July 13, 1898
Revive the Self Strengthening Movement!
Fellow citizens of China! I call you all to listen to me as I speak for the Self Strengthening Movement. Do you not all see the incredible potential we have as a nation to become one of the top nations in the world? Don't be blind any longer - see that we have fallen and that the West has better technology and industrialization!
We must realize the consequences staying stubborn in our ways, rather than modernizing and keeping ourselves at the top in ranking nations. We are blind to our own lack of superiority. Empress Cixi can not stop this movement! So much could be improved upon - and there is so much we need to improve on if we ever hope to become some sort of world power.
Since 1861 we have improved our militia immensely - increasing our chances of vitality and well being. We have improved our industrialization. We have improved our education. We have improved economically. All of this by adapting from the West.(1) I say that we continue this movement because it really is causing no harm.
China has been adapting these Western ideas now and continued to srengthen itself. Why stop? Look at Japan. Look at what they have done. In a few short years they have established themselves as a competitor with the West. We could do the same.
What about changing our government system you may ask. Well I say that a new form of government would be in our favor! We need the working class to be represented somehow and with our current government - that's not happening.
The title of emperor is based on birth rights, not meritocracy. But it should be! Memorizing Confucius texts to become a member of our government has nothing to do with the actual abilities needed to run a country, and you can see by what is happening to us now that those running our country our doing a poor job.
Our people are not happy with our government and are willing to make huge sacrifices to change it - look at the Taiping Rebellion, and realize that we need a new system for running our country, unless we want the same to happen. The unhappy people will rebel again but we could prevent this and many more deaths if the empress could only accept what we want.
Obviously what nations in the West have done, has worked and it would be in our own favor if we emulated them - to a certain extent of course. We are still China, and we must still value our culture and our ways, but to completely shut out rising, threatening countries could potentially cause huge catastrophes for us - and we must try to prevent this.
Do we really want the United States to be our enemy? What about Germany? Britian? If we can all gather now, unite now, and become a strong nation headed towards major improvements, we can become a country that could rival all others.
"Know yourself, know your opponent; in a hundred battles, win a hundred victories!"(3), the Chou Dynasty classic proverb in the Sun-tzu, describes exactly what we can do and what we should do. By accepting and maintaining Western ideas in China, we would be just as advanced and from that, we could only improve, thus we could compete with the top world powers in the world.
We don't have to do everything they say anymore - they can't make us open our ports to them, or give us any more treaties we have to follow, like the deceptive Open Door Policy that the United States made us follow.
The policy, which U.S. Secretary of State John Hay created, was to keep control over Chinese ports and ended up making China an open world trade port.(4)
Kang Yuwei was an inspiration - he had the right ideas to create a strong country. By creating a new school system, improved transportation, reformed armed forces and changed the civil service exams - all influenced from the West. By creating a smarter next generation, more improved communication and better militia we can rise against the West. (5)
By emulating them, we can be free from them. Fellow Chinese citizens, please realize the benefits we would reap by continuing this movement.
Footnotes
Text
1. "Worlds Together, Worlds Apart," (New York: W.W. Norton Company, 2002), 298. (accessed 6 December 2005).
2. Fairbank, John K and Edwin O. Reischer, China, Tradition and Transformation, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1989), 285, 309, 335, 355-359, 372, (accessed 6 December 2005).
3. Ibid.
4. Warshaw, Steven, China Emerges, (Berkeley: Diablo Press, 1994), (accessed 7 December 2005).
5. Ibid.
Images
1. "Empress Cixi" (image), Available from: Rulers of the Middle Kingdom <http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/1999/china.50/imperial.icon/rulers/> (accessed 6 December 2005).
2. "Map of China" (image), Available from: China Map < http://china.tourism-asia.net/> (accessed 6 December 2005).