The United States and China in Power Transition - Strategic Studies ...

of radical reformers under the leadership of Kang
Youwei (康有为) and Liang Qichao (梁启超) came to
advocate political change in China. They argued that
learning from the West must include the Western fundamentals,
not just the practical matters; if China were
to modernize and become powerful, it must adopt the
Western way of government, business, military affairs,
education, and so on; and make revolutionary
changes in China accordingly. These changes would
preferably turn China into a constitutional monarchy.
They highly regarded Japan as an example but claimed
that China could do better with the radical reforms.
Those radical calls eventually reached the Qing
rulers. Emperor Guangxu (光绪皇帝) was persuaded
by the radical reformers’ arguments and put Kang
Youwei in charge of the reform movement. On June
11, 1898, with Kang’s recommendations, the emperor
issued his imperial edict (定国是诏) for reform. In the
next 3 months, numerous imperial decrees, mostly
recommended by the radical reformers, were promulgated
to direct the changes. 12 The most significant calls
were to: 1) abolish the 1,300-year old imperial examination
system, replacing it with modern schools and
introducing the teaching of science and technology
into the classrooms; 2) promote industrialization; 3)
introduce capitalist ideas and practice into China’s
economy; 4) encourage the growth of private business
in an attempt to downscale the state and official-run
operations put in place in the past 30 years; 5) transform
the military; and, 6) reform the government and
allow the spread of political freedom, such as the freedom
of the press and the right to criticize the government.
13
These were sweeping changes, and the radical reformers
wanted their implementation immediately.
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