A Struggle over Interests: China’s Response to the Qingdao-Jinan Railway, 1897–1914

Abstract Following the German Empire’s occupation of Jiaozhou Bay in 1897, Qingdao was claimed as a ‘leased territory’, while Shandong was regarded as a German ‘sphere of influence’. Subsequently, the Germans, exploiting their seized sovereignty over railways and mines, constructed the Qingdao-Jinan railway, which penetrated deep into the hinterland of Shandong. From the outset, the Chinese government and all sectors of society embarked on firm resistance to the German colonialists’ intentions and acts of aggression and expansion using railroads, and for their resistance they adopted a diverse array of tactics and methods, ranging from violent armed struggle to non-violent economic competition. This resistance not only proves the subjective status and initiative of the colonized in the colonies, but also comprehensively demonstrates the pragmatism, applicability and flexibility that the colonized often show in relation to the colonizer, approaches that can be more scientifically and rationally examined and interpreted from the perspective of ‘colonial transactions’.