China's 'southern disaster': France lays waste to a Qing fleet – The China Project
A French sneak in 1884 attack led to a fundamental misunderstanding of Qing technological prowess. It’s time to reexamine the popular — but simplistic, if not outright wrong — idea that China’s military losses to Europe (and, later, Japan) owed to its inability to modernize.
Source: thechinaproject.com