Vancouver Model United Nations The 12th Annual Conference • February 1–3, 2013

Background Guide Historical Chinese Crisis Vancouver Model United Nations The 12th Annual Conference • February 1–3, 2013

Zach Hauser & Stuart Warren Secretaries-General Dear Delegates, • My name is Lucas Tai-MacArthur and it is my pleasure to serve as the Direc- Eric Liu tor of the Historical Chinese Crisis committee at VMUN 2013. Having been Chief of Staff involved in VMUN since 2009, I have always been keen on crisis commit- tees, and am looking forward to bringing some new and innovative ideas to Catherine Chou Director-General the table for this year's conference. I'm especially excited this year because our topic is both complex and multi- • faceted. It's going to allow you to take, within reason, really whatever path Aliya-Nur Babul you like, as there are no real correct choices. The topic is broadly defined, USG Committees overseeing the dying days of the , and delegates on this com- mittee will take the place of senior government officials on an expanded Adam Chandani emergency session of the Imperial Court. As senior officials, you are given USG Conference great responsibility for your respective departments, regions, and port- Parker Nann folios, allowing for flexibility in policy making as well as independent and USG Delegate Affairs 1 cooperative action. The starting point for this committee is early 1900, when the Qing Court receives an ultimatum from the Western powers demanding Eden Lee a handover of financial and powers to the Europeans in order to USG Delegate Affairs 2 restore order during the .

Brian Kwok Given the open nature of the topic and variety of decisions that this initi- USG Finance ating scenario alone can result in, I am anxiously looking forward to the intelligent discourse that this topic is sure to bring forth. As the conference Andy Lee approaches, if you have any questions whatsoever, feel free to email me. USG Marketing All the best, Catherine Wang USG Marketing Lucas Tai-MacArthur Kevin Chien Director, Historical Crisis Committee USG Simulations

Jennifer Yoon USG Sponsorship Position Paper Policy

What is a Position Paper? A position paper is a brief overview of a delegate’s stance on the topics being discussed by a particu- lar committee. Though there is no specific format the position paper must follow, it should include a description of the positions the delegate’s cabinet role holds on the issues covered by the general backgrounder. In the event that a delegate cannot find a firm position his/her role had on a histor- ical issue, the delegate may take small liberties in developing his/her own policies. For the Historical Chinese Crisis, position papers are mandatory, and may not exceed one page in length. Formatting Position papers should: —— Include the name of the delegate, his/her cabinet post, and the committee —— Be in a standard font (e.g. Times New Roman) with a 12-point font size and 1-inch docu- ment margins —— Not include illustrations, diagrams, decorations, national symbols, watermarks, or page borders —— Include citations and a bibliography, in any format, giving due credit to the sources used in research (not included in the 1-page limit) Due Dates and Submission Procedure All position papers must be submitted by midnight on Friday, January 18, 2013, two weeks prior to the conference. Once your position paper is complete, please save the document as your last name, your first name and send it as an attachment in an email, to your committee’s email address, with the subject head- ing as your last name, your first name — Position Paper. Please do not add any other attachments to the email or write anything else in the body. Your position paper should be sent as a single PDF or Word document; position papers submitted in another format will not be accepted. Each position paper will be manually reviewed and considered for the Best Position Paper award. The email address for this committee is [email protected]. Crisis Topic Overview

A Brief History , the self-proclaimed Middle Kingdom, is undoubtedly an ancient land. Its people and system of government can be traced as far back as 2100 BCE, with the founding of the semi-mythical Xia Dynasty in modern day Henan province; this event marks the beginning of a period of time known as the Ancient Era. Lasting from the founding of Xia in 2100 BCE to the end of the Warring States period in 221 BCE, this stretch of history was integral to the development of the modern Chinese theory of rule and civilization: during these long years, the concept of a divine mandate, or the Mandate of Heaven, was first invoked, and many central cultural institutions, such as the philoso- phies of Confucianism and Legalism, were developed. This period also saw the movement of the ethnic Han Chinese from areas inhabited since prehistory to the many disparate regions that we now consider . The Ancient era was violently ended as China disintegrated into the Warring States period, a 200- year long fragmentation of a previously more unified china. Historiographers consider the Ancient Era to have ended and the current era of Chinese history, the Imperial Era, to have begun when a wily new king of the State of Qin was victorious in his military campaigns against other small states, eventually unifying the six other major Chinese powers. In addition to the amalgamation of the states in the area of eastern China, this transition saw the beginning of the storied institutions of the imperial Chinese state, such as rule of law and the primacy of the emperor. From then on, China has seen the unceremonious transitions between various dynasties; the great strides in conquest and technological development of the Han; the period of foreign takeover by the Yuan; and, since the year 1664 AD, the governance by the Qing. The Qing, much like the Yuan years before them, are not Han Chinese, the ethnic majority in the nation, but are ethnically Jurchen, a people whose historic home has been in the region of Man- churia. The Aisin Gioro, originally the chieftains of a small, unimportant tribe, rose to prominence in the 16th century after unifying neighboring tribes, and declared themselves Khans of the Great Jin; they eventually became the tribe that took charge of the Qing dynasty. Previously a Ming tribu- tary state, the Jurchen renounced their subservience to the Ming after achieving newfound power through unification. After a successful military campaign, the capital of Great Jin was moved south, and systems of military and civil administration developed; chief among these inventions was the system of , which would come to unify the still disparate peoples of into a nation. The continued modernization of the state led to the creation of a rudimentary system of administration developed on the model of the Ming state; not surprisingly, it was staffed with cap- tured Ming bureaucrats and was integral in keeping the varied lands of the empire together. Future Jurchen Khans continued the legacy of their forebear, eventually incorporating the territories of into their growing state. After defeating the last Khan of the Mongols, the reigning Jin Khan was presented with the imperial seal of the . After this conquest, the name of the state was changed to Great Qing, and the supreme position was elevated from Khan to Emperor.

— 4 — Vancouver Model United Nations 2013 Historical Chinese Crisis

The Qing took up the title of the Mandate of Heaven in the year of 1644. Aided by a great peasant rebellion in the ruling to the south, they swept in from Manchuria and sacked the rebel usurper’s capital in . On October 30th, the Qing finally took up the title ofSon of Heav- en and installed themselves as the rulers of all China. International Troubles Prior to the 1800s, the Qing were the dominant power in East Asia, with the regional hegemony needed to dictate the politics of all the realms in the east. However, as European powers began to build their economies around oceanic trade, they became stronger in relation to the insular Chi- nese state. For a time, the Qing were able to find a balance of power with the Europeans through what was known as the : this limited the ports at which European merchants could trade — most notably to its eponym, the port of Canto — and the seasons during which the move- ment of goods were permitted to take place. This decades old system was challenged in 1793 by the British East India Company, which desired the opening of China to a wider variety of trade. The British, under the ambassador Lord Macartney, argued that a country of Britain’s status deserved a more amicable trade relationship with China; this was promptly rebuked in Beijing, with the em- peror telling the British that China had no need for their manufactured goods, and only desired to trade for precious metals. Pushed by both heightened demand in Europe for Chinese goods such as tea and silk as well as dwindling stockpiles of precious metals, the British searched for a solution. The British began to funnel opium into China through the port of Canton to perpetuate a Chinese addiction to the drug; in 1839, Britain was able to declare war on China after Beijing attempted to stem the Chinese addiction by banning the import of opium. The was a disaster for China. It not only damaged the nation’s prestige, but also showed how outdated and ill-equipped the Chinese military had become. Complacent officials in Beijing had not diverted funds to upgrade the military for warfare in the new era; wooden junks were sent to fight against the cruisers of the Royal Navy, and archers were tasked with the defense of cities against Royal Marine artillery. The humiliating defeat resulted in the , in which the island of Hong Kong was ceded to the British, unrestricted European access to Chinese ports was granted, and crushing reparations were appropriated. Furthermore, the losses proved to many that the Qing had lost the Mandate of Heaven and were unable, either through corruption or incompetence, to govern the Chinese people effectively. This anti-Qing sentiment came to a head in 1851 with the . A bitter student, hav- ing failed to become a civil servant in repeated attempts at the Imperial Examinations, lead a re- bellion in the southwest province of Ghizhou. During this rebellion, the student, Hong Xiuquan, established himself as the ruler of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, with himself as king; he claimed to be a prophet of God and to be the brother of Jesus Christ. The 14-year rebellion, as of the year 1900, is the single bloodiest conflict to have been fought. After receiving assistance from the French and British armies, the Qing finally put down the rebellion in 1864. However, the Taiping rebellion opened the floodgates of anti-Manchu and anti-Qing sentiments, spawning similar rebellions in the northwest by the Muslim population and in the southwest by the people of . Over the course of these rebellions in the mid , China’s economy was irreversibly damaged, mil- — 5 — Vancouver Model United Nations 2013 Historical Chinese Crisis lions of acres of farmland were destroyed, and upwards of 30 million people were killed. British attempts to capitalize on Qing weakness to renegotiate the treaty of were met by stern opposition in Beijing. Unfortunately, this refusal by Chinese authorities to further disadvan- tage their nation led to the outbreak of the , which China, burdened already by a weakened state, could not have possibly won. This war ended with the , which forced further humiliating on China through permanent territorial concessions, a fine of millions of dollars in reparations to be paid in precious metals, and the right for foreign warships to navigate Chinese rivers without hindrance. Attempts at Reform After stunning defeats at the hands of European powers and internal turmoil, China rallied around younger, reform-minded officials like , who instituted such new policies as the Self-Strengthening Movement, which tried to standardize trade with Europe; modernize the aging army and fleet; and bring the nation back from the damage it had sustained in years of war and rebellion. The result was the new model army for China, theBeiyang Army. This new military was styled after the European armies of the day and was the centerpiece of the reconstructed Chinese system; however, any renewed sense of security was destroyed when the new fleet was defeated in combat by the forces of the during the First Sino-Japanese war. After a political shuffle following the war, the new emperor Guangxu and his liberal minded -sup porters took to a faster pace of reform during what is known as the Hundred Days Reform. Be- ginning in 1898, the reforms shook up the millennia-old systems of power in China; it sought to create a modern education system, eliminate government bureaucratic waste, and apply capitalistic principles to the nation through industrialization. However, its most notable goal, and the point that drew the ire of the conservative factions in court led by , was the desire to change the system of government from the absolute that had existed for near four thousand years to a constitutional monarchy in the of Western Europe, where the populace were allowed to elect political leaders. Opposed to these drastic reforms, the conservatives won the Muslim Kansu Braves army over to their cause, marching into Beijing to crush the reformers. The army, led by , arrested the young emperor and placed him under house arrest. The Current Situation The year is now 1900 and the Qing dynasty has held on to power for 256 years. It has, however, suf- fered greatly, beset by those who would see China snuffed out. Presently, the issue that concerns the court is the Boxer movement, composed of the downtrodden victims of imperialism and foreign aggression. Taking control of their fate, these individuals fight oppressive foreign forces wherever they can. Although they are not a centralized force and instead rely on the aggregate action of cells, the are united in their ideology: to revive the Qing and destroy the foreigners. A major cause of the discontent that led to the Boxer movement was the Christian missionaries who came to China to convert the local populace. Fed up with corrupting foreign influence on China, the Boxers started attacking German and French missions. The Boxers then continued to

— 6 — Vancouver Model United Nations 2013 Historical Chinese Crisis

grow in popularity during the Hundred Days Reform, with the Chinese seeing the meddling of missionaries in the court and the attempts to persuade the to imitate West- ern reforms as definite signs of foreign manipulation of China. All across the countryside, from snowy Heilongjiang in the north to the sweltering jungles of Guangxi to the south, Boxer cells rose in open rebellion against foreigners and pro-western government leaders. Pro-Western governors have therefore called men to arms, sparking a conflict that seems poised to tear the country asun- der, with conservatives on one side and reformers on the other. The eight powers of Austria-Hungary, Italy, Russia, Germany, France, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the have taken refuge in the due to the Boxer threat. However, the situation is as tense as ever, with bellicose Boxers having just cut a main railroad line, effectively isolating Beijing; the combination of foreign troops protecting the legations and swarm- ing numbers of Boxers makes the situation incredibly volatile. In order to deal with the current issue as well as any potential future crises, the Qing court must be able to also resolve internal differences. Currently, officials are divided into two distinct blocs: the anti-Foreign conservatives, consisting of the old guard in the court, and the pro-Foreign reformers, composed of mostly younger officials. This is a mercurial time for all of China, and the court must meticulously navigate this situation to retain any hope of sustaining the Qing dynasty. Sources Bodin, Lynn E., and Christopher Warner. The Boxer Rebellion. London: Osprey, 1979. Print. Bickers, Robert A., and R. G. Tiedemann. The Boxers, China, and the World. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007. Print. Harrington, Peter. Peking 1900: The Boxer Rebellion. Oxford: Osprey Military, 2001. Print. Ko, W. (2001). The Boxer Movement. Chinese American Forum, 16(4), 14. Salem, P. (1999). The Boxer Rebellion Fails to Remove Foreign Control in China. Great Events (p. 4). US: Salem Press. Weider History, G. (2012). David Silbey: China’s Boxer Rebellion. Military History, 29(1), 14-15.

— 7 —