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Chinese Laborers as Soldiers in the First World War
In the beginning of the First World War, China's intention to join the war was denied. In order to establish its role in the international community, the country instead sent numerous workers to British and French factories. These Laborers as Soldiers were China's most important contributors to the Great War.
During modern times, China’s first enthusiastic attempt to participate in world politics and to have its new role recognized on international grounds happened during the First World War. China always had a long history of engaging in foreign relations, for instance through maintaining transcontinental trade relations and undertaking overseas expeditions. However, those practices were carried out on the basis of the tribute system, a China-centered world order that presumed all other countries to be culturally “less civilized,” obliged to acknowledge China’s superiority, and in need of paying both material and ritual tribute to the Chinese court in order to establish any formal relations. When several European powers tried to establish more "equal" relationships with China during the mid-nineteenth century, their attempts resulted in tensions and conflicts. Since the nineteenth century, a series of military defeats forced China to accept unequal treaties and led Chinese elites to reassess and eventually abandon this time-honored political ideology. Yet, with a brand new vision of international relations in mind, China anticipated to soon play a significant role in the global community. To realize this vision, China sent numerous citizens to Europe during the First World War. These workers, referred to as Laborers as Soldiers, were China’s major contributors to the Great War.
When the news about the First World War spread to Peking in the summer of 1914, several Chinese intellectuals and high officials eagerly advocated that China join the war. They considered this a great opportunity to engage in international affairs and to enhance the country’ status among the world powers. Since the Opium Wars in the mid-nineteenth century, China had experienced one military and diplomatic defeat after another, both from European nations and from Japan. This led to financial losses and the impairment of national identity and dignity, as the country had to pay enormous amounts of indemnity and give-up extraterritoriality. To rejuvenate China, social reformers called for a modeling after the Western political system and a participation in the international community. The arrival of the Great War in 1914 provided one such opportunity, which was approached only two years after the Chinese imperial court had been overthrown and China had been installed as a new republic nation. Officials and intellectuals publicly proclaimed that the government should step forward and join the war.
China was also confronted with an urgent issue at stake concerning its neighbor Japan, which had shown interest in the mainland since the late nineteenth century. On August 8, 1914, Britain asked Japan to honor the terms of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance of 1902 and joined the Allied forces. Within one week, Japan provoked Germany to relinquish its concession on the Shandong Peninsula in China, a strategic step clearly aimed at advancing its interest in China and Northeast Asia. Soon after formally declaring war on Germany, the Japanese army blockaded the port of Qingdao, landed on the German-fortified area, and took control over the German-built railroads. Following its victory over Germany, Japan presented the Twenty-One Demands to China, insisting on Japan’s acquisition of the previously German rights in Shandong, as well as the expansion of its influence to southern Manchuria and eastern Inner Mongolia. Although the Chinese government attempted to enlist support of the United States, the diplomatic maneuver failed to save them from Japanese infringement. The Shandong problem led pro-war activists to firmly believe that the Great War would pave the way for a settlement of the controversy and a restoration of Chinese sovereignty, if China were able to obtain a seat in the post-war peace conference.
As early as 1914, China approached the Allied nations and expressed its intent to join the war. As expected, this scheme was confronted with Japan’s strong opposition – the Japanese even threatened to switch sides in the war if China were allowed to join. As an alternative, China proposed to send off “laborers as soldiers,” a plan of great interest to France but rather unwelcome to Britain. However, as the battles in Europe progressed, both France and Britain faced severe labor shortage and turned to China for supplementing manpower. These recruited laborers – able-bodied men between 20 and 40 years of age, mostly from North China – were probably unaware of the political elite’s agenda. However, they considered the employment a welcome opportunity to earn money overseas. While most of the recruits were peasants, shopkeepers, peddlers, carriers or coolies, and originated from humble backgrounds, some of them had acquired specialized skills in ironwork, carpentry, and masonry. Despite their limited tasks in non-combat sectors, these laborers were assigned to jobs at factories producing weaponry, military uniforms, ships, railways, or worked in coal mining. All of these sectors were under the supervision or in association with the British and French Ministries of Military. During the First World War, nearly 150,000 Chinese workers were transported to France to support the Allies. Between 3,000 and 4,000 of them, however, never had the chance to return to their hometown alive.
In August 1917, China was finally admitted to join the Allies. Japan only gave its consent on the condition that Britain, France, and Russia support them in gaining the German concession and rights in the peace conference after the war. Even though China was on the victorious side of the First World War, the country consequentially failed to reclaim its sovereignty over Shandong, the acquisition of which had been a major motivating factor for the entire “laborers as soldiers” program. The decision the Chinese delegates at the Paris Peace Conference opted for was to ultimately refuse to sign the peace treaty. This symbolic gesture of protest against the unjust conclusion of the Great War left the Shandong problem “unsettled.” Despite a diplomatic setback, the participation in the First World War enabled China nonetheless to turn its destiny into a world issue and even to sign the first equal treaty with Germany – by any means, not a small step in its foreign relations since the nineteenth century: from a Chinese perspective, the story of “laborers as soldiers” had indeed turned the First World War into a global affair and had become just as relevant to national politics.
Ling-ling Lien
Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinicia, Taiwan