Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-11-15
China.

III was TO nave Deen expected thdt tne
announcement of the death of the En-
peror of China should require official
confirmation before it's general accept
ance. The court of Picking is notorious
for it's secrecy and peculiar diplomacy
Prior to the Boxer rebellion and the con-
sequent opening up of China to some ex-
tent to western influences, practically
nothing was known of the situation at
the capital. There was, of course, I'M
limited speculation, and doubtless in the
European chancelleries there was accu-
rate knowledge of the conditions sur
rounding the royal palace at Picking. But
the world at large has always been kept
more or less in ignorance regarding the
exact relations between the titular ruler
of China and the actual powers. Now
Kuang Hsu is dead and the venerable
Tsi An, the dowager empress, who has
ruled China so many years with the craft
of medieval monarch, is dying.
Immediately the world pauses to ask
whether this means a new regime for
China in fact as well as in name, wheth-
er Prince Chun, who will serve as regent
for his son OF three years, named as the
heir presumptive of Kuang Hsu, will
prove reactionary or progressive ruler.
The fact that he is to serve in name as
regent suggests that there is no depart
ure from the tradition which has been
established for a generation of keeping
the emperor of title strictly in the back
ground. 1t would probably make for the
swifter emergence of China from the
retarding ways of the past if Prince
Chun were avowed as the real head OF
the state
China can never 60 back into the
dark. 1t has been brought too far into
contact with the world of ideas and &C
ton now to revert to the ancient type. 1t
may be several generations before west
ern ideas are firmly planted in the Chi
nese soil, but nevertheless there has been
great work of preparation there to
insure an eventual roofing of civilization
as the west conceives the term. The
dowager empress, who it is announced is
dying, has struggled stoutly against inno-
walton and change. But even she, with
her tremendous will power, her mastery
over men. her native shrewdness. was
unable to check the tendency. Some day
the truth of the Boxer movement will be
known, and doubtless it will be found
that Isl An was fully cognizant of the
anti-foreign propaganda from beginning
TO end She was in some respects a
changed woman after her return to the
imperial palace when the International
troops had been withdrawn. Her con-
tinuance in power was permitted by the
nations, for 1t was wisely recognized
that in China 1t is always necessary to
make haste slowly and nothing would
have been gained in turning over the
actual rule to kuang Hsu, who was never
competent to administer even the affairs
of a province, let alone those of a vast
empire.
The dispatches indicate a disposition
on the part of the governments to await
developments in China. Japan's posi-
ton is especially interesting in this con-
nection. 1t may be that later the change
of rulers in China will result in material
alterations in the policies of the powers,
but for the present the hope is general
that 1t will cause no disturbance of the
international balances in the far east.