Don't forget that at that time it took months for ships to travel from distant ports and rail transport could take days if not weeks. You don't need to do a lot to have a unit cut off from higher command or from friendly forces.
It's also worth noting that at that time China is considered to have been a nation in decline and foreign nations had control over many of the Chinese ports thus controlling trade and immigration. It's also worth noting that the Boxers were a product of China being under the stress of this foreign control and they display typical characteristics of a millenarian movement. They believed themselves to have supernatural abilities and also that they would be aided by millions of "spirit soldiers" in their fight to rid China of foreign influence. In this they share some similarities with the Ghost Dance of 1890.
From what I recall of my high school classes, China at the time, consisted of a number of provinces run by lords/warlords who owed their allegiance to the Dowager Empress. The Empress herself was not universally loved/liked as she was quite conservative and had rejected the "Hundred Days of Reforms" so as to maintain Manchu power. She visibly took power in 1898 from the more progressive Emperor Guangxu although she had been the true ruler for many years (but she had formerly worked behind the scenes). So while the country had a "national" army and it was being modernized, the province lords were responsible for maintaining the armies (and militias) in their provinces and there was a lot of variation in training, equipment and uniforms of the different provinces. There's plenty of room for intrigue, political power plays and shifting allegiances between the lords/warlords.
And to add to the international flavour, both Italy and Austria-Hungary sent land forces while Australia sent naval contingents that also supplied troops and the French forces dispatched included Indochinese and Algerian units.
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