Japan's "Special Interests" in China

Abstract

TWENTY years ago American recognition of Japan's in Manchuria, under the Lansing-Ishii agreement, aroused great indignation in China. Today the Japanese claim to in other parts of China is being reiterated, with the primary intention, it would seem, of securing British recognition and agreement. This resort to a method which once before proved successful is both the weakness and the strength of Japanese diplomacy. Formerly Japan claimed that its interests in Manchuria, because of proximity, were vital; now it is North China which has been brought near enough by Japan's advance on the continent to justify the demand for new interests. The use of the term has overlapped at times with the application of terms like of interest and of influence. It is perhaps not without intention that the definitions are mostly vague. Mr. Sato, who was Foreign Minister in Japan immediately before the present crisis between China and Japan, declared in an interview with foreign correspondents that Japan has in North China, but not exclusive interests. Terms like of influence and of interest have been used both interchangeably and with distinctions in international law. If, for instance, a of influence is understood to mean a region which does not belong to the territory of a recognized state, or is generally inhabited by inferior races, it can be applied perhaps to the period of the international partition of Africa, but cannot be applied to China even at the time when spheres of another kind did exist in China. The spheres existing in China were not created by arrangements between the powers, as they were in Africa, where it was not necessary to consider the opinions of the people of the country. The spheres to be considered in China were created by special treaty between each power concerned and China, and could be confirmed by treaties with other powers. In such treaties China either promised not to cede the sphere to any other