The Chinese Press’ Reporting and Commentary on Imperial Japan’s Forced Annexation of the Taehan Empire
Journal Title: International Journal of Korean History - Year 2011, Vol 16, Issue 2
Abstract
The Chinese press released a large volume of reports and commentaries pertaining to the Japanese annexation of Korea in 1910. The Chinese press at the time can be regarded as having been the foreign press that, outside of Japan, dealt with the annexation of Korea in the broadest and profoundest manner. Based on the analysis of this article, the following three conclusions can be reached. First, the Chinese press at the time did not have any direct sources of information related to the annexation of Korea. Furthermore, clear problems were evident in terms of the precision of their reporting and commentaries related to the annexation of Korea, a situation that was caused in large part by the thorough control exercised by the Japanese authorities. Nevertheless, they saliently understood the colonial nature of this exercise by stating that the forced annexation of Korea was in fact the ‘absorption’ of its territory undertaken as part of Japan’s territorial ambitions. Consequently, the Chinese press should be perceived as the foreign press that released the most sympathetic reports and commentaries on the annexation. Secondly, along with laments and showing sympathy for the “national collapse” of the Chos?n dynasty and the Taehan Empire, the Chinese press’ reports and commentaries on the annexation of Korea greatly emphasized the expansionist nature of Japan and the threat it posed to China. Their reports and commentaries were deemed to be so problematic for Japan that they caused a diplomatic row with the Japanese government. In this regard, a letter written by a Korean student in Japan to a Chinese naval minister and a telegram from a Chinese organization in the United States stating that they had mourned the passage of Korea for three days, both of which were subsequently published in Chinese newspapers, can be considered as important materials that shed some light on the perceptions and responses of the Chinese press and society to the Japanese annexation of Korea. Thirdly, the Chinese press analyzed the lessons of the “national collapse” of Korea from various vantage points and urged the Qing government to undertake necessary political reforms and the Chinese people to awaken to the dangers that confronted them. During this process, many problems such as the Sinocentric view of Korean history and culture, in particular as pertained to the traditional historical relationship between the two countries, were exposed.
Authors and Affiliations
Quan Hexiu
Keywords
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