Modern China And Japan, The Employment Of Foreign Experts, A Comparative Study

From the 1860s to the end of 19th century,China and Japan have both hired a larger number of foreign experts in the process of intaking western culture and boosting the modernization of their own countries.This article illustrates the cause of different fates of China and Japan in modern times through general comparison of these historical phenomena,and concludes several lessons and historical revelations.Through the comparison between China and Japan in terms of the start and process of hiring foreign experts,lots of differences can be found:(1) The start:due to the fierce disputes and conflicts between the Westernizers and the Diehard in the process of hiring foreign experts, China started later and made slow progress in this regard,while in Japan there had not experienced any dispute and conflict of this kind,so that it started earlier and made great progress.Moreover,the purposes of China and Japan hiring foreign experts,respectively safeguarding the feudalism(for China) and developing capitalism(for Japan),differed.(2) The number:the foreign experts hired in Japan greatly outnumbered those of China,and the average density of Japan,which was a small country,was higher than that of China,which was bigger in size.(3) The distribution of profession:In China the foreign experts were mainly technicians, and focused on the military industry and heavy industry,and China's learning from the western world rested only on the equipments and utensils.However,those experts in Japan were distributed widely in the administrative,military,economic,judicial,educational part and private enterprises.(4) The main body:in China it was the Westernizers who undertook the task of hiring foreign experts,while in Japan it was the Meiji administration.These two had differences in terms of authoritativeness and the quality of the leader.China and Japan also differed in terms of the selection criteria and management of the foreign experts.(1) The Westernizers made too broad and vague regulations on the limit of power of the foreign experts in the contracts signed with them.However,Japan made those regulations clear and specific with governmental approval system.(2) Both of the two countries provided well-paid employment for the foreign experts,but China lacked planning and systemizing,while Japan had systemized scheme in this regard.(3) China and Japan also differed in terms of the management,namely,restricting the foreign experts spreading western ethics or strictly fulfilling the contract,as China did not make effective measure in supervision, while Japan made strict control in this regard.These two countries differed in terms of the effect and influence the foreign experts had in the process of modernization.The Westernizers had blind faith in the foreign experts and relied too much on them in the technical import and enterprise establishment,and had little effect in training new domestic talents.However,Japan experienced a developing process,namely from relying on the foreign experts initially to focusing on the cultivation of domestic talents and gradually realizing the self-support of talents and independence in technical part.Through the comparison above,we can draw some lessons and historical revelations that we should adhere to the principle of independence,and we must establish scientific and perfect contract contractual management system with cultivating the domestic scientific and technical personnel,etc...