[3] Between 1915 and 1919, as Russian influence in the Far East waned following the outbreak of World War I, Badamdorj, along with other conservative elements of the Bogd Khan's government supported moves by Yuan Shikai and the Republic of China to bring an autonomous Outer Mongolia back under Chinese rule.

[4] When Chinese troops were sent to Urga in August 1919 to protect against a threatened Buriat and Inner Mongolian Pan-Mongolist invasion led by Grigory Semyonov, Khalkha nobles agreed to sign a declaration of "Sixty-Four Articles" "On respecting of Outer Mongolia by the government of China and improvement of her position in future after self-abolishing of autonomy".

[5] In October 1919, China's new Northwest Frontier Commissioner Xu Shuzheng arrived in Urga with a military escort and demanded that the "Sixty-Four Articles" be renegotiated.

Xu threatened to exile the Bodg Khan if Badamdorj and others did not sign the "Eight Articles" wherein the Mongolian government "voluntarily" relinquished the country's autonomy to Chinese administration.

[citation needed] Badamdorj was branded a coward for not standing up to foreign threats and he soon became the victim of a rumor campaign designed to taint his reputation.