A day later, Qing’s fleet was destroyed by French torpedoes. In this battle, the Fujian Navy lost nearly thirty warships and eight hundred men. The French troops began killing, burning, and looting; shockingly, foreign reporters called it not a war but a massacre. The reason for China’s failure was twofold, the first being Qing’s passivity and the other the differences between the French and Chinese navies (see table below).
| French Navy | Chinese Navy | |
| Number of warships/total tonnage | 8/14,514 | 11/6,500 |
| Types of warships | 2 iron battleships 5 cruisers | 9 small wooden gunboats |
| Number of artillery | 77 | 45 |
| Types of artillery | heavy breechloader | light muzzleloader |
Qing formally declared war on France after the Mawei Battle and severed diplomatic relations.29 Liu Yongfu 刘永福 (1837–1917), the leader of the Black Banner Army, was formally given an imperial title. His army continued to fight against the French invaders. The Chinese people were furious and many enlisted to fight against the French colonialists.30 Even Chinese living overseas participated in the campaign against the French invaders. In Hong Kong, for example, workers refused to repair a damaged French warship on the grounds that it had bombed Taiwan and attempted to enter Fuzhou. The Chinese in San Francisco, Kobe, Yokohama, Singapore, and Cuba donated money to the war effort against imperialistic France.31
Fighting broke out in Zhennanguan, a strategic garrison on the Sino-Vietnamese border. In March, 1885, the French army attacked Zhennanguan. Zhang Zhidong, then Governor General of Guangdong and Guangxi, appointed Feng Zicai, a veteran general, to supervise the defense. Defending this garrison, Feng, who was in his seventies led his troops against the French and annihilated more than 1,000 of the enemy. Qing’s army pursued the remaining enemy troops and recaptured the key region of Liangshan, or Lang Son, in north Vietnam. This campaign directly led to the downfall of France’s Jules Ferry government. General Feng planned to drive all French troops out of north Vietnam. However, the Qing government decided to start peace negotiations instead of fighting. In April 1885, China and France signed a truce in Paris. Two months later, Li Hongzhang and the French delegates formally signed a treaty in Tianjin. This treaty was Qing’s acknowledgement of France’s colonial rule over Vietnam. The Black Banner Army was brought back into China and then sent to Taiwan. Despite their military victory, Qing’s army did not receive an equal deal in the signing of the treaty.
Endless Incidents Involving Christian Missionaries
Ambitiously aspiring to conquer the entire globe for Christ, Christian missionaries began arriving in China as part of the colonial project. Jiao’an (literally, the Christian cases), which refers to the historic incidents involving Christian missionaries in China, was the result not only of the contradiction between foreign imperialism and the Chinese nation, but also of the conflict between Chinese tradition and Christian culture. To some extent, Christian missionaries were at the center of the West’s colonial aggression. Charles H. Denby, then the leading American diplomat in China, confirmed that the information collected by missionaries was very helpful to the American government. In fact, as early as the 1850s and the 1860s, William
B. Reed, one of Denby’s predecessors, acknowledged that Christian missionaries and their endeavors greatly contributed to America’s interests. Some Christian churches in China were actually operating as agencies of secret services. A top Russian diplomat corroborated this, saying that the Beijing branch of the Orthodox Church gave him accurate advice, which he could use to follow the right path in negotiating the Beijing Treaty. As a reward, the Russian government granted the Church huge pieces of land grabbed from China and paid its clergy.
Western missionaries were allowed to enter China due to the treaties signed in the Second Opium War. Not only were they allowed to do missionary work but they also had the right to rent or purchase land. Under such circumstances, conflict between the Western missionaries and local residents was inevitable. Needless to say, missionary work in early modernizing China was supported by the Western powers’ guns and artilleries. For this reason, some missionaries were reliant on the colonial powers. Some Chinese regarded the missionaries as spokesmen for the colonial powers and, for this reason, felt much resentment toward them. Land disputes involving missionaries and residents were not uncommon at this time. The missionaries forcibly spread their faith at the cost of others’ land and property, which aroused great discontent among local residents. They bullied people who tried to resist the invaders. Missionaries complained to the consulates, which then pressed Qing’s government to comply with their demands. Local governments had no alternative but to suppress the Chinese residents.
Gradually, the foreign churches grew into privileged and powerful interest groups. The Christian churches in China rarely took the local governments seriously. These all-powerful spiritual halls were appealing to local ruffians and hooligans. On the other hand, it should be pointed out that some missionary societies did do their best to help China and its people by founding modern hospitals and schools, as well as offering sympathy and help to people in need. Nevertheless, they could not bring any fundamental changes to the imperialist powers’ invasion of China.
The foreign missionaries continued to swarm into China after the Beijing Treaty was signed and continued to grow increasingly powerful in China. The growth in the number of churches, clergy, and followers was remarkable. In 1860, there were 20 missionary societies; in 1884, there were more than 30. The number of missionaries increased from 180 in 1864 to 1,296 in 1890. In 1860, there were 14 missionary residents scattered across the treaty ports of six coastal provinces in southeast China. In 1884, this number reached 238, spread over all the coastal provinces, the Yangtze River, and some inland provinces such as Shanxi, Gansu, Guizhou, and Yunnan. The number of Christian converts was 400 or so in 1857; by 1893, this number had increased to 55,000. In 1860, there were nine Catholic missionary societies; in 1894, there were 21. The number of Catholic parishes increased from 10 in 1844 to 34 in 1883. A club of foreign-born Catholic priests was also established that had 100 members in 1846; by 1885, it numbered 488 members. These priests wandered around China, leaving their footprints in many remote provinces such as Tibet, Taiwan, Heilongjiang, and Hainan Island. Statistics indicate that, in 1850, China had 320,000 Catholic converts; four decades later there were more than half a million Catholics.32 As for Protestantism, by 1877 there were 473 missionaries, 91 missionary societies, 511 branches, 321 churches, and 13,035 converts.33 The largest missionary society was the China Inland Mission (CIM),34 founded by James Hudson Taylor, a British missionary, in 1865. When it first started, it had only three members; however, three decades later, it comprised 650 priests, 270 outposts, and approximately 5,000 followers.
The Catholics built a cathedral in each parish. Usually, such grand churches were situated in metropolises such as Beijing or regional centers like Ji’nan, while some were built in remote rural areas in Hubei and Hunan. The Orthodox Church’s missionary corps was financially supported by the Russian government and, for this reason, followed the Russian authorities’ instructions. Orthodox churches were established in Tianjin, Harbin, Shanghai, and Xinjiang after the signing of the Beijing Treaty.
Four
