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Some referred to the Qing government’s strategy of “opting out of the war while victorious” and signing the Treaty of Tientsin as a move that “handed France a victory it did not win and made itself the loser without having lost”. Is it a valid argument? |
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See answer below. |
The Kunming-Haiphong Railway spans 855 kilometres, of which 394 kilometres lie in Vietnam and 465 kilometres in Yunnan. The railway took seven years to construct and involved 200,000 to 300,000 Chinese labourers recruited from numerous provinces in China. During the construction, tens of thousands of labourers died. Building the Faux Namti Bridge alone cost more than 800 labourers’ lives.
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Some referred to the Qing government’s strategy of “opting out of the war while victorious” and signing the Treaty of Tientsin as a move that “handed France a victory it did not win and made itself the loser without having lost”. Is it a valid argument? |
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This argument is not entirely unfounded as China and France both had wins and losses in the Sino-French War. China managed to repel the French navy in the Battle of Zhenhai and damage them in the defence of Taiwan. China even scored a stunning victory against France in the land campaign at Zhennan Pass. Overall, France still had the upper hand in the war by having achieved more military successes. They had, for example, destroyed China’s modernised fleet and naval administration in the Mawei naval battle; gained a foothold in Taiwan and Penghu on several occasions; won some battles in Vietnam and controlled almost the whole country. Thus, the allegation that China handed France a victory it did not win and made itself a loser without having lost is neither fair nor accurate, as it doesn’t take the performance of both sides in all the campaigns into account. Frankly, whether China made the right choice in “opting out of the war while victorious” is still debatable. After the Battle of Zhennan Pass, French military’s morale was shaken, which caused them to abandon Lạng Sơn without a fight. At peak strength and riding high on momentum China could have gained the leverage necessary to improve the outcome of the later treaty negotiations if it had sought to complete the victory by attacking its fleeing foes, even if it ultimately failed to drive them out of Vietnam. Unfortunately, since the two Opium Wars, the Qing government learned to dread engaging foreigners in war. It also had little understanding of the political situation in France. At that time, France was ruled by the Third Republic, when a succession of government cabinets was taken to task for the smallest failures and often removed from power as abruptly as they were installed. Clearly, the Qing government had no idea how weak the government of Jules Ferry was and that it was in imminent danger of being ousted on account of the military setback in Vietnam. Consequently, the Chinese side did not exploit this situation to its advantage. Due to China’s aversion to war and ignorance of the enemy’s situation, France benefited handsomely from the treaty. China, however, could only console itself with the withdrawal of the French military from Taiwan and Penghu, and the fact that it needed not cede territories or pay indemnities like in the two previous wars. |
