Where did the Qing Dynasty lose in the Sino-Japanese War? The answer is: comprehensive national strength!

On major Q&A websites, similar questions are often asked. Many people can't understand why the Qing Dynasty with higher GDP and more population was defeated by Japan with lower GDP and less population. The description of the reasons for the defeat in our textbooks is only a simple statement of the decay of the Qing court, which is difficult to meet the requirements of modern people for exploring things.

In fact, there is no secret in the Sino-Japanese War. If summed up in one sentence, it is lost in comprehensive national strength. Let's analyze them one by one.

First, political strength. Before the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, China was regarded as a feudal autocratic centralized country. But in fact, feudal autocracy is true and centralized state is false. As for the feudal autocracy in the Qing Dynasty and the jokes caused by it, I have said too much in various articles, movies and TV shows, so I won't talk nonsense. Just tell the truth about this centralized country. Under the rule of the Qing government, if we grasp the administration, legislation and justice of the imperial court from the perspective of separation of powers, China is indeed a centralized country. But from the perspective of local control, compared with contemporary Japan, it is a joke.

After Meiji Restoration, Japan realized the modernization of local governance by abolishing vassal counties and became a centralized country in the modern sense. At that time, the governors of counties, counties and villages in Japan were all appointed by the government, which really realized the access of government decrees. Any decree of the central government will soon be implemented throughout Japan. In contrast, after the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement in China at that time, the local governors were obviously enslaved by warlords, and the Qing government could not realize the unification of government decrees. Moreover, the Qing government continued the previous imperial power, and all localities were completely divided politically. Therefore, before the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, China and Japan were completely different in political strength, and Japan's advantage was almost overwhelming.

Second, diplomatic ability. Undoubtedly, during the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the diplomatic abilities of China and Japan were not at the same level. Before the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the Qing government was still an introverted feudal autocratic government. His political ideas and international vision are quite backward, and he lacks a clear understanding of the international situation. The result was obviously an anti-aggression war, but it was not supported by world public opinion at that time. In the world at that time, many people believed that Japan was the liberator who liberated Korea from the oppression of China! The Qing government's request to buy arms and borrow military funds from the west was also flatly rejected by the western countries.

In contrast, the bourgeois government established in Japan after the Meiji Restoration had a much clearer understanding of the international situation at that time than the Qing government. Therefore, before the war broke out, an international foreign policy close to Britain and the United States was formulated. Facts have proved that Japan's foreign policy is a shrewd decision, and it is also very direct to Japan's final victory in the war. During the war, Japan successfully tilted the foreign policy of Britain and the United States to Japan, which enabled Britain to seize the warships purchased by the Qing government from Britain and successfully defeated the Qing government's attempt to ask Britain and the United States for war funds.

Third, economic strength. There is no doubt that when the Sino-Japanese War broke out, China's economic strength was stronger than that of Japan. But this advantage did not translate into strength in the war. The reason is that China's economic quality was too low at that time, and it lacked mobilization ability. At that time, China was mainly an agricultural economy, which could not be directly transformed into military strength. In terms of industrial capacity that can have a direct impact on military strength, it is actually weaker than Japan.

The industrialization of China and Japan both started in the 1960s and 1970s, and both started in official enterprise. However, from 65438 to the end of 1970s in 2009, Japan changed the development track of industrialization. The rapid sale of state-owned enterprises to private enterprises has fostered a number of emerging industrial bourgeoisie. Japan's industrialization, driven by the new industrial bourgeoisie, is quite rapid. 1894 When the Sino-Japanese War broke out, Japanese industrial production capacity actually far exceeded that of China.

However, the Qing government insisted on industrial government-run and official supervision of commercial office, and prohibited private capital from setting foot in emerging industrial industries. For modern us, we all know that private enterprises are superior to state-owned enterprises in developing production. What is really suitable for state-owned enterprises should be those resource monopoly industries involving the national economy and people's livelihood. These fields require low efficiency, but high fairness and safety, and are not suitable for private enterprises pursuing profits. Official enterprise in Qing Dynasty was mostly a production-oriented industrial enterprise. To make matters worse, they were controlled by a group of feudal bureaucrats who knew nothing about the economy. You can imagine the production efficiency of the industrial enterprises under their control.

Moreover, the Qing government is still implementing the ancient fiscal policy of living within our means, while Japan has established a modern budget and final accounts system. In this case, it is not surprising that the economy is obviously stronger than Japan, but it cannot be translated into strength stronger than Japan.

Fourth, transport capacity. In the early Qing dynasty, the government thought that railways destroyed geomantic omen and prohibited the construction of railways. It was not until I learned that troops often failed to arrive in time in the Sino-French war that I began to change my attitude. By the time the Sino-Japanese War broke out, the national railway mileage was only over 300 kilometers. After the Second Opium War, Li Hongzhang founded the Shipping Bureau because he was unwilling to lose the shipping rights along the coast and the Yangtze River. China Shipping Merchants was one of the few profitable companies in official enterprise at that time, which also enabled China to have certain shipping capacity at that time.

However, compared with Japan at that time, these achievements are really not worth mentioning. After Meiji Restoration, Japan tried modern transportation construction again, and vigorously built roads, railways and ports. By the time the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 broke out, the mileage of Japanese railways had exceeded 3,000 kilometers, almost ten times that of China at that time. In shipping, Japan Post Company has become the largest shipping company in the world.

So in the Sino-Japanese War, we saw a strange phenomenon. The Qing army was at a disadvantage in almost every battle and often ran out of ammunition and food. However, the Japanese army fighting across the sea can guarantee its superiority in terms of strength and weapons and ammunition, and its offensive is endless.

5. Military strength. If we only look at the superficial data, it seems that the two sides are similar, and the Qing army still has an advantage in quantity. But in fact, this is not the case. First of all, in the formation of the army, the Qing army and the Japanese army are not of the same era. After the Meiji Restoration, Japan imitated western countries and established a modern army. It was completely set according to the military technology at that time, so it can give full play to the effectiveness of modern weapons. However, the formation of the Qing army actually stayed in the pre-firearm era, which was completely out of touch with the efficiency of modern weapons.

The Establishment of the Qing Army during the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895

Japanese Army Construction during the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895

In addition, in terms of equipment, the Qing army is actually not as good as Japan. The biggest problem with the equipment of the Qing army is that the models are different. Taking guns as an example, the caliber of Japanese rifles is 6 mm, and the ammunition height is uniform, which is conducive to logistics supply. However, the caliber of the Qing army's universal rifles ranged from 6 mm to 1 1.4 mm, and there were as many as 5 or 6 kinds of ammunition. Poor logistics is indeed a huge problem.

The army is like this, and the navy is not much better. Because beiyang fleet's ships are British and German, the caliber of naval guns is different, which has caused great problems for beiyang fleet's supply. In contrast, most Japanese naval vessels are British, and even if they are not British, they try to unify the caliber of naval guns. Moreover, the Japanese artillery shells are basically self-made, and the supply of goods is no problem. Moreover, beiyang fleet needs a lot of imports, and whether it can be bought depends entirely on others.

The joint fleet of beiyang fleet and Japan is not at the same level in the firing rate of naval guns. Japanese naval guns are basically tube-retreating rapid-fire guns, while most of the Qing army are old-fashioned guns, and there is a huge gap between firing speed and range. According to statistics afterwards, the gap between the two sides in the Yellow Sea naval battle is more than ten times. If this can still be won, it must be a miracle! What's more, now is not the time for shells to charge. One side is black powder, and the other side is bitter and sour. There is no comparison at all.

So even though the military strength was similar from the data, there was still a gap between China and Japan at that time.

To sum up, during the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, China and Japan, which seemed similar, actually had a huge gap in their comprehensive national strength. Losing the war is inevitable, which is determined by the strength of both sides.