How Did China Project Military Resources Across the Taiwan Strait? Institutions,Agents and Knowledge During the Sino-French War of 1884–1885

Abstract

In the nineteenth century, Qing China faced daunting military challenges in maintaining control over its frontiers. How did China project military resources over long distances to defend its frontiers? Focusing on the Sino-French War, which featured a seven-month French naval blockade of Taiwan that seriously tested Chinese logistics capacity, this article argues that the key to Chinese success lay in the collaboration among diverse Chinese and foreign actors and the effective utilization of their local knowledge. These findings shed light on the capability of the supposedly declining Qing Empire and offer non-European historical experiences for the study of logistics history.