Was the “Open Door Policy” of 1900 - 1910 Beneficial to China?

The Policy is not as Effective as had been Thought


Manchukuo. Map. 1932 - 1945. Wikimedia Commons Library. <http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/Manchuria.jpg>.

    When the “open door policy” was initially enforced by John Hay’s open door notes, the policy was essentially doomed from the start. “The world of international affairs has thus laid down the lines of an Open Door Era, or conflict, with America in the breach, and with problems in the solution of which there are no guiding parallels” (McCormick). Many of the other national powers involved such as Great Britain, Germany, Russia, France, and Japan all were hesitant and reluctant to agreeing with Hay’s proposals (Secretary). Most of the powers evaded giving an answer of agreement or disagreement by claiming they would only sign if the others planned on complying as well (Answers.com). As a result, this led John Hay to have to send out separate notes to the involved powers, telling them everyone had complied to the agreement in order for the other countries to follow the policy (Answers.com). However, the compliance of the countries would soon be found as superficial and the loose loyalties they held to this policy was the main factor as to why the “open door policy” was ineffective, leading to many disastrous results for China.
    The largest problem of the policy itself was that there was little done to enforce the regulations the policy had declared regarding preserving the trade equality and “territorial and administrative integrity” (Secretary) in China. Because the powers claimed a superficial loyalty to the policy’s regulations, they were more prone to breaking the rules per say, and the number one candidate that was the most guilty of this charge was none other than Japan. The ineffectiveness of the Powers to enforce the “open door policy” led to many of the main causes leading up to the Boxer Rebellion, the Russo-Japanese War, and causes for World War I (McCormick and Answers.com). The former of the three has been explained quite thoroughly as well as its detrimental consequences on China, however the other two deserve some elaboration.
    The Russo-Japanese War of 1905 was essentially a fight between the two eastern powers of Russia and Japan over Manchuria - which is northeast China - and Korea dominance in those areas. The victor of the war to everyone’s surprise was the Japanese, who after the battle had been recognized as the dominant power in Asia at the time (Answers.com and McCormick) As with any war, there are always casualties and destruction from people caught in the crossfire such as the Chinese people in Manchuria, not to mention it was territory belonging to a completely separate government than the two nations fighting over the influence in that area. It was the Treaty of Portsmouth that ended the feud and declared that China still retained sovereignty yet Japan was to have control of certain ports that were originally Russia’s as well as control over Korea (McCormick). This was the first violation against the open door policy in that Russia and Japan were competing for territory and influence in an area of China which disagreed with the policy’s rule of keeping China’s territorial integrity preserved.
    As a result of the Russo-Japanese War, other treaties and policies went in place among the Powers so they could ensure their investments in China were not at stake. On the U.S. end, they wanted to keep their investments in the railroads in those areas safe, so they signed the Taft-Katsura and Root-Takahira Agreements to help with American-Japanese relations indicating the U.S. had acknowledged Japan’s influence in Korea and that the “open door policy” was still intact regarding Chinese territory (Answers.com). However, by 1915 Japan had secretly sent a letter enlisting twenty-one demands to the Chinese government involving giving the Japanese control of various aspect of China’s economy, territory, and military (Twenty-One). In response, since the “open door policy was nothing more than a name” (McCormick), the U.S. reinforced the policy by creating the Nine Power Treaty of which Japan had agreed to by gving up most of its demands, but the U.S. had appeased some of them (Answers.com). Finally in 1931, Japan boldly advanced and overtook Manchuria, renaming it Manchukuo in the early 1930’s, essentially dissolving the “open door policy” for a long time (Answers.com). The fact that the U.S. had to re-establish and create new treaties to support the “open door policy” rules indicated the treaty was falling apart in itself, with no help from Japan blatantly disregarding the policy with no actual consequence until the end of the World War II. The “open door policy” would not be revived again until Deng Xiaoping’s rule in China after the fall of Mao and his Cultural Revolution.