"China is a protectionist country. We must make China end protectionism." When the headline appeared in the Times, the China ambassador to the UK smelled something ominous.
After Li Xin became the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs made comprehensive adjustments. The first was the replacement of all the ambassadors in Europe and the United States. Li Xin praised the former Foreign Minister Zuo Zhidan's efforts in developing diplomatic work and fields at the meeting, and then put these ambassadors in important positions of information collection and collation. The people transferred from the Ministry of Commerce were sent to various countries as ambassadors after some training. Of course, the Ministry of Commerce also transferred a group of people from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to work in the Ministry of Commerce.
In the new work plan of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, diplomacy and business must be closely integrated, and China's diplomacy must act as a vanguard for China's business. If it was still the thinking of Zuo Zhidan's era, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was just a mouthpiece, then the Ministry of Foreign Affairs could definitely cut more than half of its manpower. How could it need so many people to pass a message?
The new China ambassador to the UK was a former backbone of the European Department of the Ministry of Commerce. After reading the news in the Times, the ambassador clearly felt considerable pressure. The most reliable way to interfere with another country's business policy was war. Just like how China did not rely on St. Germain to control Vietnam, but borrowed the French military operation to open up the Red River to China's Yunnan and Guizhou region.
Although he was nervous, the China ambassador to the UK was not afraid. China's desire to use tough means to control the Western Pacific had never stopped. The current problem was only that China did not have enough power, not that China did not dare to fight the British. In order to find out Britain's attitude as much as possible, the China ambassador to the UK began to search for the source of this statement.
This effort did not yield any results. The Times would not reveal its source of information. Not to mention China, even if it was facing the British government, the Times' attitude would be the same. However, the Times seized this opportunity to interview the China ambassador to the UK. The China ambassador weighed it and finally agreed to be interviewed by the Times.
The content of the interview was more extensive, including China's diplomatic relations and a lot of situations in China. The China ambassador answered the Times' interview as seriously as possible. The interview was reported in The Times three days later. The title was "The Successor of the French Rebellion - China!" The subtitle used a rather sensational statement: "93 years reappear! The Girondins of 80 years later! "
Prior to this, those in Europe who did not have a particularly bad impression of China liked to describe Vézé as the Napoleon of the East. Napoleon took advantage of the Viceroyalty and finally climbed to the throne. Vézé split from the Taiping Rebellion and eventually became the emperor. This was the mainstream view of Vézé in Europe.
But after listening to China's ambassador to the United Kingdom's introduction of China, the Times was the first to wake up. Vézé was not an emperor. He had merely given himself the title of an emperor. In fact, Vézé's real position was the Chairman of the Restoration Party, the Chairman of the Military Commission of the Liberation Army, and the President of the Min dynasty. The honorary title after it was "Comrade Vézé the Emperor". China only had the election system of various republics. There were no legal provisions on the succession of the royal family.
The only current policy in China that could compare with Vézé was the Girondins of the French Revolution. During the Girondins' rule, they forced the nobles to return illegally occupied public land. They rented or sold confiscated church land to peasants in small parcels. They severely punished priests and fugitive nobles who refused to swear to the constitution. On January 21, 1793, the General Assembly tried and executed Louis XVI for treason.
Vézé tried and executed a large number of the Manchu Qing upper class. In fact, the upper class of Manchu Qing were all killed. China's central government implemented a strict land nationalization. All peasants were given land, although the land was rented from the state. Europe and the United States were well aware of China's attitude towards European religion. China's government did not accept any foreign missionary requests. During the French Revolution, the slaughter of the nobles and priests was extremely vicious. It seemed to be a ruthless extermination.
As soon as this report came out, it caused a great sensation in England. The English upper class also knew about this, but their focus was not on this. England demanded that China open its market to England. The problem of opening the market was solved. English businessmen were not harassed in China. That was enough. China was an empire in name, but in reality it was a republic. This had nothing to do with the English. China had no intention of promoting a republic everywhere.
A small number of the English upper class knew the true nature of China's system. But England as a whole knew very little about China. Seeing that this eastern country was actually a republic, the entire English intellectual class was seething.
Among the earlier republics in Europe, the Netherlands was the most famous. In 1795, the Netherlands was occupied by France. In 186, Napoleon's brother became king. The Netherlands was made a kingdom. In 1818, it was annexed to France. In 1814, it was separated from France. The following year, the Netherlands and Belgium formed the Kingdom of the Netherlands. (Belgium became independent from the Netherlands in 1830.) In 1848, the Netherlands became a constitutional monarchy.
A republic was transformed into a monarchy. The other, the First French Republic, which had shaken Europe, had long since disappeared. The Second French Republic barely lasted from 1848 to 1852, when it was transformed into the Second French Empire amidst the cheers of the world. If Napoleon III had not rashly started the Franco-Prussian War, the Second French Empire would probably still be the hegemon of Europe.
The Third French Republic, which appeared in 1870, was not liked by all of Europe. Thanks to China, the first president of the Third French Republic, Thiers, had just been ousted.
Thiers called himself a "royalist." He also wanted to restore the monarchy, but he was afraid that imposing a king on the French people might provoke the French proletariat into another revolution. He had to admit that the conditions were not yet ripe for restoring the monarchy. Thiers advocated the establishment of a republic that would retain the reactionary elements. He proposed that a republic should either be a conservative republic or no republic at all. This infuriated the republicans in Congress. Even the royalists believed that Thiers was no longer competent for his position.
Just then, the failure of the military campaign against Vietnam, which Thiers had ordered, reached Paris. The government was unanimous in forcing the president to step down.
The royalists in France were still strong, and the whole of Europe was opposed to the republic. The British intelligentsia were shocked to learn that the distant China was a republic in the guise of an empire. Then they began to clamor.
Naturally, the first to speak were the conservatives who believed that the monarchy was the best system. They recounted the fate of the European republics — they were all destroyed by the monarchy. The republic would inevitably lead to the weakening of the country. Even if it was temporarily strong, it would be as tyrannical as the last radiance of the setting sun. Then it would be over. These people cursed the evilness of the Vézé regime in China and cursed its quick demise.
The action of the conservatives was not bad. Coupled with the commercial conflict between China and the United Kingdom, under the encouragement of the conservatives, many unemployed people ran to the front of the Chinese Embassy in the United Kingdom to protest, shouting, "Chinese get out!", "Republican untouchables get out!", "Motherf * ckers get out!", and even threw stones at the Chinese Embassy in the United Kingdom.
The more moderate scholars only expressed surprise that China, a great monarchy in the East, would be bewitched by republicanism and implement a republic. They put forward various views. The more mainstream view was that Vézé was only a dictator and not a true republican.
There were minorities everywhere. After the conservatives and moderates spoke up, the socialists were finally born. In England, there were very few newspapers that the socialists could influence. After some preparation. In December 1873, all the more socialist newspapers jointly published an article, "China! Utopia Has Come! "
Not only newspapers, but the article was also printed into leaflets, which were distributed among the workers in the major cities of England.
The article eulogized the Chinese revolution and the government of the People's Republic of China with enthusiasm. The land was owned by the state, and the state controlled the economic lifeline through state-owned enterprises. Compulsory education, vocational education, and re-education of workers after work. The state provided housing, the state cracked down on usury, and the people's army undertook disaster relief. Men and women were equal, and everyone had the right to vote.
The writer was a representative of the Comintern who had just returned to China. They tried to go to China to apply for funds from the emperor of China, Vézé, so that they could return to Europe to carry out a revolutionary movement. Vézé mercilessly refused the request. It was not that Vézé had no interest in the European revolutionary movement, but that Vézé believed that the European revolutionary movement was not worth investing in. After giving them some money, Vézé drove them away.
But these people did not give up. They went around China, trying to find supporters who were interested in the revolutionary system. They did not find a single supporter, but they were shocked by the current system in China.
They ran back to Europe with great excitement, just in time to see the British criticize the China system. This group of people enthusiastically eulogized the great China, where there were no aristocrats, no feudal landlords, and no cannibalistic capitalists. At the end of the article, the writer shouted, "The establishment of the Min dynasty has proved that Utopia is feasible. Compared with the Paris Commune, China has gone further and more successfully! The prototype of the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth has appeared. Now we don't have to think hard about the blueprint for the great future of mankind. What we need to do now is to make Europe copy China! On the day of victory, the words will be engraved on the doors of all European governments: Serve the working people wholeheartedly! The cheers of all European countries at the celebration will be: Long live the working people! "
The China Ambassador to Britain put down the leaflet in his hand. He closed his eyes tiredly and rubbed his temples for a long time without saying a word. The title of the leaflet was: How China Avoided Economic Crisis through the System! When the Ambassador was interviewed by The Times, he just wanted to expand the reputation of China in Britain and publicize the real situation in China. Inciting class struggle was not the Ambassador's intention.
The younger generation of China officials actively or passively accepted the anti-feudal position, but none of them had the consciousness of the world's proletarians united. Everyone sang the "Chinese Revolutionary Song" and sang, "The old world was beaten to a pulp, slaves rise, rise!" But that was the feudal old world that destroyed Manchu Qing. The Restoration Party and the Liberation Army led the working people of China to become the masters. The revolution was a matter of China. What did it have to do with the foreign devils?
The situation was out of control. The usually deserted China Embassy and China Consulate were like a busy market outside. Reporters and people from all walks of life blocked the door and desperately handed business cards to China's diplomats through various channels, hoping to meet China's diplomats and talk to China's diplomats face-to-face to determine whether the sensational news was true or false.
During this time, even the chef in the logistics department of the embassy did not dare to go out to buy food. The situation of being tightly surrounded by hundreds of people and asking questions was too terrifying. The chef did not know much English, and most of the English he knew was used to buy ingredients. The chef was scared to the point that his heart felt strange.
As long as they saw a guy with a Chinese face, the British would go up and ask. China's diplomats took a low-key approach, so China's international students were surrounded by all sides. The economic crisis caused a large number of people to be idle, and after losing their jobs, they naturally had free time. And China's international students came from the grassroots. Even if their understanding of the political system was limited, they were very familiar with grassroots life. They only described their own experiences at the grassroots level, and it caused an uproar in the British.
The leaflet "How China Avoided Economic Crisis Through the System" enthusiastically eulogized China's heavy industry. The article introduced that the China state sold iron farming tools to farmers at low prices and trained them in agricultural techniques for free. The state ownership of land and the unified purchase and sale of grain ensured a stable supply of grain for the people, and it also gave the steel industry a stable market.
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