For a long time, in people's mind, Li Hongzhang has been the synonym of "traitor". As people re-study that period of history objectively and calmly, the true face of Li Hongzhang becomes clearer and clearer.
Li Hongzhang positioned himself as: I am the paperhanger of this broken house of the Qing Dynasty. Caught between internal troubles and external threats, I cannot support the falling building.
The metaphor of "paperhanger" reveals his helplessness and self-reproach.
We cannot demand an important backbone of the feudal ruling class to carry out the act of overthrowing the Qing government and taking the road of capitalist development. Therefore, the Westernization Movement advocated and implemented by him, although its ideological core is still to serve the Qing government and hopes to retain the feudal rule and the existing political structure, in terms of practical effects, it is a positive response to foreign colonial aggression and the impact of the wave of modernization in the world. It is also the product of the collision and integration of Chinese and Western cultures in modern times.
In the economic field we are concerned about, among the four major military enterprises in the early stage: Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, Jinling Machinery Bureau, Tianjin Machinery Bureau, Fuzhou Ship Politics Bureau, three were personally supervised by Li Hongzhang. Later, he also established the China Merchants Steam Navigation Company, Tianjin Telegraph General Office, Shanghai Machine Weaving Bureau, etc., and was the first to advocate the construction of railways in China.
Among them, the two modern enterprises that have survived to this day best represent Li Hongzhang's achievements: Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau and China Merchants Steam Navigation Company. The Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau appointed Chinese as leaders, hired foreign technicians, and its main task was to imitate the production of Western ships and weapons, so it was more influenced by foreign countries.
As a civilian service enterprise, the China Merchants Steam Navigation Company was a purely Chinese enterprise. Its charter particularly stipulated that it would not accept foreign capital, adopting a shareholding system form of using foreign things for China's benefit, which was more advanced in organizational structure. This model, including some specific ways of organizing production, has been used by later national industries.