Study On Variation Of Foreigner-Regulation System In The Late Qing Dynasty

Before the Opium War, the Qing government, grounding on the opinions of "sinocentrism" and "the difference between Chinese and barbarians", adopted a Guangzhou one-port system on the regulation of foreigners and strictly restricted their activities. Modern history has witnessed the global expansion of capital as an irresistible force, which posed a challenge as well as an opportunity to the old systems of China. However, the Qing government failed to grasp this golden chance to transform its foreigner-regulation system and consequently, exposed itself to an enormous challenge. In order to make china a better place for its own capital expansion, Great Britain launched the Opium War. The following post-war treaty forced the Qing government to replace its old system with a five-port foreigner-regulation system, which aimed at appeasing the foreigners. Moreover, the Qing government also tried to hamper the smooth implementation of this five-port system. History attested how dearly the Qing government had paid for that. We were not only deprived of many a valuable sovereignties as a modern country, but miss numerous precious opportunities of development.The modernization of foreigner-regulation system in the late Qing Dynasty began with the end of the second Opium War. The government started to abide by the rules and regulate foreigners according to the terms in treaty. With more and more frequent contacts between China and other countries and the implement of Westernization movement, relative organizations have gradually moved on to a sound track. Justified as this modernization was, it still confronted many impediments, some from the inherent limitations of enlightened revolutionists, but mostly from some stubborn traditionalists. The ending of 1894 War witnessed a grim and harsh national prospect, and the whole nation was on the verge of a devastating disaster, which pushed the Qing government to implement a series of revolutionary practices on its obsolete systems. For example, new actions were taken to ensure the local government to regulate foreigners; new policies were made to taken an initiative in the opening-up of the commercial ports to foreigners; In addition, the Qing government modernized its reception rituals of foreign ambassadors. However, stubborn traditionalists rose again after the failure of 1895 reform, which to a large extent counteracted the achievement of modernization. Boxers movement in the late Qing Dynasty started an unfounded movement——"diminishing the foreign forces"in Shandong Province, yet it was later led to an extreme riot by traditionalists. In comparison, the southeast provinces governors took a relatively rational course. Ten years before the crumbling of the Qing Dynasty, with the stubborn traditional forces being extinguished and the Qing government's channeling its way to save the nation into a rational and modernized direction, the Foreigner-Regulation systems of China appeared to have a fresh atmosphere. In the last few years of the Qing Dynasty, reception rituals of foreign ambassadors were finally being settled, efforts were paid to withdraw the right of consular jurisdiction, and policies concerning the opening-up of the commercial ports have also been implemented.