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The ripple effects of the First World War came at an inopportune time for the infant Chinese republic. The country had joined a number of international organisations and ratified the Hague Conventions, but found its diplomatic efforts hampered by its young, inexperienced leadership, its factional regional divisions and its foreign-controlled treaty ports and concessions.

Unfortunately for the Chinese, representatives of combatant nations navigated a diplomatic tightrope between carrying out their patriotic duty to support war efforts and making sure their ''hosts'', the Chinese, did not take advantage of the turbulence to upset the colonial pecking order.