The expansion of Japanese post offices in Qin China

This article takes up the insufficiently covered topic of the workings of Japanese post offices in Qin Dynasty China in relation to Japan’s overall China policy following the 1st Sino-Japanese War. The author attempts to clarify the process by which the Japanese Ministry of Communications （JMOC） understood their Chinese post offices in terms of influence over the mail and the proactive manner in which the Ministry went about operating branches set up first in Shanghai, then eventually all over the country.<br> 　At first, before the war, the JMOC did not attempt to widely setup Japanese post offices, but rather concentrated on branches in Shanghai and on the Korean Peninsula, with operations being established through Japanese consulates. Then after the war, as the Qin Dynasty began its own postal operations, including the regulation of all foreign post offices under the Inspector General of Customs, R. Hart, Japan became an outspoken critic of Chinese postal policy over the issue of Japanese branches.<br> 　The Japanese government first set up post offices in central and southern China at the requests of Japanese residents and consulates, an expansion move in conjunction with its overall China policy, while at the same time, the JMOC was planning to intervene in China’s postal administration, but had not decided what concrete measures to take.<br> 　Then the situation took a significant turn in response to the Boxer Rebellion of 1901. As an extension of Japan’s military cooperation in quelling the rebellion, the JMOC set up post offices throughout the north and northeastern regions and placed them under the autonomous control of local Japanese consulates, while Japanese Postmaster Shimomura Hiroshi in Beijing was taking steps to intervene in Qin Dynasty postal administrative affairs.<br> 　Come 1903, the Sino-Japanese postal conflict was settled by the signing of the Provisional Sino-Japanese Postal Convention, which solely reflected the JMOC’s intentions concerning Japanese branch operations in China, absent any deliberation over the fundamental question of their legitimacy.<br> 　It was in this way that the JMOC utilized the pretext of military operations to take the initiative in setting up and expanding its own postal network in China, while at the same time extending its influence over local postal affairs on the basis of an ambiguous treaty, thus coming into direct conflict with the efforts of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to cooperate with and appease the other foreign powers then active in China.