CHINA. 



The trade of Hong-Kong is made up of goods 

 from Europe, the United States, Australia, India, 

 and other countries destined for China, and of 

 Chinese goods to be shipped to those countries. 



The foreign trade of China in 1H99 was marked 

 by a great development in which the United 

 States participated proportionally more than any 

 other nation except Japan. The total value of 

 imports and exports was 400,533,288 haikwan 

 taels, more than double the figures for 1890. The 

 I Hi tod States doubled the sales in China in four 

 years, and in 1899 sold 12,000,000 taels more than 

 all Continental Europe. -The gains of Japan were 

 twice as great, while British trade has fallen off. 

 The imports credited to Great Britain as well as 

 to Hong-Kong contain a large and increasing pro- 

 portion of American goods, some of which reach 

 China by way of Japan also. Besides petroleum, 

 cotton cloth, and other staple imports from the 

 United States, a trade has sprung up in condensed 

 milk, which the Chinese consider a dainty, and in 

 American cigarettes, clocks, bicycles, sewing ma- 

 chines, windmills, canned goods, provisions, and 

 other miscellaneous products and manufactures, 

 besides railroad materials and machinery. 



Navigation. The number of vessels entered 

 and cleared at the ports of China during 1898 was 

 .VJ.661, of 34,233,580 tons, of which 43,164, of 

 32.896.014 tons, were steamers. Of the total num- 

 ber, 22,609, of 21,265,966 tons, were British; 23,547, 

 of 8,187,572 tons, Chinese; 1,831, of 1,685,098 tons, 

 German; 2,262, of 1,569,134 tons, Japanese; 743, 

 of 239,152 tons, American; and 577, of 420,078 

 tons, French. The Chinese treaty ports are Shang- 

 hai, Chinkiang, Suchau, and Wuhu, in Anwhei; 

 Canton, Swatau, Kaulun, Lappa, Pakhoi, Kiung- 

 cliau, Samshui, and Kongmun, with Kumchuk, in 

 Kwangtung; Amoy and Fuchau, in Fukien; 

 Chifu, in Shantung; Tientsin, in Pechili; New- 

 chwang, in Manchuria; Ningpo, Hangchau, and 

 Wenchau, in Chehkiang; Wuchau and Lungchau, 

 in Kwangsi; Mengtsz and Szemao, in Yunnan; 

 Yatung, in Tibet ; Kiukiang, in Kiangsi ; Hankau, 

 Shasi, and Ichang, in Hupeh; and Chungking, in 

 S/.eehuen. The Chinese Government has an- 

 nounced the intention of opening to foreign trade 

 and residence the additional ports of Yochau, in 

 Hunan; Santuao, in Fukien; Chingwangtao, in 

 Pechili ; and Wusung. 



Communications. A railroad has been built 

 from Pekin to Tientsin, 80 miles, with continua- 

 tion to Tangku, 27 miles, thence through a coal 

 district to Shanhaikwan, 147 miles, and along the 

 i-oast to Chenchau, 113 miles, with a branch to 

 Tienchiaochang, 7 miles, and one of 30 miles to 

 the Nanpao coal mines. The length of lines in 

 operation at the beginning of 1900 was 404 miles. 

 An extension to Yungkau, connecting this line 

 with a branch of the Manchurian line, will be 

 built by the Russians, and another extension from 

 Chenchau to Hsinmintun, 106 miles, brings it 

 near to Mukden. The Russian railroad through 

 Manchuria, connecting the Siberian Railroad with 

 the Chinese ports leased to Russia, is expected to 

 lie completed in 1902, the main line having a 

 length of '.(50 miles, and the branch to Port Arthur 

 length of 650 miles. The section from Port 

 Arthur to Telin, 318 miles, was finished early in 

 1900. A line running southwest from Pekin has 

 been completed to Paotingfu, 88 miles, with a 

 branch of 10 miles to the Chaokautien coal mines. 

 Like the Tientsin line, this was built with British 

 capital, but it is to be extended by a Belgian syn- 

 dicate to llankau, on the Yangtse-Kiang. An 

 American syndicate has obtained a concession for 

 a line from the Yangtse to Canton. British con- 

 cessionnaires have undertaken to develop with the 



aid of railroads the coal and petroleum fields of 

 Shansi, and to bring coal from the Honan mines 

 to the Yangtse river near Nanking by a railroad 

 running through Kaifong. The short line con- 

 necting Shanghai with Wusung, 12 miles, was 

 opened in 1898. A line from Shanghai is projected 

 which will run through Hangchau, Ningpo, and 

 Wenchau to Canton. The French have a project 

 for a railroad to run from Tonquin into Yunnan, 

 through Mengtsz, Wuchau, and Pakhoi. 



There are nearly 4,000 miles of telegraph lines. 

 connecting Pekin with Newchwang, Chifu, Shang- 

 hai, Fuchau, Amoy, Kashing, Ningpo, Yangchau. 

 Suchau, and the seven treaty ports on the Yangtse 

 up to Chungking; with Canton, Wuchau, Lung- 

 chau, and Yunnan Fu, whence a line runs to 

 Manwyne to connect with the system of Britisli 

 India; with Taku, Port Arthur, and Seoul, in 

 Korea; and with the chief places in Manchuria 

 up to the Russian frontier on the Amur and the 

 Ussuri rivers, where connection with the Siberian 

 line affords direct communication with Europe 

 overland, while at Shanghai, Hong-Kong, and 

 other ports connection is made with cables run- 

 ning to Japan, India, and Europe. 



The postal business of the country has been 

 carried on by postal carts and messengers under 

 the direction of the Minister of War. Private 

 runners are also employed. In 1897 the Inspectoi - 

 General of Maritime Customs was commissioned 

 to organize a new postal service, and the Swiss 

 Government was notified by China of her intention 

 of entering the Universal Postal Union. 



Declaration of the Open Door. Secretary 

 Hay, in September, 1899, instructed the American 

 representatives in England, France, Germany, 

 Russia, Italy, and Japan to intimate to the gov- 

 ernments to which they Avere accredited the appre- 

 hensions felt by the United States Government of 

 the danger of complications arising between the 

 treaty powers that might imperil the rights as- 

 sured to the United States by treaty. The repre- 

 sentations were made with the express reserva- 

 tion that the Government of the United States 

 did not commit itself to any recognition of exclu- 

 sive rights of any power within or control over 

 any portion of the Chinese Empire under the 

 agreements recently made by which Great Britain. 

 Germany, and Russia claimed and conceded to 

 each other the possession of spheres of influence 

 or interest, particularly in respect to railroads and 

 mining enterprises. Hoping to retain China as an 

 open market for the world's commerce, with tl-e 

 object of removing dangerous sources of inle 

 national irritation and thereby hastening united 

 action by the powers at Pekin to promote admin- 

 istrative reforms so greatly needed for strengthen- 

 ing the Imperial Government, in which it was 

 believed that the whole Western world was alike 

 concerned, the United States Government re- 

 quested the powers claiming spheres in China to 

 declare their intentions with regard to the treat- 

 ment of foreign trade in those spheres, and invited 

 from each a declaration to the effect that it will 

 in no wise interfere with any treaty port or any 

 vested interest within any so-called sphere of in- 

 terest or leased territory that it may have in 

 china; that the Chinese treaty tariff of the time 

 being shall apply to all merchandise landed at or 

 shipped to all such ports as are within siuih 

 spheres unless they b free ports, no matter to 

 what nationality they may belong, and that duties 

 so leviable shall be collected by the Chinese Gov- 

 ernment; that the power approached will levy no 

 higher harbor dues on vessels of another nation- 

 ality frequenting any port in such sphere than 

 shall be levied on vessels of its own nationality, 



