The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-07-06
REFORMERS
IN CHINA
What the Bow Wong
Wui is After.
WOULD RESTORE EMPEROR
Have no Sympathy With Boxers
but Are With the
Foreigners.

Few of American readers realize
the significance of tne newspaper squibs /
floating about in a vagrant manner
| through the daily papers, anent the Chi |
nese reform party. 1t is really a subject |
/ full of interest to tAe student of political !
economy, and to all who consider the i'm
portance of the immense growing trade
| relations with the Orient
/ For the edification of those who do not |
know what the objects of this great re-
form are, it might be we'll to state that
| the principal one is the restoration of
the young emperor to his throne and the
permanent suppression of the wicked old
/ Dowager Empress and her silly advisers.
The lady in question j. anything rather
| than a fool in ordinary affairs and, if
we may believe one-half the stories we
hear of her general knowledge of men
and politics, she must certainly be blessed
with more than an ordinary brain. But
she has certainly been surrounded by
Cabinet of foss-iated old crabs who have
advised her away from every chance she
may have had, at the close of her late
unpleasantness with Japan, to rehabili-
tate her lettering Empire.
Ills new party OF TtlOInleIS must NOT
be COMPOUNDED with the Boxers" who
are now terrorizing their countrymen in
China. In fact, in one particular, the
two parties are diane trically opposed to
each other. One of the cardinal pTinci-
pies of the Boxers" is anti-foreigner;
the reformers, on the contrary harbor no
such feeling, and their party is made up
of a new generation of bright young men.
many of whom have been out in the world
and learned much by contact with the
! foreigner. The Boxers are made up of
the riffraff of the peasantry, together
with. a following of soldier deserters who
. know just enough of military lore to get
themselves and their followers into
I trouble. The imperial government might
4 have dispersed this raw mob long ago
were it not for the fact that they believ-
ed these rioters were about to destroy all
the foreigners in s.Ae Empire, thereby
leaving matters as they stood a few CEN
turtles ago, before the blue-eyed man came
to interfere with the established
laws of exclusion.
There can be but one bond of sympathy
between the Boxers" and reformers
namely, the restoration Of the young En-
peror to the throne of China, which is his
right by all the laws of civilization. and
possibly before this paper goes 20 press
e the great Powers may have solved the
puzzle for the Chinese. If this can be ac'
n complished without robbing China of hel
birthright, well and good; but if the
-, Powers ever attempt the old feudal sys.
y TEN of first come first served, grab anc
hold on, they will find that they have
t captured a very expensive elephant in
deed.
q The most prominent man of the reform
party is Kang Yu-wei-in fact, he il
looked upon as the leader and chief. an(
his late work on the subject of Chinat
future which has been translated int,
English by the Shanghai Herald, ha
Loot na1 for i'm n hon rincr from
both Chinese and Europeans. Following
r, is a criticism on the work by an Ameri
can publisher:
"Kang Yu-wei's work is something lik
- cross between the Lamentations of Jer
emiah and Plato's treatise on the repub
lie. He is full of grief and theories. An
yet his work does not lack eloquence o
ability. ALAS, oh heaven" he exclaims
'our four hundred million brothers to
gether comprise the largest empire in tn
% entire world. How, then, are we s
weak? Why is our empire becoming dis
membered? Why are we slaves, of n
more Importance than sand?'
Hangs answer to his own questions
that the troubles of China proceed froT
n the selfish individualism of the people
> each of whom looks out for himself an
- cares nothing for the country He say
the people of Chinese vii-age are full c
K interest in village affairs but they ar
Indifferent to tie empires welfare. 9TH
TACT Is, ne says, we 90 not unuerStan
that the empire is our own great pair
4 mony All along we have wrongfully r,
x garded the empire, with all it's commerC
Z and interests, as the private care of I'll
rulers, and hence We have become slav,
q and coolest
4 Empire is village writ large" is OF
K of the epigrams found in Kang Yu-wei
Y treatise The people of China must
= characterized by unity of mind and hol
0 esty of purpose If they would save the
* country. $50 the empire" he says, "mu
< be built upon and cemented with the etc
Y nal principles of law and order
Y Coming down to a more definite di
Q cussion of the condition of China Kar
A says that never before during its who
X four thousand years history has Chi
Y confronted danger like this present on
y He enumerates the cessions of territo
@ to Russia, Japan, Germany, France al
4 other countries and says that the empi
v is being sold to the foreigner He shoy
that China has forfeited to outside n
tons the right to construct railroads
establish banks and to work the mine
also that the imperial customs are in t
hands of the British, while Russian
Germans and English control the arm
He argues that the seizures of Chine
territory up to this time are only preliu
nary to taking the remainder BY a ha
by figure of speech he compares Chi
- at this moment to fish which the hs
~ erman has caught in hls net and perm
Y for a little while to swim around In I
net In fancied security before IL is dra-
from the water.
The failure of the Chinese to keen
with the/progress of the times is anotl
cause of their downfa4.. $In clinCing
the laws and customs of antiquity" g
Kang, ARE you conscious that Won ;
allowing yourselves to be sold to an al
.sss racer?
Coming 10 the discussion of rernet. .es
Is noticeable that lang, whose book.
course. was issued before the present Z
turbances began, placed dependence lar
" on the five million Chinese who
Y resident in other countries-in fact. bl
his sole hope of the regeneration of
- empire upon the love for their fatherl;
entertained by these exiles "Io
heaven" he says. has perhaps sent 70
these five million of my countrvnen. "
the special intention that they should
= the force that should renovate Chin
- His proposal was to organize all the {
nese out of China in fraternal polit
associations to raise a fund by II
contributions and use II in educating
countrymen at home. 1t may be no