Evening star., 1900-07-09
WHO'S WHO IN CHINA:
Another Description of the Different
Parties by the Leader of One of Them

Another Description of the Different
Parties by the Leader of One of Them.
The following extracts from a memoran-
dunn prepared last autumn for an English
friend by the Chinese reformer Kang Yu
Wei are printed in the London Times:
''1n order properly to comprehend the in
ner affairs of the Chinese empire the first
thing needful is rightly to distinguish the
different parties in China. The empress
dowager holds on to the old ways; her party
is known as the empress party. The en-
peror and his friends who desire reform are
known as the emperors party. Then there
is third party. known the middle party,
which is chiefly concerned with it's own in
terests and dares not interfere in politics.
Nine-tenths of the 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 COM
missioner for the collection of additional
revenues from the provinces; Prince Tuan,
Yum Yu, Bwai-ta-pu, &c. The only clever
man among them is Yung Lu; the rest are
densey ignorant and care for nothing but
wealth and official rank. OF the high mill
tary officials -Fu-Siang belongs to
the empress party and Yuon-Shi-Kai to the
emperor's. All the remainder may be said
to belong to the middle party. Thus l 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 de-
voted to the emperor, admiring his intelli-
gence and rectitude, and these are alarmed
and angry at the empress usurpation. They
know how ignorant she Is and what a dis
solute life she has led for the past thirty
and that the weakness of China
largely due to her misdeeds. But the high
officials are too old: they sit blinking in the
twilight. not daring to act. but leaving sue
cess or ruin to come as the emperor or en-
press gains the upper hand.
Ruined as the emperors party is. yet
they the real reformers; both officials
and people, they long for reform and new
methods, but while the empress party hold
the power they are in dread Of severe
punishment. At the time of the coup
d'etat the empress falsely asserted that the
emperor's party was planning revolt. She
prohibited newspapers, killed and drove out
hundreds of reformers and exiled numbers
of high officials to the frontiers. Six of the
reformers executed were high metropolitan
Gil and one whom the emperor had nominat-
ed to be prime minister: all were the en-
peror's personal friends: they were be-
headed without trial, while hundreds of
smaller officials and thousands of the COM
mon people were prescribed. These meas
ures were carried out in order to clip the
emperor's wings Why were all these lead
ing men willing to associate themselves
with the reform party? The answer is that
they were loyal subjects. anxious to save
their country and deserve the emperors S
henevolence. You have only to read the
Chinese newspapers. Ko-wen-pao, published
iE Tier Tsin; Su-pao. published in Shang-
hal: Chsin-pao published at Macao: Ching
ri-pao. published at Yokohama: Tien-nan-
pao, published at Singapore-these are all
published under foreign protection and SO
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 licentious old woman.
She is not the emperor's real mother. and
she had no hesitation in deposing him so as
to retain her power. But she was wrong in
taking Yung LUIS advice to depose the en-
peror and place the power In his Yung
Lus) hands. AS soon as he got control of
the northern troops Yung Lu threw off the
mask and did what he willed and the en-
press lives in constant dread Of treachery
on the part of her eunuchs."