Xu Jingcheng

Xu Jingcheng

Xu Jingcheng ( Chinese  許景澄 , Pinyin Xǔ Jǐngchéng , W.-G. Hsu Ching-cheng ; * 1845 ; † July 1900 ) was an Imperial Chinese diplomat and most recently Senior Vice President of the Board of Civil Office.

Life

Xu was deployed for eleven years in the 1880 / 1890s as an envoy with the rank of minister in a total of eight countries, including France, Germany, Italy ( Vatican 1886), Japan, Austria and Russia (around 1893 in Saint Petersburg ). During his diplomatic career he was involved in negotiations in connection with the Sino-French War , the Sino-Japanese War (1894/1895) and in the resolution of border problems between Russia and the Northwest and Northeast of the Chinese Empire . During this time, in 1897, Xu and his family came to Bad Kissingen for a cure .

In the time before the outbreak of the Boxer Rebellion , he recognized the large gap between China and the Western world based on his personal experience abroad and advocated reforms and opening up to the West. Xu was involved in building up the navy and, thanks to his excellent personal connections to Russia, it was he who signed the treaty with Russia to build the East China Railway on behalf of China and then became the first president of the new railway company, even though it was owned by Russia on Chinese territory and was also mostly run by Russian managers.

However, Xu was no longer allowed to experience the commissioning of this railway. Because his open-minded thinking and his orientation towards the West ultimately became his undoing during the time of the Boxer Rebellion. After he had repeatedly and vehemently spoken out against all military attacks against foreigners, he was arrested by order of the Imperial Court, sentenced to death and in July 1900 together with four other ministers - Yuan Chang, Xu Yongyi, Li Shan and Lian Yuan - executed by quartering. Just seven months later, he was fully rehabilitated by the imperial edict of February 13, 1901 and even declared a martyr by the Chinese court .

Web links

• Xu Jingcheng and the Boxer Rebellion.

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Chinese. Xu is the family name here, Jingcheng is the first name.