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Why did Self-Strengthening Fail
Self-strengthening was aimed to preserve traditional Chinese ideals (Confucianism) and to incorporate modern Western technology into their society. It was “learning the superior techniques of the barbarians to control the barbarians” as Wei Yuan stated. However, self-strengthening failed due to a number of reasons: lack of co-ordination, lack of money, lack of skilled people, traditional Confucian attitudes, limited scopes and government corruption.
One of the most harmful to the self-strengthening movement was Chinese attitude to reform. Chinese people were very traditional therefore unwilling to change. There was a lot of opposition towards Chinese studying abroad. For a decade after 1872, 30 boys per year were sent to study in Connecticut. Chinese people back home disliked this as the boys become “too westernised” and had started dressing like westerners. Hsu suggests that the Chinese people despised Westerners; this was shown in 1874 when the “British-built short railroad from Shanghai to Woosung was ripped off its bed by angry mobs because the locomotive ran over a spectator. Two years later the governor-general was pressured by the local gentry to buy this foreign railway and have it totally wrecked.” Another reason as to why the Chinese attitude to reform was damaging to self-strengthening is the fact that there was no widespread support from Chinese society for industrialisation. Apart from arsenals and textile mills that manufactured uniforms being set up in China, industrialisation never got the support it needed from Chinese society. According to Gray Chinese government rejected the opportunity of foreign investment and participation to help build railways, open modern mines, introduce the telegraph and to send diplomatic representatives abroad. When the proposal to help achieve these things was offered by Robert Hart, Zongli Yamen accepted the memorandum and it was sent to the Throne where it was “dismissed immediately”: introduction of foreign capital was not accepted by the Chinese government.
There was a lack of skilled people, which contributed to the failure of the self-strengthening movement. Transmission of technology was stunted in 1881 when the scheme of sending boys abroad to study was terminated. According to Gray, it wasn’t until the first years of the 20th century that there was a significant amount of boys being trained abroad and exerting intellectual influence in China. The Chinese had an opportunity to become educated by Westerners but they turned against it because of the fact that their students were becoming too westernised too quickly. The programme to send students abroad was in itself very limited. Only 30 boys a year from 1872 to 1881 were sent to study in American schools. Hsu states that “the government-supervised merchant undertakings, which continuously suffered from… nepotism.” This is a very good example of a lack [next page]