Historical Studies (Chinese Edition)

No.4, 2018

 

The Issue of the Chinese Side’s “Plenipotentiary Powers” before and after the Negotiation of the Boxer Protocol (Abstract)

 

Dai Haibin

 

As Ministers Plenipotentiary appointed by the Qing government, Yi Kuang and Li Hongzhang were the diplomatic representatives directly responsible for the negotiation of the Boxer Protocol. The issue of plenipotentiary powers predated the end of the Boxer Rebellion; it was inseparable from the nature of the war, the situation of wartime negotiations, and changes in the relationship between the central and local governments. It took several months for the Qing court to confirm its representatives at the peace talks, because the Western powers used their military strength and political influence in China to intervene in the Qing court’s internal personnel arrangements. This provides an indirect reflection of the competitive relationships among the powers. The peace talks after the war involved not only negotiations between the Qing court and the Western powers, but also the games of various political forces including the Xi’an Grand Council, the plenipotentiary representatives in Peking, the governors of southern and eastern China and Ministers at legations abroad. In pluralist diplomacy, at times the central and local governments can act in concert, striving for economic rights. However, the Qing government then was in a weak position in the international power structure, and taken in conjunction with bureaucratic politics and factional conflict, this meant that the dispersal of diplomatic power actually revealed over a large canvas the limitations of traditional negotiating tactics. The issue of plenipotentiary powers during this period effected changes in the dynasty’s internal affairs, diplomacy and other areas, changes that influenced historical trends for a long time to come.