The recent passing of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom brings to mind a fascinating moment in Chinese history.

In the early-20th century, during the final years of empire, the Qing Dynasty attempted to transform itself into a constitutional monarchy not unlike the model in the UK, in Japan, and in a number of other countries. With the advantage of hindsight, we know that the effort was doomed to fail, and maybe it never had much chance of success. But what might have been...

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