The age-herald., 1900-07-29
WHO'S WHO IN CHINA
Different Parties Described by a Leader
 of One of Them

From the London Times.
 The following extracts from memoran-
 dunn prepared last autumn for an English
 friend by the Chinese reformrer, Rang Yu
 Wei, will be read with interest at the pres
 ent juncture:
 Tn order properly to comprehend the : inner affairs of the Chinese empire the
 first thing needful is rightly to dist1n-
 guish the different parties in China. The i. Emperor Dowager holds on to the old ways her party is known as the Empress
 party The Emperor and his friends who
 desire reform are known as the Emperor
 party Then there is third party, known
 as the Middle party which is chiefly con
 cerned with its own interests ana dares
 not interfere in politics. Nine-tenths Of
 tn people and officials are comprised in this party.
 "The Empress Dowager, notwithstanding
 that she is the head of the ruling party,
 possesses few or no friends outside of off,
 cial circles and the Yamens Otherwise her influence is small. Her intimates are all
 Manchus. Yung Lu, appointed by her com
 mander-in-chief; Kangwei, special commis-
 sioner for the collection of additional reve-
 nues from the provinces; Prince Yuan,
 Yun Yu, Bwalta-pu, etc. The only clever
 man among them is Yung Luz the rest are
 densely ignorant and care for nothing but
 wealth and official rank. Of the high mili- tary officials, Tung-F -Fu-Siang belongs to the Empress party and Yuan-Shi-Kai to the Emperors. All the remainder may be said to belong to the middle party. Thus I am right in saying that the Empress party are few in number, although at the moment their power is great.
 "The Middle Party ,on the other hand, is spread throughout the whole empire. The majority are in their heart of hearts devoted to the Emperor, admiring his in- teligence and rectitude, and these are alarmed and angry at the Empress usur- patton. They know how ignorant she is and what a dissolute life she has led for the last thirty years, and that the weak ness of China is largely due to her mis- deeds. But the high officials are too old;
 they sit blinking in the twilight, not dar | ing to act but leaving success or ruin to come, as the Emperor or the Empress gains the upper hand.
 Ruined the Emperor's party is, yet they are the real reformers: both officials
 and people, they long for reform and new
 methods, but while the Empress party hold the power they in dread of se- were punishment. At the time of the coup detat the Emperss falsely asserted that the Emperor's party were planning re- volt. She prohibited newspapers, killed l and drove out hundreds of reformers, and exiled numbers of high officials to the frontiers Six of the reformers executed were high metropolitan officials, one a | member of the Grand Council and one l whom the Emperor had nominated to be | Prime Minister; all were the Emperor's S l personal friends they were beheaded ! without trial, while hundreds of smaller l officials and thousands of the common peo- | pie were prescribed. These measures were l carried out in order to clip the Emperor's s | wings. Why all these leading men | willing to associate themselves with the l reform party? The answer is that they | were loyal subjects, anxious to save their | country and deserve the Emperors benev- | oence.
 You have only to read the Chinese | newspapers, Ko-wen-pao, published in | Tien Tsin; Su-pao published in Shanghai; {; | Chi-hsin-pao, published at Macao; Ching l ni-pao, published at Yokohama; Tien-nan- l pao published at Singapore-these are all | published under foreign protection, and so l are able to speak the truth. They one and | all sympathize with the party of reform. | The Japanese newspapers all take the | same view. Their criticism is independent. | The Empress Dowager is a licentous old | woman. She is not the Emperors real 1 mother and she had no hesitation in de- | posing him so as to retain her power. But | she was wrong in taking Yung Lu's advice | to depose the Emperor and place the | power in his (Yung Lus) hands. As soon | as he got control of the Northern troops | Yung Lu threw off the masked and did | what he willed, and the Empress lives in constant dread of treachery on the part | of her elnuchs"