Although Li Hongzhang signed a series of unequal treaties on behalf of the Qing Dynasty, in a positive way, he tried his best to safeguard the interests of China and made westernization stronger, but he could not change the backward reality of China. He argued for the signing of unequal treaties, but the country was weak and had to accept humiliating demands. He and Zeng Guofan led the Westernization Movement, which was a sign of his progress. He also has the deeds of defending China diplomatically, such as going to negotiate alone after Eight-Nation Alliance captured Beijing, and finally calming down the incident without ceding territory; When the Sino-Japanese War was in an unfavorable situation, he took the initiative to reach a settlement at the minimum cost, which was all beneficial to his defense of the country.

However, the wrong decision made by Li Hongzhang has been criticized by later generations. If you pay too much attention to avoiding war and coastal defense, you are willing to sacrifice the whole of Xinjiang to give up Xinjiang defense; 1885 The Special Articles of the China-Japan Tianjin Conference, which was signed in the case of a complete victory over Japan, gave Japan the right to send troops into North Korea; The command error in the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 with Japan caused the warships to be wiped out in ahava. After the victory of the Sino-French War, unequal treaties were signed instead. Although these unfavorable treaties and practices are subject to various objective conditions, he still has to bear a heavy responsibility for the wrongful acts of these events. In addition, in the early suppression of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement, he killed too many people. This also involves the overall evaluation of Xiang Army and Huai Army. The Westernization Movement and his series of measures did not change China's continued decline, and his contribution was not significant.

2. Personal introduction: Li Hongzhang, a famous minister in the late Qing Dynasty, was one of the main leaders of the Westernization Movement. He was born in Hefei, Anhui Province, and was known as Li Zhongtang, also known as Li Hefei. His real name was Zhang Tong, and his name was Xiaoquan (Spring). In his later years, he became an official, and his nickname was worry-free. As the founder and commander-in-chief of Huai Army and Beiyang Navy, the leader of Westernization Movement, an important official in the late Qing Dynasty, the governor of Guanzhi Zhili and the minister of Beiyang Trade, he was awarded a bachelor's degree in Wenhua Temple, and once signed the Vietnamese Treaty, treaty of shimonoseki and the Concise Treaty between China and France on behalf of the Qing government. Japanese Prime Minister Hirofumi Ito regarded him as "the only person in the Qing Empire who has the ability to compete with the world powers", and Empress Dowager Cixi regarded him as "the person who recreated the Xuan Huang Zhi" and wrote The Complete Works of Li Wenzhong. Together with Zeng Guofan, Zhang Zhidong and Zuo Zongtang, they are called "four famous ministers of ZTE", and together with Bismarck and Grant, they are called "three great men in the world in the 19th century".