Boxers Quotes
The Boxers were against Western and Christian influence. The Government was too weak to protect the foreigners or the Chinese Christians. So the Western Powers used their soldiers and diplomats to defend the Western Enclaves and Christian Churches not unlike the situation with the Taliban in Afghanistan a century later.
The Empress had earlier decided not to try and suppress the Boxers when they started attacking foreigners--{641838}. But now things had gotten out of hand and many ordinary Chinese people—especially Chinese Christians-- were suffering Boxer abuse. Cixi thought the government had to “ally” with the Boxers in the hope that she could influence directions in the future. This, of course, made her anathema in the West and forever damaged her reputation and legacy in Western history.