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China participated inWorld War I from 1917 to 1918 in an alliance with theEntente Powers. Although China never sent troops overseas, 140,000 Chinese labourers (as a part of theBritish Army, theChinese Labour Corps) served for both British and French forces before the end of the war.[1] While neutral since 1914,Duan Qirui,Premier of the Republic of China, spearheaded Chinese involvement in World War I. Duan wanted to integrate China withEurope and theUnited States bydeclaring on the side of theAllies against theCentral Powers.[2] On 14 August 1917, China ended its neutrality, declaring war onGermany andAustria-Hungary.[3]
World War I began at the time when China entered a new period after the end of feudalism. In April 1912, the Chinese military officialYuan Shikai gained power and ended the rule of the Manchu dynasty. Yuan became the president of the Republic of China while he sought to reinforce the central government.[4]
China was neutral at the start of the war, as the country was financially chaotic, unstable politically, and militarily weak.[5] Yuan attempted to hold China’s neutrality in the war, an idea that was favoured by the Germanchargé d'affaires in Peking,Adolf Georg von Maltzan.[6] In 1914, Japanese and British military forces liquidated some ofGermany's holdings in China. Yuan secretly offered British diplomatJohn Jordan 50,000 troops to retake the German military colony inTsingtao, but he was refused.[7]Japan went on to capture Tsingtao and occupy portions ofShantung Province.[8]
In January 1915, Japan issued an ultimatum called theTwenty-One Demands to the Chinese government. They included Japanese control of former German rights, 99-year leases in southernManchuria, 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 localwarlords to become the ruler of all China, was not in a position to risk war with Japan, and acceptedappeasement. The final form of the treaty was signed by both parties on 25 May 1915.[10]
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As China was initially not a belligerent nation, her citizens were not allowed by the Chinese government to participate in the fighting. However, in 1916, the French government began a scheme to recruit Chinese to serve as non-military personnel. A contract for China to supply 50,000 labourers was agreed upon on 14 May 1916, and the first contingent leftTianjin forTaku andMarseille in July 1916. The logistics were organized by theHuimin Company. The British government also signed an agreement with the Chinese authorities to supply labourers. The recruiting was launched by the War Committee in London in 1916, who formed the Chinese Labour Corps.[11] A recruiting base was established inWeihaiwei (then a British colony) on 31 October 1916.[1]
The Chinese Labour Corps comprised Chinese men who came mostly from Shantung,[12] and to a lesser extent fromLiaoning,Jilin,Jiangsu,Hubei,Hunan,Anhui andGansu provinces.[11] Most travelled to Europe via the Pacific and byCanada.[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. Each volunteer received an embarkment fee of 20yuan, followed by 10 yuan a month to be paid over to his family in China.[2]
Workers cleared mines, repaired roads and railways, and built munitions depots. Some worked in armaments factories and in naval shipyards. At the time they were seen as cheap labour, not even allowed out of camp to fraternise locally, and dismissed as merecoolies.[13]
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On 17 February 1917, the French passenger/cargo shipSSAthos was sunk by the German U-boatSMU-65. The ship carried 900 Chinese workers, 543 of whom were killed, and China subsequently severed diplomatic ties with Germany in March.[14] The Chinese officially declared war on the Central Powers on 14 August, one month after the failedManchu Restoration. German and Austro-Hungarianconcessions in Tianjin andHankou were swiftly occupied by China.[15]
By entering the war,Duan Qirui,Premier of the Republic of China, hoped to gain international prestige from China's new allies. He sought the cancellation of many of the indemnities and concessions that China had been forced to sign in the past.[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'ssphere of influence.[5] China officially issued a declaration of war on 14 August 1917.[11][16]
After war was declared theLabour Department of the Chinese government began officially organizing the recruitment of Chinese nationals as labourers.[11] The government considered sending a token combat unit to theWestern Front, but never did so.[17] According to historian Stephen G. Craft, "China's war effort was minimal."[18]
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TheUSSMonocacy incident occurred in January 1918. It involved an attack on the AmericangunboatMonocacy by Chinese soldiers along theYangtze River. The incident left one American dead. An apology was issued by the Chinese government after protests broke out inShanghai, and $25,000 in reparations was paid to the United States. It was one of multiple incidents at the time involving armed Chinese firing on foreign vessels.[19]
Although no Chinese troops saw combat in the theaters of World War I, 2,300 Chinese troops were sent toVladivostok in August 1918 to protect Chinese interests during theSiberian intervention. The Chinese army fought against bothBolsheviks andCossacks. This conflict is considered part of theRussian Civil War.[20]
After theArmistice of 11 November 1918, most of the Chinese labourers serving abroad were shipped home.[21]
When the war ended, some Chinese labourers remained employed to clear mines, to recover the bodies of soldiers, and fill in miles of trenches.[13] While most eventually returned to China, some remained in Europe after the 1920 collapse of theNational Industrial Bank of China. About 5,000 to 7,000 stayed in France, forming the nucleus oflater Chinese communities inParis.[21]
The number of Chinese nationals who died in the war is unknown, and estimations are controversial. European records put the number at only 2,000, while Chinese scholars estimate the number to be as high as 20,000.[22] While most died of theSpanish flu epidemic of 1918, there were also victims of shelling, landmines, and poor treatment. Their remains are interred in dozens of European graveyards. The cemetery atNoyelles-sur-Mer, for example, contains 838 Chinese gravestones.[13]
China sent a delegation to theParis Peace Conference. China was only given two seats, as they had not supplied any combat troops.[7] The Chinese delegation was led byLu Zhengxiang, who was accompanied byWellington Koo andTsao Ju-lin. They demanded for theShandong Peninsula to be returned to China, and for an end to imperialist institutions such asextraterritoriality,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.[23]: 22
The apparent weak response of the Chinese government led to a surge in Chinese nationalism. On May 4, 1919, widespread student protests began in China, with a movement in Beijing that involved mainly young students, the general public, citizens, business people and other classes, through demonstrations, petitions, strikes and violent confrontations with the government, followed by support from students and workers in Tianjin, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Wuhan and Jinan. This uprising came to be known as theMay Fourth Movement. The fundamental aim of this movement was to get the government to refuse to sign theTreaty of Versailles.[24] Thus, the Chinese delegation at the conference was the only one not to sign the treaty at the signing ceremony.[25]