Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1882-05-12
TIL E CHM E
AND THE
CHINA QUESTION.

$500 ~ "A ~ ~ I'D I1oN.
Astute Foreign Policy Of China.
Physical Character OF the Chinese.
FiIedness Of the Chin-.e Physical Type.
Reasoning from such data, we may
infer with certainty that both the
home and foreign policy of China is
founded Oh far-sighied ideas of ma
tional welfare, and is carried into
effect with no inferior degree of exc
cutive talent and experience; but
this conclusion need not rest on in
ference alone. 1t is demonstrated
by what is known of the civil policy
Of China during many centuries past,
and foreign ambassadors have not
been slow to concede the qualities of
cOnsummate craftsmanship to the
high officials with whom they have
been brought in contact. These
qualities are displayed in the strict
ceremonial by which the honors of
office are held before the eyes of the
populace, in order that authority
may receive it's full need of the re-
spect which tends to insure obedi-
ence to law; each grade among the
mandarins being entitled to special
observances Of regard from all below,
and the Emperor being held as tine
incarnation of all that is to be rever-
enced by men. They are shown
also by the extent to which the peo-
Pile are regularly informed of all that
is believed necessary for them to
know, and yet systematically misled
in whatever becomes the interest,
for ths time being. of the govern
ment to Withhold, as was we'll illus
trated after the victories of the Eng
lish, when tho Chinese throughout
the Empire were made to believe
that the invaders, instead of being
victorious, had paid tribute for per-
mission to retire from Canton. They
are illustrated in stronger degree
in the mingled force and acuteness
with which the outlying depend
encies are held in allegiance to the
Central Kingdom, leading exam
pie of which exists in the political
subjugation of Thibet, which is ruled
through Grand Lama. whose ap-
pointment by sinuous methods has
long been controlled by the Emper-
or. The same craft and astutsness
were also displayed in the influence
brought to bear upon Nepaul as
against the interests of Great Brit
ain, and with the manifest intent of
maintaining an Independent State az
barrier between British India and
the western confines of the Empire
The craftsmanship of the Chinese
rulers is furthur shown in their sys-
tematic knowledge of the condition
of the outside nations, and the man
ner in which the Imperial policy
has been modified according to the
necessities indicated by external cir
cumstances.
A few passing references to his
toric events will illustrate this. A
thousand years before our era, for.
eign embassies passed FROM India to
China, and from that time TO the
present there has been no exigency
requiring the exercise of astute for.
eign diplomacy that has failed to
call it forth. Wherever interest,
whether of trade or of policy, has
made it requisite that the represen.
tatives of China should pass to for.
eign governments, they have done
so. And what is now deemed a step
forward on her part in sendins en-.
voys to the United States and the
western powers is but recurrence
to what she has done, on occasion
during many centuries. In the yea,
al b. c., the Emperor Woo.te sent
embassies to encourage foreign trade,
and twenty years later his successor
sent plenipotentiary, with ietinue
of one hundred persons, to visit the
regions of the West; and only TWEEN.
ty years later still, the Chinese En-.
peror received tribute-bearing EN-,
bassies from Japan. Two centuries
, and a-half after this similar tribute
came from the King of India; and
after this in rapid succession were
embassies from Roufie and India: and
SO onward, although at comparative
ly long intervals, down to the pres
emit time, ambassadors have been sent
and received by the Chinese Govern.
ment. Where Chinese interests have
required it, her embassies have gone
forth with pomp to distant nations,
and, in like manner, when she had
no purpose to serve, those of Other
countries have been with the same
pomp harnessed in the .guise of con.
tempt. But whatever her course
there has seldom been all instance in
which. from her stand point, he,
methods have not been dictated by q
far-sighted aud enlightened regard
for the welfare of her people.
We have already seen that more
than two thousand years ago she en-.
courseed trade with nations less
powerful than herself, and that in
the ninth century her ports were
open to the commerce of other lands.
This was continued down through
the sixteenth and seventeeth centur.
les, and we have no record of sys.
tematic opposition to foreign com.
MERGE so long as the nations from
which it came were comparative ely
weak. Two centuries age the con
tinent of America was q wilderness,
and Europe was composed of small
despotic, and far from prosperous
States; but in proportion as these
which form the world external to
China, grew great and prosperous