At the end of the 19th century, China faced an unprecedented national crisis. Japan defeated China in the Sino-Japanese War, forcing the Qing government to cede Taiwan and the Liaodong Peninsula and pay huge reparations. Western powers also took the opportunity to step up their aggression and plunder against China. The survival and development of the Chinese people has been seriously threatened. Under these circumstances, two different forces emerged in Chinese society, one was the bourgeois restoration faction headed by Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao, and the other was the anti-imperialist and patriotic force represented by the Boxer Rebellion.
The bourgeois restoration faction was composed of intellectuals and bureaucrats who had received Western education or had contact with Western culture. They recognized that the corruption and incompetence of the Qing government and the backwardness of the feudal system led to China's decline and humiliation. They hope to change the law and renew, implement a constitutional monarchy, reform politics, economy, education, military and other aspects to save the nation from peril and develop capitalism. With the support of the Guangxu Emperor, they launched the Restoration and Law Change Movement in 1898. However, this movement was opposed and suppressed by the feudal diehards headed by Empress Dowager Cixi. Empress Dowager Cixi staged a coup d'état, killed six Restorationist leaders, arrested and exiled many Restorationists, deposed the Guangxu Emperor, and restored her autocratic rule. The movement to reform the law thus failed.
Nevertheless, the movement of restoration, reform and reform of the law, played a role in the ideological enlightenment of society. It broke the shackles of feudal ideology, spread bourgeois ideology and culture, and promoted the initial development of national capitalism. It also revealed the infeasibility of the Chinese bourgeois reform path and provided lessons for later revolutionary movements.
Unlike the bourgeois restorationists, the Boxer Rebellion was an anti-imperialist and patriotic movement initiated and participated in by the vast number of peasants, handicraftsmen, urban poor and other people at the bottom of society. They suffered deeply from the oppression and exploitation of foreign invaders and the Qing government, and longed to get rid of the control and interference of foreign forces and restore the dignity and rights of the Chinese nation. They use religious organizations as cover for clandestine activities. They call themselves "Righteous and Fist", claiming to be able to defeat guns with their fists and drive away devils with divine power. Shouting the slogan of "Supporting the Qing and Extinguishing the Yangs," they launched a brave and fierce struggle against foreign invaders and the Qing government.
In the summer of 1900, the Boxer Rebellion reached its climax. The Boxers captured the city of Beijing and surrounded the foreign embassy district. The combined forces of Britain, Russia, Japan, France, Germany, the United States, Italy and Austria invaded China in an attempt to suppress the Boxer Rebellion and divide up Chinese territory. Under the command of Empress Dowager Cixi, the Qing government successively declared war on the Eight Kingdoms and sought peace with the Eight Kingdoms, showing extreme weakness and incompetence. In 1901, the Qing government was forced to sign the Xinxiu Treaty with eight countries and 11 countries, including Belgium, the Netherlands, and Spain, recognizing foreign privileges and forces in China, paying huge reparations, and ceding part of its territory. This marked the formation of China's semi-colonial and semi-feudal society.
Although the Boxer Rebellion failed, it was a great anti-imperialist and patriotic movement. It crushed the arrogant plan of the imperialist powers to divide up China, dealt a heavy blow to the reactionary rule of the Qing government, and hastened its demise. It also stimulated the national awakening and patriotic enthusiasm of the Chinese people, accumulating strength for the later revolutionary movement.