The coup d’état of 1898 led by the Queen Dowager (Cixi Taihou 慈禧太后) was the result of various confrontations between the reformist and the victorious obscurantist factions, including a dispute over the foreign policy. The research to date explains the foreign policy debate as involving the obscurantists supporting a policy of cooperation with Russia opposed by the reformists advocating a policy emphasizing cooperation with Great Britain and Japan. However, the author of this article questions the validity of such an interpretation. Foreign policy stressing cooperation with Russia proposed by Li Hongzhang 李鴻章prior to the Sino-Japanese War was met by strong opposition from Emperor Guangxu 光緒 and his close advisor Weng Tonghe 翁同龢, minister of defense and foreign affairs, at first, but Weng was later to support the policy in order to avoid any cession of Chinese territory. After the Tripartite Intervention of April 1895, public opinion in China supported cooperation with Russia and opposition to Japan, and China concluded a secret treaty with the Russians, thus sublimating the obscurantist views into national policy. In the aftermath of the killing of two German missionaries in Juye Prefecture in 1897 and the subsequent attempt by the German navy to occupy Kiaochou (Jiaozhou 膠州) Bay, Li tried to settle the crisis through Russian intervention and was supported by the majority in the Chinese government. Despite such expectations, the policy of cooperation with Russia ended in failure with Russia’s demand for the lease of Port Arthur and Talian Bay. From that time on, Kang Youwei 康有為 and his fellow reformists began advocating cooperation with Britain and Japan. The Chinese government rejected Kan’s proposals, fearing that the balance of power among the world powers in China would be destroyed by alliances with Great Britain and Japan. Furthermore, the Chinese government gave up all hope of resisting foreign pressure through intervention on the part of any of the Powers and came to regard Russia as well as Britain and Japan as foreign menaces. The confrontation between those who supported cooperation with the World Powers and their skeptics arose only after the Sino-Japanese War, and that scenario lasted through the hundred days of reform that began in April 1898 until the coup d’état that August. Now the reformist demands in the (foreign) policy changed from cooperation with Britain and Japan in order to counteract Russia to cooperation with Japan as part of their overall reforms, but the confrontation created by any policy of foreign cooperation cast a shadow over both the dismissal of Weng and the coup d’état.