The agreement granted Germany significant rights and control over the region, allowing them to build infrastructure, such as railways and telegraph lines, and establish a military presence.
In 1915, however, China under President and later self-proclaimed Emperor Yuan Shikai reluctantly capitulated to thirteen of Japan's original Twenty-One Demands which, among other things, acknowledged Japanese control of former German holdings.
In late 1918, China's warlord Premier Duan Qirui secretly reaffirmed the transfer and accepted payments from Japan, causing a massive scandal after its exposure.
[3] The new government of China denounced the transfer of German holdings at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, with the strong support of President Woodrow Wilson of the United States.
[5] When its dominance in the province was threatened by Chiang Kai-shek's Northern Expedition to unite China in 1927–1928, Japan launched a series of military interventions, culminating in the Jinan incident conflict with Chinese Nationalist soldiers.
[6] Shandong remained in the sphere of influence of Japan, arguably, until the end of the Japanese occupation of China during the Second World War in 1945.