Self-Strengthening: China's Attempt to Modernize

After 1860 a group of Qing officials launched the Self-Strengthening Movement, which aimed to adopt Western military and industrial technology while preserving Confucian values and the imperial system, an approach summed up in the phrase 'Chinese learning as the foundation, Western learning for practical use.

' Leaders such as Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang and Zuo Zongtang founded arsenals and shipyards, including the Jiangnan Arsenal in Shanghai in 1865 and the Fuzhou Navy Yard in 1866, as well as translation offices, schools, telegraph lines and steamship companies. The Qing also created the Zongli Yamen in 1861, its first office for foreign affairs.

Results were mixed: projects depended on individual officials rather than national planning, conservatives at court resisted deeper change, and corruption diverted funds, while the Empress Dowager Cixi, who dominated the court for decades, gave only partial support. China's defeat by Japan in 1894–95 exposed the movement's limits.