Li’s words about the Japanese threat turned out to be prophetic. In 1894, Japan went to war with China over control of Korea in the First Sino-Japanese War. By the late 1880s, the Empress Dowager had returned to her goal of rebuilding the Summer Palace, and had diverted important government revenues into the project. The classic, ironic symbol of her wastefulness was her “stone boat,” a marble replica of a paddle steamer that sits today “docked” in the Summer Palace gardens, perhaps slowly paying for itself in tourist dollars.

Cixi’s Stone Boat

Weakened by corruption, China was beaten by the Japanese and forced to sign yet another unequal treaty. Defeat by the Japanese was particularly devastating. China could no longer use the excuse of Western technological superiority; this was a war fought by two East Asian nations using Western weapons, and China lost to its much smaller neighbor. For further reading, this essay from John Dower includes beautiful woodblock prints of the war.