The Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War that took place at the end of the 19th century ended in China's fiasco, the Signing of the Treaty of Maguan between China and Japan, and China's complete degeneration into a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society.
However, a review of historical materials found that China's GDP at that time, that is, the gross national product, was higher than Japan's, China's military strength was also stronger than Japan's, and the total tonnage of Zhenyuan and Dingyuan ships purchased by the Beiyang Fleet made Japan unattainable, but it was such a war that seemed to have a huge disparity in strength, but it ended in Japan's victory, and many Japanese and Chinese netizens did not understand this, which is worth thinking about.
Here to emphasize a concept, a country's GDP describes the size of the economy, GDP level does not represent a country's comprehensive national strength, the past agriculture, service industry-dominated countries GDP can also be higher than industrial countries. A country's comprehensive national strength is judged not only on GDP, but also on the degree of development of its industrial system, political system, education system, etc. Although Japan's GDP was lower than that of the Qing government, after the Meiji Restoration and systematic learning from Western countries, Japan's degree of modernization was far higher than that of China, with its own industrial system, military supply system, and the ability to mobilize the whole country for war preparations.
The Foreign Affairs Movement carried out by the Qing government only introduced advanced science and military technology from the West, but it lagged far behind Japan in the construction of the country's own system. In terms of army management, the Qing government was far inferior to Japan, Chinese there was even no concept of the state at that time, the Emperor of Heaven was far away, and these forcibly recruited soldiers naturally could not show strong combat effectiveness, which could not be compensated by even the best equipment.
On the other hand, the previous Opium War China also lost miserably, the fundamental reason is that there is no strong army mobilization ability, often see a few thousand British troops can easily defeat tens of thousands of Chinese troops, army mobilization ability is the key. In the First Opium War, the British army had the ability to transport by sea, and could land at any point along the coast of China and reach Beijing in a few days. And even if the Qing army is more numerous, no matter how well equipped it is, it cannot defend the long coastline and can only be broken by each one.
Similarly, Japan's developed military mobilization ability in the Sino-Japanese War played a decisive role in the decisive victory, such as the Yellow Sea Naval Battle, the Japanese army was able to concentrate all its forces to fight a decisive battle with the Beiyang Marine Division, while the Beiyang Naval Division was divided into two parts, and finally in the Yellow Sea and Weihaiwei were broken by each. Japan's small territory, relatively concentrated resources, coupled with the island country's developed maritime transportation, while China's vast territory and underdeveloped transportation system have led to a strong military capability that can only be put into the battlefield like an oil bottle.
In a comprehensive comparison, China's backwardness to Japan at that time did not lie in the economy, not in the level of science and technology, but in the system and the fundamental level. This is also the reason why China carried out the Reform law and the restoration of the law after the "Maguan Treaty", only political reform and change of national thinking can truly enable the country to develop and progress in a coordinated and healthy way. This is also because there were so many heroes in China who actively studied Western democracy, and Sun Yat-sen, Li Dazhao, Chen Duxiu, etc. were shedding their blood for China's future.