China during World War I

In April 1912, the Chinese military official Yuan Shih-kai gained power and ended the rule of the Manchu dynasty.

[5] Shikai attempted to hold China’s neutrality in the war, an idea that was favoured by the German chargé d'affaires in Peking, Adolf Georg von Maltzan.

Yuan secretly offered British diplomat John Jordan 50,000 troops to retake the German military colony in Tsingtao, but he was refused.

They included Japanese control of former German rights, 99-year leases in southern Manchuria, an interest in steel mills, and concessions regarding railways.

[9] After China rejected Japan's initial proposal, a reduced set of "Thirteen Demands" was transmitted in May, with a two-day deadline for response.

Yuan, competing with other local warlords to become the ruler of all China, was not in a position to risk war with Japan, and accepted appeasement.

A contract for China to supply 50,000 labourers was agreed upon on 14 May 1916, and the first contingent left Tientsin for Taku and Marseille in July 1916.

[1] The tens of thousands of volunteers were driven by the poverty of the region and China's political uncertainties, and also lured by the generosity of the wages offered by the British.

The ship carried 900 Chinese workers, 543 of whom were killed, and China subsequently severed diplomatic ties with Germany in March.

[3] The major aim was to earn China a place at the post-war bargaining table, to regain control over the Shantung Peninsula, and to shrink Japan's sphere of influence.

[19] When the war ended, some Chinese labourers remained employed to clear mines, to recover the bodies of soldiers, and fill in miles of trenches.

They demanded for the Shantung Peninsula to be returned to China, and for an end to imperialist institutions such as extraterritoriality, legation guards, and foreign leaseholds.

The Western powers refused these claims, and allowed Japan to retain territories in Shantung that had been surrendered by Germany after the Siege of Qingdao.