Open Door Policy
The Open Door Policy is a concept in foreign affairs, which usually refers to the United States policy in late 19th century and early 20th century that would grant multiple international powers with equal access to China, with none of them in total control of that country. On paper, the policy was aimed to safeguard Chinese sovereignty and territorial integrity from partition. In fact, it was mainly used to mediate competing interests of the colonial powers without much meaningful input from the Chinese, thus creating lingering resentment and has been seen as a symbol of national humiliation by many Chinese historians.
The Principle
As a theory, the Open Door Policy originates with British commercial practice, as was reflected in treaties concluded with Qing Dynasty China after the First Opium War (1839–1842).[1]
The "Open Door" was a principle, not a policy formally adopted into a treaty or international law. It was invoked or alluded to but never enforced as such. Starting with the Japanese seizure (1931) of Manchuria and the creation of Manchukuo, however, the Open Door principle was broken with impunity and increasing frequency. [2]
Technically, the term "Open Door Policy" can be only referred to as before the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. Regarding China's international trade policy introduced after Deng Xiaoping took office, it is termed as China's policy of opening up to the outside world. Although the Open Door is generally associated with China, it was recognized at the Berlin Conference of 1885, which declared that no power could levy preferential duties in the Congo.
Formation of the Policy
After its devastating defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895, China at the time faced imminent threat of being partitioned and colonized by imperialist powers such as Britain, France, Russia, Japan and Germany. After winning the Spanish-American War of 1898, with the newly acquired colony the Philippine Islands, the United States increased its Asian presence and was expecting to further its commercial and political interest in China. It felt threatened by other powers' much larger spheres of influence in China and worried that it may lose access to the Chinese market should the country were partitioned. As a response, William Woodville Rockhill formulated the Open Door Policy in aim to safeguarding American business opportunities and other interests in China.[3] U.S. Secretary of State John Hay sent notes to the major powers (France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Japan, and Russia), asking them to declare formally that they would uphold Chinese territorial and administrative integrity and would not interfere with the free use of the treaty ports within their spheres of influence in China. The Open Door Policy stated that all nations, including the United States, could enjoy equal access to the Chinese market.[4]
In reply, each country tried to evade Hay's request, taking the position that it could not commit itself until the other nations had complied. However, by July 1900, Hay announced that each of the powers had granted consent in principle. Although treaties made after 1900 refer to the Open Door Policy, competition among the various powers for special concessions within China for railroad rights, mining rights, loans, foreign trade ports, and so forth, continued unabated.[5]
Subsequent Development
In 1902, the United States government protested that Russian encroachment in Manchuria after the Boxer Rebellion was a violation of the Open Door Policy. When Japan replaced Russia in southern Manchuria after the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905) the Japanese and U.S. governments pledged to maintain a policy of equality in Manchuria. In finance, American efforts to preserve the Open Door Policy led (1909) to the formation of an international banking consortium through which all Chinese railroad loans would agree (1917) to another exchange of notes between the United States and Japan in which there were renewed assurances that the Open Door Policy would be respected, but that the United States would recognize Japan's special interests in China (the Lansing-Ishii Agreement). The Open Door Policy had been further weakened by a series of secret treaties (1917) between Japan and the Allied Triple Entente, which promised Japan the German possessions in China on successful conclusion of World War I.[6] The subsequent realization of such promise in the Versailles Treaty of 1919 angered the Chinese public and sparkled the protest known as May Fourth Movement.
Since the policy in effect hindered Chinese sovereignty, the government of Republic of China endeavored to revise related treaties with foreign powers in the twenties and thirties. Only until the conclusion of World War II did China manage to regain its full sovereignty.
Open Door Policy in modern China
In China's modern day economic history the Open Door Policy refers to Deng Xiaoping's visits to the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) in 1992 and his belief that to modernize China's industry and boost its economy it needed to welcome foreign direct investment. After his visit Chinese industry shifted heavily to encourage and support foreign trade & investment. It can be argued this was the turning point that truly started China on the path to being 'The World's Factory'.
See also
- Economy of the People's Republic of China
- Economic history of China (Pre-1911)
- Economic history of China (1912–1949)
- Open door policy (business)
Notes
References
- Esthus, Raymond A. "The Changing Concept of the Open Door, 1899-1910," Mississippi Valley Historical Review Vol. 46, No. 3 (Dec., 1959), pp. 435–454 JSTOR
- Hu, Shizhang (1995). Stanley K. Hornbeck and the Open Door Policy, 1919-1937. Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-29394-5.
- Mark Atwood Lawrence, “Open Door Policy”, Encyclopedia of the New American Nation, (online)[2].
- McKee, Delber (1977). Chinese Exclusion Versus the Open Door Policy, 1900-1906: Clashes over China Policy in the Roosevelt Era. Wayne State Univ Press. ISBN 0-8143-1565-8.
- Otte, Thomas G. (2007). The China question: great power rivalry and British isolation, 1894-1905. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-921109-8.
- Sugita, Yoneyuki, "The Rise of an American Principle in China: A Reinterpretation of the First Open Door Notes toward China" in Richard J. Jensen, Jon Thares Davidann, and Yoneyuki Sugita, eds. Trans-Pacific relations: America, Europe, and Asia in the twentieth century (Greenwood, 2003) pp 3–20