The Open Door

HE history of the so-called Twenty-One Demands which Japat presented to China early in 1915, with the resulting treaties, has been ably presented by both American and Japanese students of this much debated subject.' It is not the purpose of this article to recount that story, but rather to present some considerations based on an examination of the relationship of the demands and treaties to American Far Eastern policy and in particular to the so-called open door. Briefly, to summarize the events of the negotiations, it will be recalled that the Demands were presented to China on January 18, 1915. They were in five groups: the first dealing with the disposition of German rights in Shantung; the second seeking extension of Japanese rights in South Manchuria and Eastern Inner Mongolia; the third to convert the Hanyehping Coal and Iron Company into a Sino-Japanese concern; the fourth having as its object the application of a non-alienation agreement to the entire Chinese Coast; the fifth group dealing with a number of miscellaneous requests concerning Japanese advisers, etc., to the Government of China. On May 25 after Japan had made numerous modifications of the original demands a series of treaties were signed and notes exchanged. The concessions thus gained were extensive. They served to isolate Japan, to arouse the enmity of the Chinese, and to strengthen both in Europe and America the suspicion that Japan's China policy was aggressive and dangerous. From the beginning of the negotiations in January, Dr. Reinsch, the American minister in Peking, advised the State Department that, if the Demands were granted, the policy of the Open Door as well as China's independence in political and industrial matters would have to be abandoned. These views were shared in part at least by Mr. Bryan, the Secretary of State, and on March 13 he addressed a voluminous note to the Japanese Ambassador setting forth the American policy and its historical basis.3 The note constitutes one of the most

Political science · Japanese History and Culture · Korean Peninsula Historical and Political Studies