During 1896, China was experiencing the pain after the Sino-Japanese War, and the semi-colonial and semi-feudal society was even deeper.

This year, politically, Li Hongzhang, then governor of Zhili and minister of Beiyang of the Qing Empire, arrived in new york on the oil tanker "St. Louis" and began to visit the United States.

This year, economically, the Qing government began to borrow the second indemnity from Japan, and signed loan contracts with Britain and Germany respectively. In China, the Qing court established the railway corporation, Zhang Jian founded the Sheng Da cotton mill, and Lu Runxiang founded the Suzhou Sulun cotton mill.

This year, in terms of diplomacy, after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the Qing government had great illusions about Russia and hoped to contact Russia to contain other powers, so it signed the Sino-Russian Secret Treaty.

This year, social undertakings. Sheng Xuanhuai founded Nanyang Public School, which is the predecessor of Shanghai Jiaotong University, Xi Jiaotong University, Hsinchu Jiaotong University and Southwest Jiaotong University. It is one of the sources of Jiaotong University in the Republic of China.