晚清海防战略的嬗变历程、制约因素及其启示

The Evolution Process, Restrictive Factors and Enlightenment of the Coastal Defense Strategy in the Late Qing Dynasty

晚清海防战略是清廷抵御列强由海而来入侵时,而在沿海或海上对各种防御措施综合运用的守势战略。晚清海防战略以维护政治稳定和本土安全为目的,采用的是被动应对危机的"冲击-反应"应急防御模式,经历了"以守为战""师夷智以造炮制船""水陆兼防""以水为主""争夺制海权"的嬗变历程,逐步从海岸防御过渡到海上防御。晚清海防战略嬗变在抵御外来侵略、加快中国社会近代化进程及促进海军近代化建设的过程中发挥了一定作用。近代中国体制僵化、财政危机、装备落伍及观念束缚等因素使得晚清海防建设始终在矛盾交织中缓慢前进,呈现出盲目性、片面性及非连续性特点,进而制约了海防战略选择的可能性。晚清海防战略的经验教训对当今我国海洋强国建设过程中如何提升海洋意识、发展海权及建设海军有深远的启示意义。

The coastal defense strategy of the late Qing Dynasty was a defensive strategy of the Qing regime to resist the invasion of foreign powers from the sea by comprehensively using various defensive measures along the coast or at sea. In order to maintain political stability and local security, the Qing regime adopted as its coastal defense strategy the "impact-response" emergency defense mode of passive response to the crisis, which underwent the evolution process of "fighting for defense","learning foreign technology to manufacture ships and guns","defending both land and water","giving priority to water" and "contention for sea power", etc., thus gradually transforming from coastal defense to maritime defense. The evolution of the coastal defense strategy in the late Qing Dynasty played a certain role in resisting foreign aggression, accelerating the process of modernization of Chinese society and promoting the modernization of the navy. Modern China’s institutional rigidity, financial crisis, outdated equipment and ideological constraints have made the construction of maritime defense in the late Qing dynasty proceed slowly in the interweaving of contradictions, featuring blindness, one-sidedness and discontinuity, thus limiting the possibility of strategic choice of maritime defense. The experience and lessons of the coastal defense strategy in the late Qing Dynasty have far-reaching enlightenment for enhancing the national marine consciousness, developing maritime power and building a navy in the process of speeding up the construction of a powerful marine country in China.