Status Updates From 中國西征：大清征服中央歐亞與蒙古帝國的最後輓歌

right the use of term unification (tongyi) and never conquest (Zhengqu) is still used today, and all over, there is this constant claim of china splitting and unifying over and over. That is very nationalistic and kind of interesting how this seems to be the lasting legacy of the Qianlong emperor.

oh right, the downplaying of the uniqueness of the Qing and claiming they are an extension of prior "Chinese" regimes. But their expansion was a sharp break with what the Ming did. Ironically, the Qing under Qianlong started this and that legacy is with us today. And by that Wei Yuan made 2 grave "errors:"
saying Taiwan is not a part of china from ancient times
favoring repression of popular rebellion

I still wonder why western views of "China" changed in the late 18th century from admiration to contempt. What triggered this turn to the image of the sick man of Asia?

True, western scholars tend to exaggerate foreign influence on thinkers like Wei Yuan and more.

What the Qianlong emperor wrote about the Zunghar sound like typical racist justification of extermination. And naturally he portrayed himself as the good guy. Sadly his example and how he got away with is all too common in history. As is the conflicting interpretation.

So his use of massacre for ethnic extermination was definitely only restricted to the Zunghar, has been almost completely ignored by modern scholars, were atypical for Qing policy and more typical of the central eurasian practice, but even there it was usually only the young warriors who resisted, the surrendered ones could keep their tribal identity or marry the victors because the tribe needed people.

The Qianlong emperor is getting more radical, he constantly says that the Zunghar should be exterminated. First still sparing the old and weak, but not later. He ordered starvation tactics, the zunghar that were made slaves and bondservants could not preserve their tribal identity (names, titles etc.) so that does count as genocide. In fact he punished commanders who were too lenient.

One official being condemned to death for criticizing the emperor and another for saying money was wasted on troops. Sure both were pardoned but come on.