a member of the 

 Council of State, the Kiun-Ki-Tshu, to which 

 Yung-Lu and Chu-Hung-Chi likewise belong and 

 of which Prince Li is president, as he is also of 

 the Archives of the Imperial House, the Tsung- 

 Yen-Fu. Kun-Kang and Yung-Lu are the mem- 

 bers of the Grand Secretariat. 



Area and Population. China proper has an 

 estimated area of 1.353.350 square miles and a 

 population estimated at 383,253,000. The de- 

 pendencies are Manchuria, with an area esti- 

 mated at 362,310 square miles and about 7,500,- 

 000 inhabitants; Mongolia, with an area esti- 

 mated at 1,288,000 square miles and an estimated 

 population of 2,000.000; Tibet, which has an es- 

 timated area of 651.500 square miles and a popu- 

 lation supposed to reach 6.000,000; Jungaria, 

 with an area of 147,950 square miles and about 

 600,000 inhabitants ; and Chinese Turkestan, the 

 area of which is about 431.800 square miles and 

 the population about 580.000. The total esti- 

 mated area of the Chinese Empire is 4,234,910 

 square miles and the total population 399,680,000. 



ne number of foreigners residing at the 

 *ty ports in 1900 was 16,811, of whom 5,471 



ere British, 2.900 Japanese, 1,941 Russians, 



,908 Americans. 1.343 Germans, 1,175 Portu- 

 ese, 1,054 French. 221 Spanish, 204 Swedes and 

 Norwegians, 156 Danes. 133 Italians, 108 Dutch, 

 100 Belgians, 91 Austrians. 42 Koreans, and 34 

 of other nationalities. About half of the foreign- 

 ers are in Shanghai. 



Each province has its army of Chinese troops 

 der the command of the governor or governor- 



I 



general. These troops are called the Ying-Ping, 

 the national army, known also as the Army of 

 the Green Flags and as the Five Camps. Their 

 nominal strength is 600,000, and about 200,000 are 

 believed to be efficient. Their efficiency and 

 armament vary greatly in the different prov- 

 inces. The Tientsin army corps, with a nominal 

 strength of 100,000, an actual strength of 35,000, 

 is equipped and trained in the European manner. 

 The Governor of Shantung has recently raised a 

 force which is being similarly taught. In time 

 of war or insurrection troops are enlisted. The 

 Mongolian and other irregular cavalry are nom- 

 inally 200,000 strong, but really only 20,000, and 

 are useless in modern warfare. The total number 

 of men kept under arms is about 300,000, and 

 for war 1,000,000 are reckoned upon, though only 

 a small fraction of these are schooled and disci- 

 plined and possess modern weapons. Large 

 quantities of arms and ammunition were im- 

 ported in the period preceding the Boxer out- 

 break, and during the peace negotiations the im- 

 Eortations were continued. Since the treaty of 

 ept. 7, 1901, prohibits the importation of arms 

 into China, the manufacture of field-guns, shells, 

 rifles, and smokeless powder has been actively 

 carried on in all the Chinese arsenals. 



The Navy. The naval forces of China are 

 under the control of the provincial authorities. 

 The Peiyang, or northern squadron, created for 

 the defense of the capital province, was almost 

 entirely destroyed or captured in the Japanese 

 war of 1894. Two small protected cruisers were 

 obtained in 1897 and 1898, the Hai-Chi and Hai- 

 Tien, English-built, of 4,300 tons, having 6-inch 

 shields and a 5-inch deck, armed with 2 8-inch 

 guns and 10 4.7-inch and 12 three-pounder quick- 

 firers, and capable of making 24 knots. From 

 Germany were obtained in 1897 the Hai-Yung, 

 Hai-Shen, and Hai-Shu, cruisers of 2.950 tons. 

 Four destroyers were seized by the allied forces 

 during the international occupation of Pechili in 

 1900 and were retained by Germany, England, 

 France, and Russia. The gunboats Ngan-Lan, 

 Chen-Tao, Tsing-Yuen, Chen-Hai, Hu-Wei, Lung- 

 Liang, Fe-Ting, Tse-Tien, Hai-Chiang-Ching, 

 Kwang-Heng, Kwang-Li, Kwang-Huran, and 

 Kwang-Chen remain of the old squadron, and 

 to these have been added the Kwang-Yen, 

 launched in 1894, and the Kwang-Hsing, Kwang- 

 Keng, Kwang-Wu, and Kwang-Chi, launched in 

 1895. These gunboats have an average displace- 

 ment of 440 tons. The Nanyang, or southern 

 squadron, at Fuchau and Canton, comprises the 

 armored gunboat Tien-Sing, of 200 tons, the pro- 

 tected cruisers Yang-Pao and Ye-Sing, of 2,500 

 tons, the torpedo-gunboats Fei-Ying, Fei-Ting, 

 and Kien-Wei, of 900 tons, the unarmored cruis- 

 ers Fu-Tsing and Hi-Ying, 13 first-class torpedo- 

 boats, 14 second-class torpedo-boats, 6 monitors, 

 14 small gunboats, and the schoolship Fuchau. 

 Under the direction of a French engineer who \\ a> 

 placed in charge of the Fuchau arsenal a de- 

 stroyer and a torpedo-gunboat have been built. 



Finances. The revenue is estimated at 88,- 

 979,000 taels. The tax-collectors levy from 50 to 

 75 per cent, more than they account for to the 

 Government, this surplus being absorbed in costs 

 or given outright to the chief provincial official >. 

 The land lax amounts to about 32.000.000 tad-. 

 The maritime customs revenue, of which report- 

 are made public annually, amounted in 1900 to 

 22,873.986 haikwan taels, of which 3.961.423 taels 

 were likin duties on imported opium. 



The Chinese Government always refused to bor- 

 row money abroad for any purpose until the 

 war with Japan compelled a resort to the Euro- 



