Policy towards Overseas Chinese of Africa in Late Qing:Appraisal and Reflection

Debates and flaws exist in current studies on government policy towards overseas Chinese of Africa in late Qing.Three key arguments could be summarised,i.e.subjective efforts should not be overshadowed by negative outcomes,individual consul's behaviour could not represent the overall government policy,and the labour recruitment fee needs to be analyzed carefully.This article argues that to some extent initiatives and progress could be observed in the government policy towards overseas Chinese of Africa in late Qing,such as the consciousness of sovereignty,emphasis on the International Law,the changes in addressing overseas Chinese,promoting labour export which was partly caused by the concerns to people's livelihood,as well as active efforts of Qing government in diplomatic affairs.Nevertheless,due to the limited resources,distraction caused by the internal affairs and hindrances incurred by unskilled diplomacy,the actual outcome of this government policy was disappointing.