Admiral Ding Ruchang (; 18 November 1836 – 12 February 1895) was a Chinese military officer in the late Qing dynasty. Early life Ding was a native of what is now part of Chaohu City in Anhui Province, China. He joined the Taiping Rebellion in 1854, but he later surrendered with Cheng Xueqi in the Battle of Anqing in 1861, and defected to the imperial cause. He joined Li Hongzhang’s Huai Army as a cavalryman to help suppress the Taiping Rebellion, serving with Liu Mingchuan. Afterwards, he was active in helping suppress the Nian Rebellion, and was awarded with the equivalent in rank to colonel. In 1874, he protested against the Qing dynasty government's decision about reduction of the army size. He went back to his hometown to avoid being killed. Self-strengthening movement In 1875, Li Hongzhang recruited Ding to be a commander of the Beiyang Fleet, the most modern of China's regional navies. In 1880, he travelled to Newcastle upon Tyne in Great Britain to accept delivery of the cruiser Chaoyun where he was photographed by Newcastle-based photographer H.S. Mendelssohn. He also visited Germany and France to familiarize himself with their shipbuilding techniques. Ding was a supporter of the Self-Strengthening Movement in China, and urged Li Hongzhang to create shipyards in China able to build modern armored cruisers, rather than relying on foreign imports. Ting took an active role in the creation of the naval bases at Weihaiwei and Lushunkou. In 1882, Ding was an observer during the negotiations resulting in the normalization of trade between Korea and the United States. He later helped suppress the Imo rebellion, with his marines arresting Heungseon Daewongun, the father of King Gojong, after arriving at Incheon with a fleet of seven ships. During the Sino-French War of 1884, Ding was awarded the Yellow Riding Jacket by the Qing Emperor, traditionally the highest military awards in the Qing Empire. Nagasaki incident In 1886, Ding participated in a show of force, with the Beiyang Fleet touring Hong Kong, the Japanese port of Nagasaki, the Korean ports of Busan and Wonsan, and the Russian naval base of Vladivostok. While in Nagasaki on 13 August 1886, a number of drunken sailors from Zhenyuan became involved in a brawl in a local brothel, during which a Japanese police officer was fatally stabbed. In what came to be called the Nagasaki incident two days later in a riot