Sea power and political penetration in China, 1895–1911: empirical evidence from China

Historians and economists argue that a powerful blue-water fleet could exercise leadership in global politics. However, the impact of reinforcing naval presence in another nation is still in question. This study focuses on foreign staff’s recruitment of the Chinese Maritime Custom Office before and after the introduction of the Open Door Policy to validate the importance of naval forces in propelling political penetrations in China. Our results suggest that the redistribution of interest reflected by the variations in the national representations within the Chinese Maritime Custom Office favour Non-British naval powers, which anchored their fleets in China. The mechanism analysis further implies that those Non-British naval powers took hands into the Custom Office through acquisitions of concessions from the Qing government, which coincides with Mahan’s explanation of sea power during peacetime.