The Research About The Intelligence Gathering Of Qing Government Towards Japan (1871-1894)

This paper mainly studies the specific conditions of the intelligence gathering ofQing government toward Japan for a period of more than20years， from the signingof the Sino-Japanese Amity Treaty to the outbreak of the Sino-JapaneseWar(1894-1895).In addition to the Chapter of introduction, the body of the thesis is divided intotwo volumes. The first volume includes Chapter II and Chapter III， mainly dedicatedto the study of Qing government’s intelligence-gathering situation when Japan was inthe process of the annexation of Ryukyu， and in the expansion process towardsKorea. The process of the annexation of Ryukyu lasted over7years, by destroyingQing government’s suzerainty over Ryukyu, Japan finally turned conquering ambitioninto an established fact.In dealing with the Ryukyu problems， though intelligence revealed quite earlythat Japan attempted to annex Ryukyu， Qing government was slow to respond and didn’t investigate and verify the trend of Japan in time， thus missing the opportunityto find and solve problems.Korean peninsula lies to the west of Japan, and was viewed as an access board toconquer China in modern history. The Qing government has long been wary ofJapan’s ambitions about Korea， and has been collecting intelligence about Koreantrends. After the Imo Military Rebellion (of1882)， the Qing government quicklysent troops to Korea on getting the intelligence， to prevent the expansion of theJapanese aggression to North Korea.After the Kapsin Political Coup （of1884）in Korea， the Qing government gotthe intelligence that Japan conspired to seize the Korea and started war with China.However， the intelligence collected by the Qing government reflected less about theJapanese foreign expansion strategy. For a long time，the Qing government estimatedthe situation optimistically，lacking a correct understanding of Japan’s strategic intent.Failure to comply with these conditions, Li Hong-zhang decided to dispatch troops toKorea before the Sino-Japanese War of1894-1895.The second volume includes Chapter IV， Chapter V， and Chapter VI， mainlyto explore the influence of Japanese intelligence (mainly military intelligence) on thedefense of the late Qing Dynasty. The Qing government consolidated coast defense by buying foreign made battleships and establishing the naval fleet---Bei Yang Fleetbefore the Sino-Japanese War of1894-1895. During the process of consolidatingcoast defense, Military intelligence from Japan played very important role. On thebasis of Japanese military intelligence, Shen Bao-zhen,Ding Ri-chang,Li Hong-zhangmade a firm decision to buy foreign made battleships to confront with Japanesenaval force. However, the extent of the intelligence gathering towards Japan remainedlimited.Since there were not any dedicated intelligence agencies set up within the Qinggovernment， neither was there perfect intelligence system， intelligence gatheringtowards Japan has not been able to rise to the national strategy， and also failed tofully strengthen the national defense construction according to the changes in theJapanese military.Though the Qing government obtained some intelligence that the Japanese spieswere detecting China， and captured some Japanese spies， it had no clearunderstanding of the hazards of Japanese spies， and no measures had beenimplemented to thoroughly investigate and severely punish those spies. So to say, nomeasures against Japanese spies which resulted in spies infestations.Especially after Japan invaded Taiwan, annexed Ryukyu and poked its nose in Korea by the Imo Military Rebellion， the Qing government internally generated the"Conquering Japan" theory， demanding to crusade and punish the Japanese. Thetheory of "Conquering Japan",as a positive national defense strategy, tried to containJapan rather than conquer Japan.Under the influence of the "Conquering Japan" theory， the Qing governmenttook some measures to collect the intelligence of the Japanese military and thegeography. However， these measures were only temporarily taken， lack oflong-term institutional protection.The intelligence collected was neglected and was not used for the preparation ofa war against Japan. So when the Sino-Japanese War of1894-1895broke out, tacticswhich were suggested by some officials to directly invade Japan. However, due toInefficient of intelligence gathering against Japan, could not be put into effect.All these evidences prove the corruption and incompetence of the Qing rulersand their consequent ignorance towards intelligence， which undoubtedly is animportant factor in the losing of the Sino-Japanese war.