China’s Bid for a Place at the Table – The American Spectator

At the dawn of the 20th century, China’s goal was to be recognized by the West as an equal. So, through no fault of its own, it waded into World War I a mere 16 months before the war came to a close. The fault lay with China’s great rival: Japan.

The Far East of the late 19th and early 20th centuries was a patchwork quilt of colonies, proxy governments, and small sovereign nations. China was no exception. While Japan enjoyed sovereignty and an alliance with Great Britain, China was split between European countries and governed by a powerless and newly formed republic. (READ MORE from Aubrey Gulick: Judge Crater Pulls a Crater)

While the British occupied Hong Kong, Qingdao was the site of Germany’s largest overseas naval base. That didn’t leave China in a great position in a war between the two Western powers — so the government promptly declared neutrality, but to no avail.

Ninety thousand Japanese troops immediately set off for Qingdao, but they didn’t approach the naval base from the sea; they marched across northern China to get there, clearly violating the Chinese declaration of neutrality.

The battle for Qingdao was over quickly; in November 1914, the German garrison surrendered, and Japan took over. It had no intention of leaving. In January, Japan presented the Chinese government with the 21 Demands and took control of a large part of northern China. The negotiation left a very sour taste in Chinese diplomats’ mouths while preventing the country from entering the war.

On Aug. 14, 1917, the Chinese finally managed to declare war on the Germans — but their goal was never to defeat the Germans; it was to earn a place at the table at Versailles and to regain the territory it had lost to Japan. Chinese diplomats were invited to Versailles, but it was too late. Japan and China fought each other at Versailles, and eventually, the West awarded Japan control of the regions China had lost in the early days of the war. (READ MORE: David Weiss: A Not So Special Counsel)

When the news arrived in China, it wasn’t well received. The Chinese felt sidelined and were outraged by the Allied decision, so the Chinese delegates who were in Versailles refused to sign the treaty. The rest of the world shrugged their shoulders and moved on — an attitude that only further angered the Chinese.

Although it was hailed in its own time as a unique and excellent solution to a war that had ravaged the world for four years, the Versailles Peace Treaty was an abysmal failure. It’s widely recognized that it set the stage for World War II by assigning responsibility for the conflict to the German nation. It also set the stage for China’s adoption of communism.

Believing Western nations had rejected them, the Chinese turned north, where the Communist revolution was taking place in Russia. A year after the fateful treaty was signed, Mao Zedong and Chou En-lai, who had led many Chinese protests against the peace treaty, formed the Chinese Communist Party.

This article originally appeared on Aubrey’s Substack, Pilgrim’s Way, on Aug. 13, 2023.

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