In modern times, many Asian countries have become colonies of the West, and only three countries have avoided the fate of being colonized, one is China, one is Japan, and the other is Thailand.
Why was China not completely reduced to a colony of the Western powers in the late Qing Dynasty?
1. It is true that China is too big, and none or even two of the international powers are strong enough to contract (colonize) China alone. Even if the Manchu Dynasty at that time was decaying and declining, no matter how bad the wall was, it would not work. It is the most barbaric and ambitious guys next to China, such as Russia and Japan, who have not thought about it or weighed it. For example, later Japan's ambitions swelled and wanted to swallow the elephant, and wanted to take advantage of the early establishment of the Republic of China and the warlords' melee to annihilate China in three (one) months, but it was mired in the quagmire of the war of aggression against China, and after eight years, it finally collapsed and sank into the sand, and had to raise the white flag and surrender.
Second, China's meat is too fat and too big, and it was too weak at that time. It is not surprising that nature has attracted the greedy covetousness of great powers near and far. And the problem is that it is attracting many, not one, or two. The Eight-Nation Coalition was the most important power in the world at that time, so why didn't it dismantle Manchu China and divide and conquer it? It's that everyone wants to eat meat, but no one wants to eat bones. If the spoils are uneven, no one should take them (not for the time being). If one or two can do it, then China may not be the China it is now. For example, if Japan only occupied the three eastern provinces and Taiwan, and Britain, France, the United States, and Japan only occupied the Shanghai Concession, and then plundered commercial interests through other treaty ports, it would have proved desirable. Because all the great powers have interests, they will never tolerate any one dominance. For example, Russia and Japan, Russia and Germany have fought each other and forged enmity with each other because of the interests of Northeast China and Shandong. In the eight years since Japan invaded China, in addition to the Chinese military and people rising up to resist and bravely killing the enemy, it was also inseparable from the support of the United States and the Soviet Union. Of course, at that time, the international situation had reached a new stage in the anti-fascist struggle. Those who stand on the united front are on the side of the forces of justice.
Although we admit that the Western powers have a large number of countries and good weapons and equipment, it does not mean that China is easy to be colonized, because the territory of the late Qing Dynasty has tens of millions of square kilometers and a population of 400 million, even the population and land of those great powers are far less than that of the late Qing Dynasty, so those countries cannot mobilize sufficient troops and finances to colonize the whole of China, and at best they can only be regarded as semi-colonial.
What is more important is that the Chinese people's idea of great reunification is deep-rooted and has a strong spirit of resisting aggression. Although the Qing government, the Boxers, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had sharp class contradictions, they had a profound consensus on national reunification and the expulsion of the invaders.
In short, the Western powers do not have so much material basis to colonize the whole of China, not to mention that imperialism is also at odds with each other, mutual suspicion and attack, and the national will of the Chinese is also very resolute.