A Study On Li Hong-Zhang Diplomacy From The Perspective Of Realism

After the second opium war, our country under the Qing Dynasty inevitably began to associate with a growing number of western countries, the Qing Dynasty was forced into national diplomacy. Facing foreign aggression so frequently, diplomacy was becoming more and more important to Qing Dynasty, because it concerned the survival of the Qing Dynasty, so in the meantime, such heavy and complicated foreign affairs must be delivered to the one who had the ability to manage. Throughout the Qing Court at that time, the only person who could take the burden that must be Li Hong-Zhang. However, since Li Hong-Zhang bacame the diplomic minister, the results of his participation in diplomatic events showed that there was almost no diplomatic victory at all, and even the late Qing Dynasty as a whole did not has diplomatic victory. Why Li Hong-Zhang’s diplomacy always could not reach the initial purposes, from the perspective of realism, it because China at that time could not be compared with the western powers, neither in political aspect nor in economical aspect. Power, the ultimate weapon in international society, which left weak China no choices but became the prey that all the western powers would like to posses. For Li Hong-Zhang, even he owned excellent foreign talent, but because the Qing Dynasty’s political corruption, and the lack of his own vision, he could hardly achieve the desired foreign endings. In Li Hong-Zhang’s diplomatic career,’play off one power against another’ has always been his basic foreign policy. The secret treaty with Russion, the relations between China and Japan, Li used this strategy almost in all his diplomatic affairs. This strategy reflected the very reality that Qing Dynasty was too weak to manage the diplomacy. So the diplomatic activities of Qing Court in such a complex national surroundings can just delay the perish of Qing Dynasty for a temporary period, also it indicated that Li Hong-Zhang’s diplomacy could never compete a cruel fact:a weak nation is always excluded to enjoy preferential diplomacy.