唐紹儀與清季東北鐵路問題(1905～1908)

Tang Shaoyi and the Railway Affairs in Manchuria in the 19th Century

Tang Shaoyi (1860-1938) accomplished most of his diplomatic achievements in the late 19th century when China was besieged by the Western powers and became a “semi-colony”. Due to the lack of the past research on this famous diplomat, it becomes necessary to reflect his diplomatic achievements. This article try to discuss from four aspects in order to reflect his diplomatic achievements in Manchuria: Sino-Japanese negotiation on the Manchurian affairs in the late 1905, Tang and the introduction of America’s “Dollar Diplomacy” in Manchuria, reaction of Russia and Japan toward Tang’s railway plan, and Tang’s Mission to the United States. As one of the American-educated diplomats, he made use of his maximum knowledge of international relations to deal with these powers in order to build a stage of “balance of power” and to restrict their “spheres of interest” through this action. However, he still failed partly because of these powers’ consolidation of their common interests and partly because of the unstableness in the domestic politics. Though his failure in the railway affairs in Manchuria, Tang’s introduction of foreign capital into Manchuria still set up a paradigm for his successors to deal with powers. In his career as a new diplomat, Tang has made a big step in modern Chinese diplomacy.