Legacy and Assessment
Since the First Sino-Japanese War, Li Hongzhang has been a target of criticism and was portrayed in many ways as a traitor to the Chinese people, an infamous name that lives in history. In communist China this negative verdict is echoed through history textbooks and other media until today.
The Chinese navy had been eliminated in August 1884 at the Battle of Foochow, In July 1885, Li signed the Sino-French treaty to confirm the Treaty of Hué accepting conditions that did not reflect the decisive victory of the Chinese army in the Battle of Bang Bo in March 1885, which brought about the fall of the Jules Ferry government in France.
Li recognized talent, he hired a British officer Col. Charles Gordon to lead the Ever Victorious Army to quell the Taiping Rebellion. For the first time in Chinese history there was a foreign military general. He hired an American educator Charles D. Tenney as tutor to teach his children western science. His descendants remain as diplomats after the Manchu Dynasty. He enjoyed western science and hired Guxtac Detering (1842–1913) and William N. Pethick. He started the custom, postal systems by appointment of Sir Robert Hart.
Sergei Witte dismissed some claim that Li was bribed to sign railway protocol.
Read more about this topic: Li Hongzhang
Famous quotes containing the words legacy and/or assessment:
“What is popularly called fame is nothing but an empty name and a legacy from paganism.”
—Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)
“The first year was critical to my assessment of myself as a person. It forced me to realize that, like being married, having children is not an end in itself. You don’t at last arrive at being a parent and suddenly feel satisfied and joyful. It is a constantly reopening adventure.”
—Anonymous Mother. From the Boston Women’s Health Book Collection. Quoted in The Joys of Having a Child, by Bill and Gloria Adler (1993)