Japan easily defeated China in the Sino-Japanese War thanks to its better trained and equipped military.
The first Sino-Japanese war was fought between the Qing Dynasty of China and the Japanese Empire from August 1894 to April 1895, mainly for the control of Korea. After more than six months of uninterrupted victories of the Japanese Armed Forces, as well as the taking of the Chinese port of Weihai, China requested peace in February 1895.
The war was a clear indication of the failure of the Qing Dynasty's attempt to modernize its armed forces and defend itself against threats to its sovereignty, especially compared to the military success of Japan after the Meiji Restoration, based on its modern and well equipped armed forces. For the first time, regional dominion in East Asia passed from China to Japan, and the prestige of the Qing Dynasty, along with the classical tradition in China, suffered a severe blow. The humiliating loss of Korea as a vassal state of the Qing dynasty caused unprecedented public protests. In China, the defeat was a catalyst for a series of revolutions and political changes led by Sun Yat-Sen and Youwei Kang. These tendencies would manifest themselves later in the Revolution of 1911, which ended the monarchy.