One Hundred Days of Confusion British Press perspectives on the Qing Dynasty’s September 1898 Coup

Abstract

The Qing dynasty experienced a coup on September 21, 1898. After the Guangxu Emperor attempted to implement a reform program known as the Hundred Days’ Reform, the Empress Dowager Cixi removed him from power and resumed her role as regent, a position she would hold until her death in 1908. British newspapers, namely The Daily News and The Times, actively reported on the coup’s progression and commented on its ramifications for Britain’s position in East Asia. This paper will explore the coup through the lens of the British press, including how they presented the coup as a struggle between two political parties, appealed to a constructed Chinese public opinion, and incorporated the Anglo-Russian rivalry into their publications. An examination of these reporting strategies reveals that the British press both influenced and was influenced by official British policy towards the Qing dynasty. Given that the British Empire had a limited presence in China at this time, British newspapers reporting on the coup tended to adopt an orientalist slant by assuming that China was radically and fundamentally different from the West. They also characterized China as a marginal region of their Empire in which British influence was restricted but important for checking Russian expansion. This explains why British newspapers reacted more strongly to the September 1898 coup, which was seen as having direct diplomatic ramifications, than to the Hundred Days’ Reform, which was seen as a domestic Chinese project that did not concern British interests.