Even early in his career, Li Hongzhang could see that despite the danger of the Taiping armies, in the long term, it was the Europeans who posed the real threat to the future of the Qing Empire.
In this episode of Barbarians at the Gates, Edward Wong of the New York Times joins David and me to discuss Ed's new book, At the Edge of Empire. We discuss frontiers, what the Qing Dynasty means for China, and the different generational perspectives on China's recent past.