In May 1919 the Chinese Revolution had re-erupted as students protested massive- ly against the humiliation of proud China by foreign powers at the Paris Peace Con- ference (Chinese self-determination had once more been disrespected). Again, the movement was led by the nationalist Sun Yat-Sen who had already controlled the 1911 revolution.

   Supported by Soviet military aides, he had succeeded in defeating various regio- nal warlords and uniting the country as well as in destroying the privileges forei- gners and their businesses enjoyed by 1925. The same year his young aide Chiang Kai-shek took over the Kuomintang movement (KMT) after Sun’s death. Chiang immediately threw the Soviet military advisers out of the country and and tried to annihilate the opposition by having thousands of Chinese Communists executed. [205]  He exploited the people’s anti-foreign feelings and Chinese nationalism and declared that finally „the time has come to speak to foreign imperialism in the lan- guage it understands.“[206]

   In autumn 1929, the rates at the New York Stock Exchange tumbled and did not seem to get to the bottom. Japan, heavily dependent on the loans from U.S. banks and the Dollar to finance its imperialistic adventures in Northern China, did imme- diately need new sources of capital. And it certainly did no longer want the KMT to further threaten its assets and influence in Manchuria and the rest of China. In Sep- tember 1931, Japan invaded Northern China.
It wanted to use the opportunity of Europeans and Americans struggling with the Depression to extend its empire and seize the position of a hegemonial power in East Asia and the Pacific. The United States did not object, they were even pleased with the Japanese aggression which appeared to be aimed at Chinese anti-foreign actions. In 1930 Americans had supported a Japanese plea for permission to increase its naval power to ensure they would be well armed when they confronted the Chi- nese.[207]

   But when Japan had seized 1,700 miles of Chinese coastline by January 1932, Americans came to realize that they had let loose forces they could no longer con- trol. Tokyo went on to shut off the conquered areas; it was turn-of-the-century im- perialism all over again. Only this time the battle cry was ‘Asia to the Asians!’; Japan presented its war as a sort of ‘imperialistic decolonialization’.

   All that the Americans could think of as a reaction was demanding adherence to the Kellog-Briand Pact of 1928, declaring they would not recognize the position Japan had meanwhile acquired in the Far East and finally threatening to leave the Washington Treaties and built up a powerful navy that sometime in the future would be able to retaliate.

   Japan was not scared, and continued its drive for territory on the Asian continent. When the League of Nations officially condemned the invasion, Japan quit the League in early 1933.

   But the United States would not take any further action. In the Depression that had come over the nation, preserving the vital U.S:-Japanese trade seemed more impor- tant than risking war over a distant country that had turned against the USA any- way. And as long as Japan’s forces were tied in China, it could pose no danger to the United States in the Pacific. Last but not least, a powerful Japan was needed to check Bolshevism from Russia and the Chinese Communists.[208]

   However, the Washington Treaty security had failed to stand its test, it had drow- ned in the stormy seas of Japanese imperialism. Stability had turned into disorder, peace into war and cooperation had been exchanged for renewed rivalry.