The Sino-Japanese War completely defeated the Qing Dynasty, and it was not expected that such a projectile land would actually defeat the Qing Dynasty, which made the conservatives led by Cixi have to consider the way out in the future.
After the war, the Qing government signed the Treaty of Maguan, which ceded Taiwan in addition to huge indemnities, and initially had the terms of ceding the Liaodong Peninsula. This made Tsarist Russia, who was bent on occupying the northeast extremely dissatisfied, so Tsarist Russia drew Germany and France together to negotiate with Japan, and eventually forced Japan to abandon the Liaodong Peninsula.
In this way, Tsarist Russia became a role in fighting grievances, and even asked the Qing government for "remuneration" and forced Li Hongzhang to sign the "Sino-Russian Secret Treaty", that is, the "Treaty of Mutual Assistance to the Enemy". Although this treaty did not pay reparations like the unequal treaties of the past, it actually turned northeast China into Russia's sphere of influence.
There is also a clause in the treaty concerning Japan, that is, if Japan occupies Chinese land, the two countries stipulate that all the water and land armies, as far as they can dispatch at that time, will be dispatched to help each other, to arms and food, and to do their best to help each other.
However, when the Russo-Japanese War broke out, the Qing government chose neutrality and leaned more or less in favor of Japan. Why?
The treaty itself was an unequal treaty, and Tsarist Russia occupied the northeast during the Boxer rebellion. Not only did the Qing government disagree, but the foreign powers were also dissatisfied with Tsarist Russia's continued expansion in the Far East, forcing Tsarist Russia to withdraw its troops.
Under tremendous pressure, Tsarist Russia signed the Treaty of Settlement of the Three Eastern Provinces with the Qing government, and the Russian army withdrew from the northeast in three phases within one and a half years. However, when it comes to the mouth meat, how to give up, so Tsarist Russia has proposed that the northeast is not allowed to have other foreign powers enter, which is obviously to monopolize the northeast.
No matter how stupid the Qing government is, it can see clearly. Therefore, officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Qing government revealed russia's "seven new conditions for withdrawal" to Japanese diplomats in China.
Japan's ambitions are actually well known to everyone, and Japan does not want Tsarist Russia to monopolize, so Japan, with the support of Britain and the United States and other countries, began to negotiate with Tsarist Russia, but Tsarist Russia did not bird the Japanese at all, which aroused the dissatisfaction of the Japanese, and Chinese hated Tsarist Russia even more. The contradictions between Russia and Japan became more and more acute, which eventually led to the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904.
Japan's ambitions are no smaller than those of Tsarist Russia, but after all, Japan has just risen and fought a war with the Qing Dynasty. Tsarist Russia has been encroaching on China's territory for more than two hundred years.
Moreover, before the war, the Japanese did a lot of face-saving work, and even issued the "Note to the Qing Government on Not Daring to Damage China's Sovereignty in the Russo-Japanese War", which means that Japan is not aiming to invade and occupy northeast China, and this attitude is in stark contrast to Russia's arrogance and greed, and for a time, everyone in the Qing Dynasty supported Japan.
The Qing government has always adopted a policy of using Japan to drive out Tsarist Russia. Therefore, the Qing government supported Japan consciously or unconsciously during the war. However, the Qing government's calculations were good, but in the end it was disappointed, because the removal of the tiger attracted the evil wolf.