Plans+Failure


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=//How The Plan Failed//=

It was clear that no nation formally agreed to Hay’s policy; each used the other nations' reluctance to endorse the Open Door as an excuse for their own inaction. Every nation wanted to increase their own sphere of influence in China, and didn't really take the Open Door policy to heart. An undeterred Hay simply announced that agreement had been reached. Only Russia and Japan voiced displeasure. However, John Hay did not realize what the Chinese input was on the issue.

The Chinese did not appreciate being used the by Europeans. They did not support the Open Door Policy at all and no one was surprised to see the Open Door Policy to be sickly and relatively short-lived. In 1900 a super patriotic group known as the "Boxers" broke loose with the cry, "Kill Foreign Devils." It was clear that the Chinese support was not with the ideals of the policy. Over two hundred missionaries and other ill-fated whites were murdered, and a number of foreign diplomats were besieged in the capital Beijing.

A rescue force of some eighteen thousand soldiers, including twenty-five hundred Americans, arrived in the nick of time and stopped the rebellion. (Later known as the Boxer Rebellion) Such participation in a joint military operation, especially in Asia, was plainly contrary to the nation's principals of noninvolvement. The victorious allied invaders acted angrily towards China. They assessed prostrate China an excessive indemnity of $333 million, of which American's share was to be $24.5 million. The Beijing government, appreciating this gesture of goodwill, set aside the money to educate a selected group of Chinese students in the United States.

Secretary Hay now let fly another paper broad-side, for he feared that the triumphant powers might use the Boxer outrages as a pretext for carving up China outright. His new circular note to the powers in 1900 announced that henceforth the Open Door would embrace the territorial integrity of China, in addition to its commercial integrity. Defenseless China was spared partition during these troubled years. But its salvation was probably due not to Hay's fine phrases, but to the strength of the competing powers. None of them could trust the others not to seek their own advantage.

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