Omaha daily bee., 1898-07-24
AMERICA IN The FAR EAST
A Chinese View of Expansion as q Policy
for the United States.
CHINA IS FRIENDLY TO OUR PLANS
The Great Market which the Celestial
Empire Offers and IT'S Desir-
ability for Am
Welcome Awaits.

WI Tlng-fang, the Chinese minister to the
United States, is q wonderfully interesting
man. With the exception Of Ii Hung Chang
he is doubtless the sblsst and most pro-
gressive statesman Of Celestial srigin who
has ever visited the United States. For that
matter he is more closely In touch with
European and American habits of thought
than Ii Hung Chang himself. He speaks
the English language with a faultlessness
OF accent and Of idiom which many a native
born American might envy and which is
equalled by no other Chinese public man.
He is familiar with American and European
politics and business. He has, moreover,
that delicate perception of local and indi-
vidual peculiarities which has sometimes
been regarded as distinctively American.
His wit Is pungent and delightful. He can
make as appropriate and effective after
dinner speeches as Speaker Reed or Chaun-
cey NJ. Depew. At the annual dinner of the
Gridiron club of Washington in January all
three were among the speakers, and although
this was the first experience OF Minister WI
in such affairs, he thrust and parted with
each and drew blood as frequently as either.
He sat between the two on that occasion
and both were charmed and fascinated with
his brilliancy and tact.
Minister WI was educated in England
and was the first Chinese gentleman who
ever became an English, barrister. He Wis.,
tied the United States in. 1877 and then re-
turned to Hong Kong, where he established
himself as a barrister. After six years Of
practice he was appointed legal adviser to
Lii Hung Chang and deputy for foreign af-
fairs in Tientsin. 1t was his great dis
%tinction, too, to have built the first railway
in China, having been the promoter and
first chief director of the Kai Ping
1 no 1,r nnpnnnn @ Tic UNI Rrof
rotary Of embassy in the peace mis-
sion to Japan in 1895 aud was plenipotenti-
airy for the purpose of exchanging r%atiica-
lions for the treaty of peace. In the mean
time he had been appointed chief director
of the Tientsin university, which was estab-
lished in 1895, In 1897 he was appointed to
his present post. He is accredited as envoy
extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary
not only to the government Of the United
States, but also to Spain and Peru. He re-
sides the greater part Of the year in Wash
ington and directs from here the affairs
of the legations at Madrid and Lima. The
wife of, Minister WI is a woman of rare
intelligence, who like him has made a study
of, the English language. His children are
bright youngsters who have their English
governess and who play up and down the
halls of the legation with the abandon and
| uOisleIOuSutSS VI american -poyo' AltO-
gether this Chinese, gentleman is a striking
illustration of the saying that a man of the
world is a man of the world everywhere,
no less in Pekin than in Washington, and
it was with an appreciation of his breadth
of mind and cosmopolitan temper that the
correspondent sought him out for a talk on
the subjects which just now direct the
thoughts of American statesmen to the far
east. The minister spoke freely, with due
regard to the reserve required of him as
the diplomatic representative of a country
likely to be vitality interested in the extern
sion of American influence in the Pacific.
AS a Chinese statesman he naturally looks
with keenest interest upon the part in ORR
entail politics which America seems likely
to play.
Field For American Enterprise.
"The prospects for the extension of
American trade with China are excellent
just at the present time was Minister
Wu's first remark, as he looked up from
the perusal of a congressional report. 1.-THE
material awakening of the empire is Just
beginning, and the volume of foreign trade
and of domestic imp 'ovements, which will
depend largely on foreign enterprise, is
bound to increase with wonderful rapidity
for the next few decades. The prejudice
" liz Vi Sulld dsdluSl lue
building of railroads, telegraphs and tele-
phones, and, l may say, a hundred other
things that would cause it to lose step in
the march Of modern civilization, is finally
disappearing. Thus you can see at once
what a large field is opened for shrewd,
energetic Americans who know an adj
vantage when they see 1t, and are quick to
grasp it when presented If the Chinese
exclusion act were repealed by this or the
next congress the people of the United
States would be still more benefited. 1t is
hardly necessary to argue a point like this;
it is a self-evident proposition
Then there is no prejudice against
American goods nor any preference for
goods Of other nations to interfere with the
expansion of trade with the United States ?"
None whatever, SO far as I am aware.
On the contrary certain staples produced by
the United States have almost the entire
field.
Chinese Markets Worth Studying,
Take, for instance, kerosene oil, matches,
American flour and American cotton cloth.
The trade in American flour is simply i'm
mense. No other country seems able to
cope with the United States in these articles
with my people. The Chinese will take
anything which is cheap and good. And in
this connection ! may be pardoned, hope,
II | make q suggestion, that the manu-
facturers of the United States study more
closely the local wants of the people of
China. There are many ways OF doing this.
One proposition that strikes my fancy
strongly is the one advanced recently by
the Philadelphia museum. This institution
has appointed a commission of skilled men
to visit China and learn by actual OBJ
seryation the exact local wants of the peo-
pie. OF course my government will heartily
welcome this commission and will give It
every opportunity for gaining the informa-
ton desired. Having learned what is most
wanted by practical observation. American
manufacturers will no longer do business in
the dark.
"If they have the enterprise, as they
surely will when they learn of the oppor-
tunity, TO seize upon this great field, their
rewards will be proDortionately great.
China is ready to welcome the United States
as a peaceful neighbor and commercial
friend. Among the intelligent public men
of the Chinese empire there is absolutely
no prejudice against America. On the con-
trary there is a strong desire for the friend
ship OF this great republic, and admiration
--l