The Boxer Indemnity Scholarship Program () was a scholarship program for Chinese students to be educated in the United States, funded by the . In 1908, the U.S. Congress passed a bill to return to China the excess of Boxer Indemnity, amounting to over 17 million dollars. Despite the fierce controversies over returning the excess payment, President

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...

's administration decided to establish the Boxer Indemnity Scholarship Program to educate Chinese. President Roosevelt recognized this program as a chance for "American-directed reform in China" that could potentially improve US-China relations, bridging Chinese and American culture, and promoting the US's international image. Instead of copying European imperialism and using military means to reap a short-term financial gain, Roosevelt established the program to insure peace and trade in China in the "most satisfactory and subtle of all ways", while helping the United States gain respect and take a leadership position in the world. Since its inception, the Boxer Indemnity Scholarship Program has been called "the most important scheme for educating Chinese students in America and arguably the most consequential and successful in the entire foreign-study movement of twentieth century China." Boxer Rebellion Indemnity Scholarship recipients 1909 2

Boxer Rebellion Indemnity Scholarship recipients 1909 2

Background

Chinese Educational Mission

Prior to the establishment of the Boxer Indemnity Scholarship Program,

Yung Wing Yung Wing (; November 17, 1828April 21, 1912) was a Chinese-American diplomat and businessman. In 1854, he became the first Chinese student to graduate from an American university, Yale College. He was involved in business transactions between Ch ...

Chinese Educational Mission The Chinese Educational Mission (1872–1881) was the pioneering but frustrated attempt by reform-minded officials of the Qing dynasty to educate a group of 120 Chinese students in the United States. In 1871, Yung Wing, himself the first Chine ...

also provided some higher education opportunities in the U.S. for Chinese students. As the first Chinese graduate of Yale University, Yung Wing persuaded the Qing government to send groups of young Chinese students to the United States to study Western science and technology in 1871. Beginning in 1872, with the support of some reform-minded officials of the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

, Yung established the Chinese Educational Mission to send 120 Chinese students to study in the New England region of the United States. However, this short-lived effort was disbanded in 1881, a year prior to the

Chinese Exclusion Act The Chinese Exclusion Act was a United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers for 10 years. The law excluded merchants, teachers, students, travelers, and diplom ...

, and there was little subsequent activity. BoxerAmericanTroops

Boxer Protocol

In 1899, a group of Chinese nationals known as Boxers, rebelled against the

Qing Empire The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

in an attempt to expel all foreign influences in China. The uprising, later came to be known as the

Boxer Rebellion The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, the Boxer Insurrection, or the Yihetuan Movement, was an anti-foreign, anti-colonial, and anti-Christian uprising in China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, by ...

, began as an anti-foreign,

anti-colonial Decolonization or decolonisation is the undoing of colonialism, the latter being the process whereby imperial nations establish and dominate foreign territories, often overseas. Some scholars of decolonization focus especially on independence m ...

, peasant-based movement in northern China, in response to foreign westerners seizing land from locals, concession grabbing, and granting immunity to criminals who converted to Catholicism. The insurgents attacked foreigners, who were building railroads and violating Feng shui, and Christians, who were held responsible for the foreign domination of China. In the summer of 1900, a coalition called the

Eight-Nation Alliance The Eight-Nation Alliance was a multinational military coalition that invaded northern China in 1900 with the stated aim of relieving the foreign legations in Beijing, then besieged by the popular Boxer militia, who were determined to remove fo ...

comprising

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

and the United States sent troops to quell the rebellion and forced the Qing government to sign the Boxer Protocol, which required the Qing government to pay 450 million

tael Tael (),"Tael" entry
at the

indemnity In contract law, an indemnity is a contractual obligation of one party (the ''indemnitor'') to compensate the loss incurred by another party (the ''indemnitee'') due to the relevant acts of the indemnitor or any other party. The duty to indemni ...

over a course of 39 years to the eight nations involved. Spence, Jonathan D. 991(1991), ''

The Search for Modern China ''The Search for Modern China'' is a 1990 non-fiction book by Jonathan Spence, published by Century Hutchinson and W. W. Norton & Company. It covers the period 1600 to 1989. According to Spence, the goal was to explain how Modern China was creat ...

'', WW Norton & Co. . Under the

exchange rate In finance, an exchange rate is the rate at which one currency will be exchanged for another currency. Currencies are most commonly national currencies, but may be sub-national as in the case of Hong Kong or supra-national as in the case of ...

s at the time, this was equal to US$335 million

gold dollar The gold dollar or gold one-dollar piece is a gold coin that was struck as a regular issue by the United States Bureau of the Mint from 1849 to 1889. The coin had three types over its lifetime, all designed by Mint Chief Engraver James B. Longa ...

s or £67 million. Including interest, the Qing finally paid 982,238,150 taels (≈ silver), of which the U.S. share was 7.32%.

China-U.S. relations and the return of excess Boxer Indemnity

In 1904, as nationalism grew in China, the mistreatment of Chinese immigrants in America and the federal government's renewal of the Chinese Exclusion Act provoked anger throughout China. In the following year, tensions erupted as angry Chinese people launched a nationwide boycott against American goods. The boycott movement resulted in terrible consequences for American trade in China:

In ten months, $21,125,838 worth of cotton goods alone went from this country to the Chinese empire. Not only is this export trade menaced by a Chinese boycott, but our hold on much greater future development is practically given over to European nations. There are few interests in the United States that will not feel the pinch of a Chinese boycott in one way or another.

The U.S. government and merchants knew that they could not afford to give up such a huge potential market. However, President Roosevelt did not want to end the boycott in China through military means, because Japan, Britain, and many other European powers had already flexed their military muscles throughout China and occupied substantial resources. If the United States were to jump in and "share" China, not only would the U.S. reap few financial benefits, but it would also offend the other great powers. At the same time,

Liang Cheng Liang Cheng (November 30, 1864 – February 3, 1917), courtesy name Liang Chentung, also known as Liang Pi Yuk, and later as Chentung Liang Cheng, was a Chinese ambassador to the United States during the Qing dynasty. He was primarily respons ...

, the Qing representative to the U.S., learned that the terms of the Boxer Protocol awarded the U.S. more than it had originally demanded and initiated a campaign to pressure the U.S. into returning the difference to China. In addition, American missionaries in China, sympathetic to the suffering of the average Chinese family, were clamoring for the return of the excess Boxer Indemnity. Roosevelt seized this opportunity and set forth his intention to "do the Chinese justice about this indemnity" in his Atlanta speech as he declared: "we mericanscannot expect China to do us justice unless we do China justice". Roosevelt realized that if the United States were to help China and return the excess of the Boxer Indemnity while all the other powers were taking its territory and exploiting its people, "by a very small effort the good-will of the Chinese may be won over in a large and satisfactory way". However,

William Woodville Rockhill William Woodville Rockhill (April 1, 1854 – December 8, 1914) was a United States diplomat, best known as the author of the U.S.'s Open Door Policy for China, the first American to learn to speak Tibetan, and one of the West's leading exper ...

, the U.S. minister to China, strongly opposed the idea of returning the money to the corrupted Qing government, for he believed that the money would not escape their greed. Another solution had to be arranged.

Establishment of the scholarship program

Among the numerous proposals for the use of the remittance, Roosevelt inclined toward "cultural investment" through education, envisioning education as a huge bridge across the Pacific through which the U.S. could extend its influence to the Far East. As Japan and the European powers carved out spheres of influence in China, the conservative Qing government finally sought to study Western technology and adopt Western policies in order to reform China and meet the Western powers as equals. During that time, many of the Western-returned students such as Liang Cheng and Tang Shaoyi "formerly pushed to the margins of government and shunned due to their Western influence, were brought into power as the fortunes of reformers improved". In 1906, the President of the University of Illinois, Edmund J. James, who led the university from 1904 to 1920, proposed to President Theodore Roosevelt a plan to establish a scholarship program to send Chinese students to the U.S. James' 1906 letter noted to President Roosevelt,

China is upon the verge of a revolution ... The nation which succeeds in educating the young Chinese of the present generation will be the nation which for a given expenditure of effort will reap the largest possible returns in moral, intellectual and commercial influence.

However, the tendency in China at that time was to "adopt the policy of Japan, and so engage Japan as her instructor". As Japan's military and political influence developed rapidly, Roosevelt's administration could not allow the large influx of Chinese students to Japan continue rising and watch their Pacific rival take over China through intellectual domination. Therefore, he quickly "assented in April 1906 to the wisdom of Smith's proposal" and decided to establish the Boxer Indemnity Scholarship Program to "turn the current of Chinese students" to America. The following year Roosevelt expressed this message to the Senate and House of Representatives in his annual address:

Mr. Roosevelt announces the intention of the United States Government to release China from all payments in connection with the Boxer war indemnity in excess of the sum necessary for the actual indemnity to the United States… The United States, he adds, ‘should help in every practicable way in the education of the Chinese people, so that the vast and populous Empire of China may gradually adapt itself to modern conditions. One way of doing this is by promoting the coming of Chinese students to this country and making it attractive to them to take courses at our Universities and higher educational institutions. Our educators should, so far as possible, take concerted action toward this end.’

Although President Roosevelt claimed that his intention was to help China "adapt itself to modern conditions", he in fact aimed to direct reform in China by creating an influential group of American-educated-Chinese leaders. With China's reform-friendly environment, the American-returned students would occupy important positions in politics due to their knowledge of American bureaucracy. Their education in American high schools and colleges, which would take place at a formative period of their lives, would have "a substantial impact on their political, emotional and even physical development". They would have a special sentiment toward America and would be grateful to the U.S. government for their educational opportunities. Subsequently, they would seek to model the new China after the U.S. rather than Japan, and prefer American goods. As Liang Cheng, the Chinese minister to the U.S. stated, this group of students would be able to "insure a peace and trade in the Far East that treaties and military forces cannot insure". The impact of educational exchange could extend far beyond the educational field. It was, as Smith envisioned, the most "satisfactory and subtle" way to "reap the largest possible returns in moral, intellectual, and commercial influence", because "trade follows moral and spiritual domination far more inevitably than it follows the flag". The establishment of the Boxer Indemnity Scholarship Program was not only "an act of friendship" as Roosevelt claimed, it was also a cultural investment for bridging China with the U.S. and a farsighted scheme for peacefully controlling China's reform and development. Despite further proposals by the Chinese to use the funds within China, the settlement was made on American terms.

Development

The program, set up in 1909, funded the selection, preparatory training, transportation to the U.S., and study for the scholarship beneficiaries. Part of the first remission of money included the establishment of a preparatory school (肄业馆 ''Yìyèguǎn'') in

Peking } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

(Beijing) for Chinese graduates pursuing further studies at American universities. The preparatory school, established on 29 April 1911 on the site of a former royal garden, was named Tsinghua College (; ''Qīnghuá Xuétáng''). The faculty members for sciences were recruited by the

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams in London, originally ...

from the United States and its graduates transferred directly to American schools as juniors upon graduation. The school was later expanded to offer four-year undergraduate and post-graduate programs and became the renowned

Tsinghua University Tsinghua University (; abbreviation, abbr. THU) is a National university, national Public university, public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, Minis ...

. A second remission in 1924 provided for the establishment of the China Foundation (中华文化教育基金会 ''Zhōnghuá Wénhuà Jiàoyù Jījīnhuì''), which would in turn fund the China Institute in New York City in 1926. From 1909 to 1929, the Boxer Indemnity Scholarship Program sent around 1,300 Chinese students to study in the U.S. Drawing candidates from across China, the examination process for this prestigious scholarship was highly competitive: among 630 candidates in 1937, only 47 were selected. In light of China's

Self-Strengthening Movement The Self-Strengthening Movement, also known as the Westernization or Western Affairs Movement (–1895), was a period of radical institutional reforms initiated in China during the late Qing dynasty following the military disasters of the Opium ...

during that time, the Qing government urged students to focus their studies on the fields on Science, Engineering, Agriculture, Medicine and Commerce.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

was thus one of the most popular destinations. In 1929, after Tsinghua had become a true university itself, the Boxer Indemnity Scholarship Program was opened to all candidates. A total of five groups of scholars were educated in the U.S. before the

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

invasion of China in 1937.

Legacy

A number of prominent Chinese and

Chinese American Chinese Americans are Americans of Han Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans along with their ancestors trace lineage from ...

s were beneficiaries of the Boxer Indemnity Scholarship Program, including MIT's first Chinese architect Kwan Sung-sing, philosopher

Hu Shih Hu Shih (; 17 December 1891 – 24 February 1962), also known as Hu Suh in early references, was a Chinese diplomat, essayist, literary scholar, philosopher, and politician. Hu is widely recognized today as a key contributor to Chinese libera ...

Nobel Physics prize ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then " ...

winner

Yang Chen-Ning Yang Chen-Ning or Chen-Ning Yang (; born 1 October 1922), also known as C. N. Yang or by the English name Frank Yang, is a Chinese theoretical physicist who made significant contributions to statistical mechanics, integrable systems, gauge th ...

, electrical engineer Lee Yuk-Wing, mathematician Chung Kai-lai, linguist Chao Yuen Ren, educator

Kuo Ping-Wen Kuo Ping-Wen or Guo Bingwen (; 1880–1969), courtesy name Hongsheng (鴻聲), was an influential Chinese educator. Biography Kuo was born in Shanghai, Jiangsu province, and his father was an elder in the Presbyterian Church. He attended Lowri ...

, rocket scientist

Tsien Hsue-shen Qian Xuesen, or Hsue-Shen Tsien (; 11 December 1911 – 31 October 2009), was a Chinese mathematician, cyberneticist, aerospace engineer, and physicist who made significant contributions to the field of aerodynamics and established engineering ...

, meteorologist and scholar

Chu Coching Coching Chu (; March 7, 1890 – February 7, 1974) was a Chinese geologist and meteorologist. Born in Shangyu, Zhejiang, Chu went to United States for his college education in 1910. He graduated from the College of Agriculture, University of ...

and architectural engineer Edward Y. Ying, who was influential in the planning of modern Shanghai. The scholarships served as a model for the

Fulbright Program The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...

's grants for international educational exchange.Morris Bishop. ''A History of Cornell''. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1962. p.403 The remittance of excess payment and the establishment of the scholarship program also helped raise the international standing of the United States. In a letter to the Secretary of State John Hay, Liang Cheng, the Chinese minister to the United States wrote, "If your honorable country would take the lead

n returning excess indemnity payments N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''. History ...

wherever the voice of righteousness spread, those countries would rise and follow it". As the leader of an emerging super power, Roosevelt recognized the remission of Boxer Indemnity as an chance for the U.S. to assume leadership position in the world. Roosevelt later claimed after the remission: "we have the right to hope that the return of these funds to China will stimulate European Powers to take action similar to that just suggested, and that generosity on our part will be met by similar unconditional remission by them". Roosevelt's act later yielded significant results. U.S's act of justice, friendship, and allowance greatly influenced other Powers:

Other governments, recognizing the beneficial effects of America's earlier action in this matter, are proposing to take a similar step. The Japanese Government has announced its decision to remit Japan's share of the indemnity. The French Government purposes to use its indemnity funds in the rehabilitation of a French bank in China. The British Government announced in December, 1922, that it would release its funds for purposes "mutually beneficial to Great Britain and to China…"

The remission of the Boxer Indemnity, as Roosevelt planned, helped the U.S. to not only dispel the embarrassment caused by the boycott, but also build its international image.

References

{{Tsinghua University Academic transfer Boxer Rebellion China–United States relations Education in China Scholarships in China Scholarships in the United States Student politics in China Tsinghua University