 What worried the Japanese was the activities of the Chinese, who appeared to be thwarting the fragile group of reformers in Korea.The Qing government, had loosened its hold over Korea in 1876, when the Japanese succeeded in establishing a legal basis for Korean independence.However, Li Hongzhang and many other Chinese high officials were alarmed by the Japanese annexation of the Ryukyu kingdom, from their perspective what had happened to this former tributary state could happen to another as well.