Qing Dynasty External Debt and the Self-Strengthening Movement

Author: Xu Yi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-09-01
Features: In modern Chinese history, foreign debt has been a significant issue, both an economic and a political one. China's foreign debt emerged with the military and economic aggression of capitalist imperialism, and as China became a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, foreign debt exhibited different characteristics in different historical periods. As a means of capitalist imperialism's aggression against China, foreign debt brought profound disasters to the Chinese nation but also promoted the development of modern productive forces in our country. As Engels said, "No great historical disaster has ever not been compensated by historical progress."