Since the beginning of the 20th century,public opinion referred to the Qing government as one that"fawned on foreign powers,"a criticism that was used to denounce the government’s compromises and concessions in diplomatic affairs. The application of this new depiction had some basis in truth,but it also diverged from the facts. Public opinion believed that the late Qing government,after the watershed of the Boxer Rebellion,drastically transformed from an anti-foreign attitude to an attitude of fawning on foreign powers. However,the transformation of officials could not be immediate,either in time or in mentality. To some extent,the shift from an anti-foreign attitude to that of fawning over foreigners was a only nominal adjustment of officials’ tactics for controlling foreigners against the background of a sharp imbalance of power between China and its enemies. The division between communication and negotiation that arose in the late Qing period promoted friendly everyday communication between China and the foreign powers,but the blurred line between communication and fawning on foreign powers provided colorful source material for portrayals of the government as blindly worshipping foreigners. Because of the structural conflicts between society and the government on diplomatic questions,the people unceasingly castigated the government over a series of diplomatic incidents,ultimately confirming the image of the late Qing government as fawning on foreign powers.