The "Solution" To The Powers’ Controdictions And Japanese Invasion Of Taiwan In1870s

In spite of the rise and fall of dynasties or regime transformations, Taiwan is, andhas always been since ancient times, an integral and sacred part of Chinese territory.With national decadence and defeat during wars against foreign enemies, Taiwan,however, was increasingly exposed to crisis in the late Qing Dynasty.In contrast with the recession of Qing Dynasty, Meiji restoration promoted Japanto rapidly embark on the road of capitalism, developing from weak to strong graduallycoupled with the determination of the expansion policy “Leap forward overseas andFly over mainland”, Okinawa, Korea and China’s Taiwan included as its primarygoals. Japanese dispatch of troops to Taiwan in1874, on the grounds of “refugeeincident in Ryukyu” and “people drifting event in Oda County”, sounded the alarmfor the Japanese invasion of China in the modern time.Nevertheless, the UK-led great powers, at the moment, embraced huge businessinterests in Taiwan, and this balance was bound to be upset in the event of Japanesebrazen invasion, hence big powers’ extreme concern poured into the Japaneseinvasion of Taiwan. Thus, in terms of the occurrence, development and outcome ofJapan’s “Invasion of Taiwan incident”, it was invariably under the great influences ofBritain, United States, Russia, Germany, Spain and other countries from the outset.As a matter of fact, there existed an intimate relationship between Japan’sinvasion of Taiwan, as a country just marching on the path of capitalist development,and America’s agitation under the table. Disgracefully, the United States eggedJapan on to invade Taiwan by a variety of techniques initially. However, with theevolution of war situation and due to the impact of international and domestic factors,the USA changed its original policy considering its own interests to mediate betweenChina and Japan in an attempt to gain benefits and achieve its strategic intent.At that time, the world hegemony, the United Kingdom, held a substantialcommercial boon in Taiwan, and Japanese invasion of Taiwan would undoubtedlyinfringe British business there. Therefore, British envoy strived to avoid war betweenChina and Japan via active mediations.Furthermore, when word of Japanese deployment of troops out, Taiwan washighlighted as the territory of China on the part of government in Germany, France,Russia, Spain and other countries, who objected to any military actions of Japan andprohibited their people’s any participation. Also, valiant forces, such as Shen Baozhen,deployed by Qing Dynasty particularly hit Japan’s plan of conquering China.China’s northwestern and southwestern regions got caught in border crisis at thesame time of Japanese invasion of Taiwan, thereby placing Qing Dynasty at a greatloss. With respect to Japan, it fell into an international isolation with inadequatestrengths. Under the circumstance of powers’ mediation and Sino-Japanese stalemate,the two countries thus made a compromise to each other and signed the “BeijingSpecial Articles”, in which Taiwan was clearly defined as China’s territory with Qing’s reparations and Japan’s withdrawal, temporarily ending the event of Japaneseinvasion of China. Britain-led western powers made a great achievement during thisevent, as they have not only maintained British own interests, but also taken theopportunity to get more novel and huge benefits.The signing of Sino-Japanese “Beijing Special Articles” rendered Japan a decentretreat and an inspiration of national thriving momentum, and laid a good foundationfor its future diplomacy with other powers as well. For Qing government, however, itexperienced a failure of diplomacy, in that ambiguous and vague terms planted theseeds of endless troubles of Japan’s wanton invasion as well as world powers’ambitions. The Japan’s “Invasion of Taiwan” is supposed to be a warning bell for allpeace-loving people inhabiting China and Japan, awakening the pursuit of mutualbenefits through cooperation and competition by facing up to the history.