Editing Open Door Policy (section)

===Formation of policy===
With its defeat in the [[First Sino-Japanese War]] (1894–1895), China faced an imminent threat of being partitioned and colonized by imperial powers with a presence in China (which included France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Japan, and Russia). After winning the [[Spanish–American War]] of 1898, with the newly acquired territory of the [[Philippine Islands]], the United States increased its Asian presence and expected to further its commercial and political interests in China. It felt threatened by other powers' much larger spheres of influence in China and worried that it might lose access to the Chinese market if it were to be  partitioned. As a response, [[William Woodville Rockhill]] formulated the Open Door Policy to safeguard American business opportunities and other interests in China.<ref>Shizhang Hu, ''Stanley K. Hornbeck and the Open Door Policy, 1919–1937'' (1977) ch 1–2 {{ISBN?}}</ref> On September 6, 1899, U.S. Secretary of State [[John Hay]] sent notes to the major powers (France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Japan, and Russia) to ask them to declare formally that they would uphold Chinese territorial and administrative integrity and they would not interfere with the free use of the [[treaty ports]] in their [[sphere of influence|spheres of influence]] in China.<ref>{{cite web|title=Secretary of State John Hay and the Open Door in China, 1899–1900|url=https://history.state.gov/milestones/1899-1913/hay-and-china|work=Milestones: 1899–1913|publisher=Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State|access-date=17 January 2014}}</ref> The Open Door Policy stated that all nations, including the United States, could enjoy equal access to the Chinese market.<ref name="Sugita 2003">Sugita (2003)</ref> Hay's logic was that American economic power would then be able to dominate the Chinese market and fend off other foreign competitors.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Sanctions as War: Anti-Imperialist Perspectives on American Geo-Economic Policy |date=2023 |publisher= Haymarket Books|isbn=978-1-64259-812-4 |page=149 |oclc=1345216431|last1=Davis |first1=Stuart }}</ref>

In reply, each country tried to evade Hay's request by taking the position that it could not commit itself until the other nations had complied. However, by July 1900, Hay announced that each of the powers had granted its consent in principle. Although treaties after 1900 referred to the Open Door Policy, competition continued abated among the various powers for special concessions within China for railroad rights, mining rights, loans, foreign trade ports, and so forth.<ref name="Sugita 2003"/>

On October 6, 1900, Britain and Germany signed the [[Yangtze Agreement]] to oppose the partition of China into spheres of influence. The agreement, signed by [[Lord Salisbury]] and Ambassador [[Paul von Hatzfeldt]], was an endorsement of the Open Door Policy. The Germans supported it because a partition of China would limit Germany to a small trading market, instead of all of China.<ref>"Yangtze Agreement", ''Historical Dictionary of the British Empire'' (Greenwood Publishing Group, 1996), pp. 1176 {{ISBN?}}</ref><ref>Paul M. Kennedy, ''The Rise of the Anglo-German Antagonism: 1860–1914 '' (1980) pp 243, 354.{{ISBN?}}</ref>