Twenty-One Demands

Set of 21 articles presented by the Japanese government in early 1915 to Yuan Shikai, president of the new and weak Republic of China; the articles mainly specified the extension or introduction of Japaense territorial, political, and economic privileges in China. The demands had the effect of disenchanting Britain and the United States with Japan's China policy. To the people of China, the experience marked Japan as the most overbearing and dangerous of imperialist countries. (adapted from Japan: An Illustrated Encyclopedia. Tokyo: Kodansha, 1993)