Explain the reasons why China in the 19th century did not become a world power in the Pacific-Asian region, unlike Japan.

In the 19th century, China and Japan opened their state borders and looked for ways of rapprochement with Western countries and neighboring Russia. Japan has made an unprecedented leap towards modernizing its economy, army and navy. And soon took a leading place in the world industrial society.

China at this time plunged into the abyss of anarchy and power struggle. The internal politics crisis of the ruling Qin dynasty led to the decentralization of the state. China is an agrarian, backward country with a society that has been isolated from the outside world for a long time. As a result, the economy collapsed in China, the peasantry was left without land and became impoverished and at the same time had to pay large taxes. Frequent crop failures and popular uprisings exacerbated the situation.