The Imperial Telegraph Administration (ITA; )
[Harwit, Eric. ]
China's Telecommunications Revolution
', p. 28. Oxford University Press, 2008. . or Imperial Chinese Telegraph Administration (ICTA)
[Chiba, Masashi.]
. ''Socio-Economic History Society'', Vol. 63, No. 6. was a
Qing
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-speaki ...
-era government-controlled corporation (spec. ''guandu shangban'') supervised by
Sheng Xuanhuai
Sheng Xuanhuai (; November 4, 1844 – April 27, 1916) was a Qing dynasty Chinese tycoon, politician, and educator. He founded several major banks and universities and served as Minister of Transportation of the Qing Empire. He was also known as ...
.
The ITA was established in 1881,
after which it swiftly gained a monopoly on Chinese telegraphy.
By 1900 the ITA administered 14,000 miles of telegraph wires and supervised another 20,000 miles under local control.
The same year, it absorbed the infant Chinese telephone network started in
Nanjing
Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and the second largest city in the East China region. T ...
.
It was nationalized in 1902 to allow otherwise unprofitable usage rates and expansion of the network
or to gain control of its profits.
The ITA was then absorbed by the newly formed
Ministry of Posts and Communications
The Ministry of Posts and Communications or YouchuanbuChen Zhongping. Modern China's Network Revolution: Chambers of Commerce and Sociopolitical Change in the Early Twentieth Century', p. 152. Stanford University Press, 2011. . () was a late Qing ...
in 1906. Following nationalization, control alternated between Sheng and his political rival
Tang Shaoyi
Tang Shaoyi (; 2 January 1862 – 30 September 1938), also spelled Tong Shao Yi, courtesy name Shaochuan (), was a Chinese statesman who briefly served as the first Premier of the Republic of China in 1912. In 1938, he was assassinated by the ...
.
See also
*
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 ...
*
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 ...
*
Hundred Days' Reform
The Hundred Days' Reform or Wuxu Reform () was a failed 103-day national, cultural, political, and educational reform movement that occurred from 11 June to 22 September 1898 during the late Qing dynasty. It was undertaken by the young Guangxu E ...
*
Telecommunications in the People's Republic of China
The People's Republic of China possesses a diversified communications system that links all parts of the country by Internet, telephone, telegraph, radio, and television. The country is served by an extensive system of automatic telephone exchan ...
References
Qing dynasty
Telegraph companies
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