That was what happened later.
You could not deny that you were conquerors.
By the same reason, Those partiots should have welcomed Japanese.
After 300 years or so, who knows whether Japanese will say: well, we are part of China.
Qing brought a piece of land. That is true.
However, they also pushed the development in culture backwords for almost 300 years.
Which one was more significant?
I would say the second.