Li Hongzhang tried his best to protect China's interests, foreign affairs, but could not change the reality of China's backwardness. For the signing of unequal treaties, he had argued, but the country was weak and had to accept the humiliating demands. The fact that he and Zeng Guofan and others led the foreign affairs movement is a sign of his progress. He also has diplomatic defense of China's deeds, such as in the Eight-Power Allied Forces after the capture of Beijing alone to negotiate, and ultimately do not cede land and calm the incident; in the Sino-Japanese War was in an unfavorable situation had taken the initiative to minimize the cost to reach a settlement, etc., are his defense of the country's advantageous side.

But later people also criticized Li Hongzhang had made the wrong decision. Such as too much to avoid war and the importance of sea defense and willing to sacrifice the entire Xinjiang to give up the frontier defense; in 1885 in the case of complete victory over Japan signed the "Sino-Japanese Tientsin Conference special article", gave Japan can send troops into the right of Korea; and Japan's Sino-Japanese War with the command error led to warships in Weihaiwei was completely destroyed; Sino-French War victory instead of signing an unequal treaty, and so on. Although these unfavorable treaties and practices were subject to various objective conditions, he still had to bear a very heavy responsibility for the misguided behavior of these events. Also in the early suppression of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, he killed too many people. This also involved the overall evaluation of the Xiang and Huai armies. The foreign affairs movement and his series of measures did not change the continued fall of China and made his credits unremarkable.

Character profile:

Li Hongzhang (February 15, 1823 - November 7, 1901), the late Qing dynasty minister, one of the main leaders of the foreign affairs movement, Hefei, Anhui Feidong people, the world more respectfully known as Li Zhongtang, his name is Zhang Tong, the word gradual Fu or Zi 黻, the number of ShaoTsuen (Quan), the late years of the self-signed Yishou, the alias Save the heart, posthumously, Wenzhong.

As the founder and commander-in-chief of the Huaijun and the Beiyang navy, the leader of the foreign affairs movement, and a key minister of the late Qing Dynasty, he was the Governor-General of Zhili and Minister of Commerce of the North Pacific Ocean, and was awarded the title of University Doctor of the Mandarin's Hall, and signed the Treaty of Vietnam, the Treaty of Shimonoseki, the Treaty of France and the Sino-French Simplified Treaty on behalf of the Qing Government.

Japanese Prime Minister Ito Hirobumi regarded him as "the only person in the Qing Empire who has the ability to compete with the world powers", and the Empress Dowager Cixi regarded him as "the man who recreates the yellow and the blue". With Zeng Guofan, Zhang Zhidong, Zuo Zongtang and known as the "Zhongxing four great ministers", and Bismarck, Grant and known as the "nineteenth century, the world's three great men".