TRIGGER WARNING: mention fighting, politics, China, United States.

Hi.....have fun XD

America, in 1899, made an agreement with China for an Open Door policy for trading. This was suggested by the Secretary of State at the time, John Hay. He wanted equal opportunities to trade in China with all of their territories. This being said, noted were sent to other powers of the world, such as Japan, Russia, and Britain. Hay wanted a way for many world powers to operate and trade in China without disputes. He wanted for tariffs to apply equally to everyone, regardless of nationality, and for the taxes to be collected by the Chinese people. However, the Boxer Rebellion halted the proceeding of the Open Door policy. The rebels, known for their martial arts abilities, started attacking foreign missionaries as well as those who converted to Christianity. They were backed by the Empress at the time and her army, and eventually trapped foreign embassies. Those people called to their homes for help. This made a dreary outlook for the policy, though Hay wasn’t about to give up on it. He kept sending notes to the European powers and kept them from putting China into little territories for them. This event leads up to how we still deal with China today. Hay’s notes weren’t binding, none of his successors had to follow them, but they did. Also, none of the other powers had to stick by them. In this way, any of the powers who trade in China can still technically go over and try to take over the country. One odd thing about this policy, however, is when it was proposed. At the time, Chinese immigration was being closed off to the United States, and therefore their trade with merchants here was effectively cut off.

In 1915, though, Japan violated the Open Door policy, which wasn’t exactly a crime, but the United States didn’t like it. Japan gave China the Twenty-One Demands, making them follow them until around 1921 or 1922. This was when the Nine-Power Treaty was signed and put the policy back in place. The United States became less flexible on the policy, trying to protect China and its territory. Japan and China went to war in 1937, thus making the United States put more pressure on the Open Door policy to keep it in place. This includes putting an embargo on essential items exported to Japan, such as things like oil and scrap metals. However, this is speculated to also be one of the reasons Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and the United States in World War II, putting them on the side of the Axis powers.

Japan ended up on the losing side of that conflict, and they lost what hold they had on China as well. In 1949, though, China became a communist country, isolating itself from the rest of the world basically. This, combined with Japan not being allowed to trade with China, effectively made the Open Door policy pointless. 

Relations between the United States and China became even more strained during the Korean War. China, being a communist country, supported the north, while the United States supported the south. China retaliated when the United States reached the Chinese border to Korea, putting them at war with one another.

The threat of nuclear war with China from the United States in 1954 didn’t help to show that the States wanted to reconcile. However, they did come to a peace agreement afterwards, and negotiated terms of surrender.

In 1969, the Sino-Soviet Border Conflict broke out. This was Russia and China going to war over the northern border of China. The United States helped China, and this caused their relations start to reform. Another thing that helped show they were willing to work together was in 1971. The Chinese ping-pong team invited the United States ping-pong team to come and visit them. 

Yet another thing that helped the United States improve relations with China happened in 1972, when President Richard Nixon went to China for eight days. While there, he met with officials in order to make trade agreements, including Chairman Mao Zedong. Not much else gets dont in the 1970s however.

In 1979. President Jimmy Carter severed ties with Taiwan in order to comply with the One China policy set in place by China. However, the United States finds a loophole that allows them to still help Taiwan without violating the policy.

Raegan, in 1982, starts to acknowledge the One China policy more. He went to China in 1984 in order to purchase military equipment from them. He reassures Taiwan that they are still on goof terms and he makes sure to abide by the One China policy.

All of this moving forward comes to a halt after the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989 when the Chinese government sent troops to clear a peaceful rally. Many were left dead after this, and the United States halted all imports to China, especially of militaristic weapons. China released a political prisoner, Wei Jingsheng, in 1993. Bill Clinton, the President of the United States, offered more peace treaties. They were in negotiations in 2000, when Beijing lost the chance to host the Olympics. China took Wei Jingsheng captive again, and he wasn’t re;eased until 2004, along with a Tiananmen protester by the name of Wang Dan.

Another thing that shook relations with China and the United States was the Belgrade Embassy Bombing in 1999. NATO accidentally bombed the Chinese Belgrade Embassy, causing the United States and China to have even more strained relations. Though both the United States and NATO tried apologising, protestors started attacking United States property.

Finally, in 2000, the United States and China made a permanent agreement for trades.They even started getting China to get into NATO.

Today, China is the third largest exporter of goods from the United States. They also import the most amount of goods to us. Though relations between China and the United States has stayed strained, they are getting better than they had been before the Open Door policy. This policy led to many other things, but it got the world to where it is today.

A/N

Kinda wanna know reactions....how many of you guys actually read this?

Basically I had to write a 1000 word essay for my government class over the Open Door policy with Chins and the U.S. So yeah....hehe. I got bored and decided to publish this. I'll update tonight or tomorrow with an actual one shot, I promise XD <3