Taxing Aliens and International Law
Nationalist China’s Income Tax Negotiations with Treaty Powers, 1935–37
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 24020572 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ming-hsi Chu (Northwestern University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Pages | 1-31 |
| Publication date | 2026-08-04 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Law & Social Inquiry (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0897-6546 • E-ISSN: 1747-4469 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1017/lsi.2026.10156 |
| OpenAlex | W4405303118 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 25 |
This article explores how Chinese international lawyers used international law to assert fiscal sovereignty through income tax reform from 1935 to 1937. Despite Western imperialism preventing China from taxing foreign nationals, Chinese diplomats actively invoked international law to legitimize domestic taxation and challenge entrenched Western privileges within China. Based on diplomatic and public finance archives from Great Britain, China, Germany, and the United States, this article finds that Chinese lawyers systematically approached foreign taxation as a legal issue central to state building. In addition, international law influenced the decision making of treaty powers and foreigners residing in China, evidenced by their engagement with China’s legal arguments. Lastly, international law—particularly fiscal sovereignty doctrines—was ostensibly neutral but imperialist in character, disadvantaging emerging states through requirements they could not meet. This case reveals tensions between domestic reform and international power dynamics relevant to modern debates on global tax justice.
China · Economics · Income tax · International trade · Nationalism · Negotiation · Political science · Politics · Treaty · Corporate Taxation and Avoidance · International Law and Aviation · Law · Religious Freedom and Discrimination
International Tax as International Law
The Wilsonian Moment
Imperialism, Sovereignty and the Making of International Law
The creation of the treaty system
The Intellectual Origins of the Modern International Tax Regime
Taxing the Informal Economy
China's Wartime Finance and Inflation, 1937-1945
The Legacies of Forced Freedom
The Leith-Ross Mission and British Policy towards East Asia, 1934–7
China Still Waits the End of Extraterritoriality
Law and Identity in Colonial South Asia
British Financial Diplomacy in China
| Highly cited | No |
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