I have just been doing research in this field recently, and finally I have found someone who is interested in this problem. According to the understanding in the book, it must be corruption, backward thinking and bad system. That's all right, but that's nonsense. If you want to find an answer, just answer according to these nonsense. If you want to find out the reason, then you should take a good look at my research conclusion. There are many reasons for the failure of Westernization Movement, which have a long history. I can't say I fully understand it. On the general historical facts that can be found on the Internet at present, we can draw the following opinions.

In my opinion, the biggest reason for the failure of the Westernization Movement is that the Qing Dynasty did not inherit the secret service system of the Ming Dynasty and did not have a perfect secret service organization. This is an indispensable organization in modern countries. Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, and the Royal Guards set up by the East Factory and the West Factory of the Ming Dynasty were naturally heinous in the eyes of ancient China literati. But as a modern country, can't there be a secret service organization? The Soviet Union has Cheka and KGB, Nazi Germany has Gestapo, and the famous British spy 007 is popular all over the world. The United States has also followed in the footsteps of the CIA and the FBI. However, what secret service organizations were there in the Qing Dynasty? In the Qing Dynasty, only Emperor Kangxi formulated the secret folding system, which basically relied on exposure, especially among officials. Compared with the professional level of the secret service in the Ming dynasty, it is simply a failure. The serious consequence of the failed spy system in the Qing Dynasty was that Li Hongzhang, an important Westernization Minister of the Huai Army in the Qing Dynasty, was not found to be the China agent of the Rothschild consortium under the Western Economic Association, and such agents were everywhere. It is well known that Li Hongzhang took kickbacks when he established Westernization and signed a traitorous treaty, but China people don't know. When Bismarck, Germany's bloody prime minister, heard that Li Hongzhang was compared to Bismarck of China, he sighed: I hope I won't be called Li Hongzhang of Germany after my death. Very meaningful. Not only that, Li Hongzhang even deliberately misled the Beiyang Navy during the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, and even transported the already scarce clean coal to the Japanese joint fleet. Zhang, nephew of Li Hongzhang and general manager of Tianjin Ordnance Bureau, actually sold ammunition to the Japanese army for profiteering. Li Fangjing, the son of Li Hongzhang, sold rice and other grains to the Japanese army through Zhang Honglu, an alternate road in Shanghai. Li Hongzhang himself also showed a very obvious intention to protect Japanese spies. Li Hongzhang not only refused to kill the spies captured by the Qing army, but also gave them travelling expenses and let them return to China on the grounds that killing them would lose money. The Beiyang navy, known as the number one in Asia, was actually not controlled by the Qing government at all. I think many of our modern TV dramas often describe the internal purges of the producers of modern China as negative images, which is really not a taste. It is indeed wrong to eliminate counter-revolutionaries and expand counter-revolutionaries, but there is no reason to deny the work of eliminating counter-revolutionaries Excuse me, without internal security agencies and intelligence agencies, which country in the world can exist independently? If a country does not have a counter-revolutionary team, its army will be wiped out like the Beiyang Navy. I want to ask, the gap between Beiyang navy and the joint fleet is not a world apart. There is no loss of the Japanese ship, and it makes no sense to put it anywhere. Therefore, in the Westernization Movement in which the traitor Li Hongzhang participated, his fate of failure was inevitable.

Secondly, the Westernization Movement lacked a systematic national strategy. If you fail strategically, there is no point in winning tactically. The Westernization Movement initiated Westernization, introduced strong ships and guns, and even made them independently, all of which were correct. However, I don't think they have a correct understanding of what the goal of this road is. Westernization school may not have the consciousness of recovering national sovereignty and establishing a powerful modern national economic system. I'm afraid they just want to borrow foreign guns to westernize, which will inevitably lead to economic failure. To correct a point here, the failure of Westernization Movement was due to the failure to implement the system reform. This view is not wrong, but it is nonsense. When the Westernization Movement develops to a certain extent, it is of course necessary to carry out some institutional reforms to meet the needs of Qiang Bing, a rich country. The Westernization School did stop, but this does not mean that what the Westernization School needs to do is to democratize the bourgeoisie, which is wrong. This is because, compared with imperialism, the bourgeoisie in China was already very weak at that time, and it was necessary for the state to concentrate its capital to make a living.

Third, the defense industry of the Westernization Movement lacked a strong economic pillar. There is no defense industry that does not lose money. This is because no one in modern countries will stop the research and development of advanced weapons, but no one will export advanced weapons related to their own security. Unlike consumer goods, national defense products are doomed to lose money. The biggest failure of the Westernization Movement was that it didn't use the national defense industry to seize the national sovereignty, and then used the national sovereignty to develop the national economy, so that the tax revenue from economic growth could be used to finance the development of the national defense industry. Only by embarking on this virtuous circle can we continue to develop, otherwise it is inevitable that the national finance with limited consumption of national defense industry will eventually have to die out on its own.

Fourthly, the Westernization Movement did not introduce the modern enterprise system. I haven't heard that they have cost accounting and modern accounting. Their initial investment is usually zero cost. The Westernization Movement was seriously short of independent talents. Even if technology is introduced, its officials do not understand it, but entrust it to foreigners. A country's national defense industry depends on outsiders. What are the national defense secrets? This is undoubtedly inviting the wolf into the room.

The Westernization Movement made great achievements in the later period of its development. Fuzhou Ship Administration can build the offshore cruiser Pingyuan. LangWilliam M, the chief inspector of Beiyang Navy (another foreigner), was very satisfied with the ship after inspection. In May 1890, he was transferred to Beiyang Navy and renamed "Pingyuan". The performance of the ship in the Sino-Japanese War is obvious to all. Unfortunately, the defense industry in old China has been plagued by the nightmare of insufficient funds.

It is ulterior to think that the failure of the Westernization Movement is due to the road of officials and businessmen rather than the so-called market economy. We admit that official enterprise in feudal society lags behind enterprises under the socialist planned economy, and enterprises under the planned economy pay attention to cost accounting, but more importantly, both the Soviet Union and New China under the planned economy have independent national sovereignty and strong national finance to support the development of national defense industry. Under the historical background of imperialist colonization in old China, it is easy to talk about the idea that market economy can bring a lively Westernization Movement.