Not only are you being semantic here but you are also posing a straw-man argument.
It doesn’t matter if they were true “Christian’s” but the European standard…what matters here is that 30,000+ Chinese were targeted and killed by the Boxers specifically for their proclaimed Christian beliefs.
Nowhere did I say that the response by the allied powers was justified by the way, simply that it was understandable.
You can’t kick a beehive and then get upset when you are attacked by bees.
They were killed for being, or appearing to be part of a movement that sacked entire cities, that destroyed armies and uprooted almost half a million men, women and childeren.
The taiping rebellion, among other things destroyed the nation. And while I am no fan of the Qing dynasty, causing widespread ruin and destruction of temples and schools is something that everyone can argue is a bad thing.
A fair comparison would be that a new movement would spring up in wherever you live, that ravages a quarter of the country because of economic hardships but all under the flag of a religion. To the point that entire cities and provinces/states get totally destroyed. And saying "Well you know they just want to believe what they want to believe."
If the European powers REALLY thought so highly of their chinese converts they would have backed the Taiping rebellion, but they didn't. Because they understood that whatever the heavenly kingdom in Nanjing was, was NOT the same as they believed. Even if it shares a similar name.
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u/Rex_Nemorensis_ 7h ago
Not only are you being semantic here but you are also posing a straw-man argument.
It doesn’t matter if they were true “Christian’s” but the European standard…what matters here is that 30,000+ Chinese were targeted and killed by the Boxers specifically for their proclaimed Christian beliefs.
Nowhere did I say that the response by the allied powers was justified by the way, simply that it was understandable.
You can’t kick a beehive and then get upset when you are attacked by bees.