Abstract:

During the Boxer Movement, the US government was not initially was not conscious of its gravity, and the first Open Door note was not directly related to the Shandong Boxer Movement.The Open Door note was directed against the “partition” policy of the Great Powers. After the spread of the Boxer Movement to Tianjin and Beijing, Edwin Conger, the US Minister in China, reacted strongly. Conger advocated concerted action with other Powers and supported the “partition” policy. However, the U.S. government had always insisted on the Open Door policy and expanded it to safeguard the integrity of China’s territory and administration, strictly confining the war to the rescue of the embassy and to therestoration of order. During the negotiations over the Boxer Protocol, the US government’s attitude towards China was also relatively friendly. The diplomatic channels maintained between Wu Ting-fang, Minister of China in the United States, the Provincial Governors in the Southeast China, and the US government played a very positive role in alleviating the anxiety of the US government and the public. The cause of this war was not due to “misunderstandings in exchanges between China and foreign countries”, but was mainly an inevitable result of the long-term failure to properly and reasonably resolve the contradictions and conflicts between Chinese people and foreign missionaries during the nineteenth century.