Modern China : a political study

Front matter

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CHINA AND THE CHINESE

Preface

This book is an attempt to deal with some of the important problems which confront the Chinese statesman and diplomat, and those who have anything to do with China. It has been the author's hope to give a true picture of things in the Far East and to suggest constructive schemes for every subject touched upon. He has tried to avoid patriotic bias and to discuss politics with disinterestedness ; and it is hoped that he has not altogether failed in his efforts.

The world has become small through the rapid means of communication and through the economic interdependence of its different parts, and it is certain that, before many years have passed, a country with a territory extending over four million square miles and with a population of nearly four hundred millions, will play a far more important part in the intellectual and economic developments of the world than it does at present. It will indeed be most gratifying to the author should this book afford some food for thought to readers interested in human progress and international relations.

Most of the chapters were written while the War was still in progress, and that explains the present tense in Sections 2 and 3 of Chapter 9 (on ' China in the War ' and on ' Chinese Labour '). Section i in the same chapter has been revised since the Armistice, and again since the signing of the Peace Treaty.

The Peace Conference, which required the author's iv Preface

presence in Paris, has interrupted his work, and has made it impossible for him to give reference notes to many of the statements based on authoritative works or official documents. He is leaving for America while these pages go to the press and has to entrust the work of making an index to his publishers, to whom he wishes to express his thanks. To the numerous friends who have been kind to him, and made him feel at home during his five years' stay in Great Britain and France, it will be impossible (if not out of place) to express individual thanks, but among those who have been helpful to him in the preparation of this work, he is deeply grateful to Viscount Bryce and to Viscount Burnham for the valuable information they have given him. He is equally indebted to Sir John Macdonell (King's Remembrancer and Master of the Supreme Court), to Sir Francis T. Piggott (late Chief Justice of Hong Kong), to Professor Gilbert Murray (of Oxford University), to Mr. G. Lowes Dickinson (of King's College, Cambridge), and to Professor^ Graham Wallas (of London University), for useful information and critical suggestions. One of his countrymen, his Excellency Dr. V. K. Wellington Koo, Chinese Minister at Washington and plenipotentiary delegate to the Peace Conference, has taken great interest in this work and it will be only fitting to record here the deep esteem and respect which the author has long entertained for the distinguished diplomat. To complete the list of acknowledgements, it will be necessary to thank the British Foreign Office Library for the loan of some Blue Books.

S. G. Cheng.

August, 19 19.

Part I Page

1. HISTORICAL CONCEPTION OF CHINESE GOVERNMENT i

§ I. The Revolution . 12.

§1. Relation of the Central to the Provincial (jovernments 121 § 2. Provincial Government and Government of Provincial Subdivisions . . . . . • '35

Part II

y 5. A HISTORICAL SKETCH OF CHINA'S FOREIGN RELA- TIONS 147

'^ 6. EXTERRITORIALITY 178

■^ 8. ECONOMIC CONCESSIONS AND FOREIGN INVEST- MENTS 208

PAGE

§ I. Kiaochow Question .... § 2. China in the War ....

§ 3. Chinese Labour ..... § 4. The Ascendancy of Japan in the Far East § 5. The Policy of the United States .

Part III Appendices

1. The Provisional Constitution of the Republic of China . 316

2. Treaties respecting Shantung, South Manchuria and Eastern

Inner Mongolia, and Exchanges of Notes between China and Japan, May 25, 1915 ...... 322

3. Documents relative to the Negotiations between Japan and

the Allied Powers as to the disposal of German rights in respect of Shantung Province, and the South Sea Islands north of the Equator ....... 341

4. Exchange of Notes between the Chinese Minister at Tokio

and the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs respecting the Construction of the Tsinanfu-Shunteh and the Kaomi- Hsuchow Railways, September 24, 191 8 . . . 348

5. Preliminary Contract between China and Japan respecting

the Tsinanfu-Shunteh and the Kaomi-Hsuchow Railways, September 24, 1918 ....... 349

6. Exchange of Notes between the Chinese Minister at Tokio

and the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs respecting Adjustment of Questions concerning Shantung, September 24, 1918 3J2

Contents vii

PAGE

7. Exchange of Notes between the Chinese Minister at Tokio

and the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs for building Four Railroads in Manchuria and Mongolia, September 24, 1918 354

8. Preliminary Contract for Loans to build Four Railroads in

Manchuria and Mongolia, September 28, 1918 . . 355

g. Clauses of the Treaty of Peace with Germany, relating to China, signed on June 28, 1919, by the Allied and Associated Powers and Germany, but not by China . -358

INDEX 365