po-shan

Updated: June 12, 2025

Japan is simply the first object to be affected. The concrete working out of economic rights in Shantung will be illustrated by a single case which will have to stand as typical. Po-shan is an interior mining village. The mines were not part of the German booty; they were Chinese owned. The Germans, whatever their ulterior aims, had made no attempt at dispossessing the Chinese.

John Dewey - China, Japan and the U.S.A. : Present-Day Conditions in the Far East and Their Bearing on the Washington Conference

Because the population of Shantung is directly confronted with an immense amount of just such evidence, it cannot take seriously the professions of vague diplomatic utterances. What foreign nation is going to intervene to enforce Chinese rights in such a case as Po-shan? Which one is going effectively to call the attention of Japan to such evidences of its failure to carry out its promise?

John Dewey - China, Japan and the U.S.A. : Present-Day Conditions in the Far East and Their Bearing on the Washington Conference

It is, however, a "treaty port" where nationals of all friendly powers can do business. But Po-shan is not even a treaty port. Legally speaking no foreigners can lease land or carry on any business there. Yet the Japanese have forced a settlement as large in area as the entire foreign settlement in the much larger town of Tsinan.

John Dewey - China, Japan and the U.S.A. : Present-Day Conditions in the Far East and Their Bearing on the Washington Conference

But it must be remembered that China is not an open country. Foreigners can lease land, carry on business, and manufacture only in accord with express treaty agreements. There are no such agreements in the cases typified by the Po-shan incident.

John Dewey - China, Japan and the U.S.A. : Present-Day Conditions in the Far East and Their Bearing on the Washington Conference