In 1886, a Qing dynasty emissary described Korea as "a child struggling to leave its parents." But he may not have given Korea enough credit: In addition to a defiant vassal state, Korea was also an important land buffer between China and several other hostile powers. As the 19th century drew to a close, those rivals began to carve out their own footholds in the peninsula, gradually eroding China's once-formidable presence there. Korea, in an effort to survive the competition among great powers, began to play a risky game. It started to intentionally provoke its larger adversaries, leveraging its relationship with China to guarantee its protection from retaliation. Peking — or as it is known today, Beijing — reluctantly embraced its newfound role as an intermediary between Korea and the West.