The Self-Strengthening Movement was declared a failure by the First Sino-Japanese War.
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Also called 自强运动. The movement kept Confucian political structures intact while importing Western technology, an approach later reformers like the 1898 戊戌变法 judged insufficient.
Reform program led by Qing officials Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, Zuo Zongtang and Prince Gong from roughly 1861 to 1895. Built arsenals, shipyards, the Beiyang Fleet, and modern schools under the slogan 中学为体，西学为用 ('Chinese learning as essence, Western learning for application'). Widely seen as having failed after the Beiyang Fleet's destruction in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95.
