A study of China's participation in the First World War, 1914-1917 = Beijing zheng fu can jia Ou zhan wen ti zhi tan tao (1914-1917)

Abstract

The republican government in China joined the Allies and declared war on Germany on 14 August1917. Many previous researches have focused mainly on what sort of assistance the Chinese government provided during the Great War, but few involved the process of how the leadership in China reached to the decision of joining the Allies. The purpose of this thesis, therefore, is to investigate the reasons why the Chinese republican government would be willing to engage in a war involving various great powers in the world. In order to analyze the issue from both the perspectives of the republican government and the Allies, this research paper relies not only on Chinese official documents, but also on diplomatic correspondence from British and the U.S government. In addition, Chinese local newspapers, personal letters and memoirs of Chinese politicians and intellectuals are also examined so that local opinions in China would also be mentioned. In general, this research finds national interest of the republican government may not be the only explanation to China’s participation in the war, other factors such as the urgent need for China to expel German interest, invitation from the U.S government and Japan’s consent also played a vital role. The decision to declare war on Germany was not a move the Chinese republican government could make without consulting the western powers since the issue was highly sensitive and might easily inflict damage on the interest of both sides. The key to China’s participation in the war thus lies in the diplomatic negotiation and compromise between China and the Allied powers.