Sino-foreign relations during the Beijing Government period
China’s diplomacy during the First World War is most focused by researchers. After the outbreak of the First World War, China declared neutrality. Hou Zhongjun held that the Beijing Government decided to maintain neutrality mainly to guard against Japan.150 As for the controversial issue of dispatching troops to Siberia, Hou Zhongjun argued that the signing of China-Japan Joint Defense Military Agreement was a result of the Beijing Government’s internal affairs and foreign policy, and Japan obstructed the Beijing Government’s dispatching troops to Siberia.151 Shang Xiaoming argued that Yuan Shih-kai’s compromise with the Japanese during the negotiations of the Twenty-One Demands had no causal association with his attempt to restore the monarchy.152 Gao Yingying held that during the May 4th Movement, the Young Men’s Christian Association in Jinan, the British and Americans of Qilu University actively participated in the anti-Japanese movement, which might not be instructed by their government but undoubtedly related with their national interests.153 Regarding the issue of repatriating Germans in China, Zhang Kaisen believed that the Beijing Government adopted a lenient and friendly
Chinese history studies 2009 to 2019 287 policy toward Germans, which was in full compliance with international law and reflected the progress of modern China’s diplomatic philosophy.154 Wei Bingbing pointed out that due to the help of the Chinese government and the change of repatriation plan after the Paris Peace Conference, a large number of Germans stayed in China, which had a profound impact on postwar Sino-German relations and the whole situation of international relations in East Asia.155 Zhang Li exposed that Japan prevented China from levying the 2.5 per cent surtax, and pointed out that at the Washington Conference, China and the Western powers signed China's Tariff Treaty, which allowed China to levy a 2.5 per cent import surtax; however, Japan took advantage of the mutual restraint among countries and the situation of political division within China to repeatedly prevent the relevant countries from officially recognizing China’s import surtax.156
