China Is A World-Necessity." Foreshadowing The Gradual Extension Of
Russia Into China, And The Time When The Former Country
Would become
dominant at Pekin, and when, with all Manchuria organized behind her, she
would occupy the whole of the
Yellow River basin, Meadows expressed the
belief that, should that occasion occur, no combination of powers would
then be able to thwart Russia's purpose. "With 120,000,000 Chinese to work
or fight for her, nothing would stand between Russia and the conquest of
the rest of the Celestial Empire; not China alone, but Europe itself would
then be dominated, and it would cost the Russian Emperor of China but
little trouble to overwhelm the Pacific States of the New World." Such was
the forecast of a writer whose name is to-day forgotten.
What are the advantages which Russia possesses over England in dealing
with China? There is, in the first place, the advantage of proximity. The
Chinese people in the northern provinces, and especially at the capital,
which is not far from the Great Wall, undoubtedly discriminate between
Russians and other foreigners. Like other Orientals, they only believe
what they see; and Russia is seen and realized on the northern frontier.
Besides the effect of contact, the Russians possess a gift in dealing with
the Chinese. The affinities and analogies which the Russians and Chinese
exhibit have been depicted by Michie in his book on the "Siberian Overland
Route." "Analogies in the manners, customs and modes of thought of the two
races are constantly turning up, and their resemblance to the Chinese has
become a proverb among the Russians themselves. The Russians and the
Chinese are peculiarly suited to each other in the commercial as well as
in the diplomatic departments. They have an equal disregard for truth, for
the Russian, in spite of his fair complexion, is, at the bottom, more than
half Asiatic. There is nothing original about this observation, but it
serves to explain how it is that the Russians have won their way into
China by quiet and peaceable means, while we have always been running our
heads against a stone wall, and never could get over it without breaking
it down. The Russians meet the Chinese as Greek meets Greek; craft is
encountered with craft, politeness with politeness, and patience with
patience. They understand each other's character thoroughly, because they
are so closely alike." Michie went on to say that "when either a Russian
or a Chinese meets a European, say an Englishman, he instinctively recoils
from the blunt, straightforward, up-and-down manner of coming to business
at once, and the Asiatic either declines a contest which he cannot fight
with his own weapons, or, seizing the weak point of his antagonist, he
angles for him until he wearies him into acquiescence. As a rule, the
Asiatic has the advantage. His patient equanimity and heedlessness of the
waste of time are too much for the impetuous haste of the European. This
characteristic of the Russian trading classes has enabled them to
insinuate them selves into the confidence of the Chinese; to fraternize
and identify themselves with them, and, as it were, to make common cause
with them in their daily life; while the Western European holds himself
aloof, and only comes in contact with the Chinese when business requires
it; for, in all the rest, a great gulf separates them in thoughts, ideas
and the aims of life."
Of interest, also, as showing how history repeats itself, are the
observations made nearly forty years ago by Lockhart, a missionary, after
a long residence in China. Lockhart wrote: "The Russian government
anticipated us, not in the knowledge of the advantages of close commercial
and political relations with an empire so enormous in its resources, but
in the employment of those arguments that alone could render a vain and
effeminate State sensible of their value.... The map of all the Russias,
published at St. Petersburg, now includes that vast portion of Central
Asia heretofore constituting the outlying provinces of the Chinese empire
beyond the Great Wall. Having placed a mission in the Chinese capital and
organized an overwhelming army in Chinese Tartary, with magazines of
warlike resources, Russia easily secured a permanent footing in region
after region, till she had dominated over, and then obtained the cession
of, all the intervening space, leaving the conquest of the entire Chinese
empire to the time when it should please the reigning Czar to order his
Cossacks to take possession. It is impossible to state with any precision
the amount of moral or material support which the Chinese emperor received
from his imperial brother and formidable neighbor, and which encouraged
him to the obstinate resistance that he offered to the demands of England
and France [in 1860]; but a slight acquaintance with Russian policy must
satisfy any one that, having established itself as a favored nation,
Russia could not regard with complacency any attempt made by another
nation to share such advantages." Comprehending, therefore, the Chinese
character, perceiving clearly that the present Manchu dynasty is unable to
perform the elementary functions of an organized society, that Pekin is
another Teheran or Constantinople, that, while the people are sound, the
courts and the officials are corrupt, Russia has studied and gained over
certain influential persons and applied skillfully the maxim, _divide et
impera_. What China is taught night and day is that Russia is a land
power, and, therefore, alone can protect China; that she keeps her
promises and threats; that, with England, on the other hand, it is always
a case of _vox et praeterea nihil_. In short, Russia protects China in
a peculiar sense, that is to say, for a price, to be paid to Russia or
even to her friends. The dominating idea instilled into the Chinese court
and bureaucracy, which, in the absence of a strong policy on England's
part, are in a hypnotized condition, is to be saved from Japan. The great
object of Russian policy is to utilize China for territorial and political
expansion.
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