Editing Twenty-One Demands (section)

==Japanese ultimatum ==
After China rejected Japan's revised proposal on 26 April 1915, the ''genrō''  intervened and deleted ‘Group 5’ from the document, as these had proved to be the most objectionable to the Chinese government. A reduced set of "Thirteen Demands" was transmitted on May 7 in the form of an ultimatum, with a two-day deadline for response. Yuan Shikai was not in a position to risk war with Japan, and accepted [[appeasement]], a tactic followed by his successors. The final form of the treaty was signed by both parties on May 25, 1915.<ref>{{cite book|author=Noriko Kawamura|title=Turbulence in the Pacific: Japanese-U.S. Relations During World War I|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5O09WY6HPPoC&pg=PA27|year=2000|publisher=Greenwood |page=27|isbn=9780275968533}}</ref>

[[File:Twenty-One Demands.jpg|thumb|250px|"The Chinese's Acceptance of the Twenty-One Demands" signed by Yuan Shikai]]
[[Katō Takaaki]] publicly admitted that the ultimatum was invited by Yuan to save face with the Chinese people in conceding to the Demands. American Minister [[Paul Samuel Reinsch|Paul Reinsch]] reported to the US State Department that the Chinese were surprised at the leniency of the ultimatum, as it demanded much less than they had already committed themselves to concede.{{cn|date=January 2021}}