Debate between a chinese Qing official and japanese meiji official Essay

Debate between a chinese Qing official and japanese meiji official concerning their policy toward the european influence and aggression in east - Essay Example The Western countries exercised hegemonic ambitions and even fought among themselves for prized colonies as their possessions. This period also saw two contrasting approaches in how to deal with the new world order. China had been a regional power for several millennia at around this time and saw no need to modernize itself. It prided itself on its technological, scientific, and military advances, discoveries, inventions, and innovations and thereby did not feel threatened by the growing influx of Western influence into Asia. China got complacent due to this imperial hubris and so did not take the appropriate steps to turn back European aggression into East Asia. Japan before the Meiji Restoration (September 1868 to July 1912) had been always a country that was mainly agricultural (poor), beset with local wars (due to the feudal system in which samurai clans had held attachment to their ancestral lands), weak militarily, and little or no technological development to speak of. Young reformers during the onset of the Meiji era saw Western expansionism as a threat and acted accordingly. They introduced reforms to the countrys political and social systems by adopting Western ideas to modernize Japan. China for several centuries had gotten used to being the regional power in the central Asian region. It had attained a high degree of development in its civilization by a number of world firsts, such as the civil service system, the invention of gunpowder, a unique system of writing, and an imperial system of highly-regarded examinations for entrance to government service. Its Confucian values and centralized, bureaucratic government allowed it to control large tracts of lands and its tributary system allowed it to collect raxes from the neighboring countries to help support its government bureaucracy and imperial treasury. In other words, the high civilization of China was attained without any significant external help or