Friedriengels (1820-1895) was a German thinker, philosopher, revolutionary, great teacher of the proletariat and working people of the world, and one of the founders of Marxism.

After the founding of the First International in 1864, Engels took part in the leadership of the International together with Marx, and when the workers' brothers from the East came to the podium at the Congress of the First International (arranged by His Majesty the Great Emperor, of course), the two mentors became very interested in the workers or the workers' system in the East.

In mid-June, at the invitation of the Chinese Workers' Party, Engels decided to go to China on behalf of Marx and the First International.

"On 14 June, I began my journey to the East with my comrades of the Orient aboard the merchant ship 'Sun' of the Far East Shipping Company. What has to surprise me here is this huge merchant ship with a displacement of more than 9,000 tons, which should be the largest ship in the world! I learned from Zhou Na, the head of the Chinese workers' delegates, that not only does the Chinese working class have a good labor law to protect them, but the working class also organizes trade unions extensively to negotiate wages and vacations with the capitalists. It seems that the working class in China has more power than the workers in the Western world, but in fact I think this is a picture given to them by the Chinese government and the capitalists in the East, because with good institutional protection, the working class in the East seems to be very little aggressive or combative, and they are content with the current stable environment.

This is what I believe the world working class must be vigilant against when waging its struggle, and must not abandon its political ideas and pursuits for the sake of immediate interests. Of course, as for the Chinese government, I personally feel that it is a positive and advanced government. Although he is not well known to the people of continental Europe, it is limited to international newspapers. ”

"At the beginning of August, our ship arrived in Alexandria, and in Egypt I met for the first time the Chinese army, the Chinese Egyptian fleet, a fleet of a few cruisers and gunboats. Yes, according to the Second Suez Canal Conference, China was allowed to station an army and fleet of no more than four thousand people in Egypt. At this moment, I suddenly felt that China is not far away, it is already very close to Europe. Of course, I will not comment much on the imperialist countries here. ”

"On August 5, arriving at Port Said, Zhou and I made a preliminary inspection of the colonial workers at the wharf. I found that the colonial workers or coolies knew nothing about the proletariat and had no political pursuits. Of course, this state of affairs is mainly due to the fact that their country does not have any political capabilities. So we agree that the working-class movement is basically impossible to achieve in the colonial countries. ”

"On August 11, the Sun sailed south of the Red Sea to Djibouti, a Chinese colony in East Africa, a previously unremarkable place that became more prosperous after the opening of the Suez Canal. Here I saw black-haired Oriental immigrants everywhere but obviously felt that these people were not Chinese like Zhou, and after the introduction of the dock officials, I learned that many of these Oriental immigrants were swept to East Africa from the two provinces of Vietnam, Vietnam, and Vietnam, and they were originally indigenous people living in northern Vietnam, and the Chinese emperor thought that this people no longer had the need to exist and drove them to East Africa. In addition, I learned from Zhoukou that there were still some Indians in the Chinese colonies in Africa, and it was the Chinese emperor who drove them here from the north bank of the Ganges, leaving only women and some children. ”

"It is conceivable that the colonization method of the East is completely different from that of the West, and the East can easily occupy a place in the borderlands of the world through a large number of population immigrants and human exports. China's North American colonies are a precedent, and the demographic advantage is vividly manifested. ”

"On 20 September, after a month-long voyage, the Sun arrived at the port of Male in the Maldives, a necklace in the Indian Ocean, where we stopped for a moment before heading to the Strait of Malacca again."

"On October 10, our ship arrived in the city of Singapore, Malacca, which was seized by China after the First Sino-British War, and now after nearly two decades of development, Singapore has become the largest city and port in Southeast Asia. Its geographical location dictates its importance, and now it is a municipality of China with a large fleet stationed. It was here that I first came into contact with the Chinese working class, from dock porters to mechanical workers in industrial factories, everyone who was nervous and busy like a clockwork wound up. ”

"When I learned about workers' wages and leave, I felt a deep admiration for the Chinese government or the ruling class, who had a deep understanding of how capitalist society works and its rules, and who are using these rules well. They established labor and worker protection laws to guarantee workers' wages and rest, so that workers could use other means to obtain their rights, which was simply paralyzing and reducing the fighting nature of the working class, because, as Zhou said, Chinese would not have other ideas as long as they could survive. I don't know if this is China's luck or sorrow. ”

In addition, when workers have money, it means consumption, and consumption will continue to drive the development of industry and production, which makes Chinese society enter a good cycle of development. Unlike the capitalists in Europe, they exploited the workers harshly, but did not see the huge consumer market of the working class. Of course, the great development of capitalist society in Europe is based on this exploitation, but it is clear that the harsh exploitation is deepening the contradictions between the various strata of Europe, and one day Europe will either have another great revolution like the one of 1848, or countries will launch a Europe-wide war to divert the contradictions. But China will not, and I think that with sound laws and efficient government mechanisms, China will be able to continue to develop steadily if it carries out all aspects of internal reform at most. ”――

Engels' Diary