Challenge to Imperialism 
 
 Manifesto of the 
 Chin ese Students’ Alliance 
 in the United States of America 
 
 Syracuse , New York 
 
 and 
 
 Lafayette , Indiana 
 
 September 12, 1925 
 
A Challenge to Imperialism 
 
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 Manifesto of the Chinese Students’ Alliance 
 in the United States of America. 
 
 In the course of human events, when a nation is on the verge ol 
 achieving her salvation by breaking off the slavish yoke of imperialism, 
 that nation owes the world an explanation. For this reason, we, Chinese 
 students studying in the United States of America, in annual convention 
 assembled, sharing the same views with our fellow citizens at home, do 
 hereby resolve to issue the following declaration: 
 
 Although it may seem that resentment for the accumulated injuries 
 to our country and a burning ardour for her glory may deprive us of 
 the detachment which the infinite importance of the occasion demands, 
 yet years of sufferance, combined with an earnest desire for truth, have 
 made us stranger to all passions — except a passion for the good of 
 humanity. No one estimates liberty and justice more highly than those 
 who do not possess them. It is in a very calm and sober spirit that 
 we appeal to the justice of the human world for the rectification of our 
 wrongs. 
 
 The history of international relations of the past century is a history 
 of the conflict between imperialism and nationalism, the oppressor and 
 the oppressed. In the midst of this great human struggle, China is by 
 no means an exception. For the last eighty years, we have come under 
 the domination of imperialistic designs. We have been thrust into the 
 rank of enslaved races. We do not hesitate to admit that our country 
 is no longer a free and independent state. We so admit because we have 
 long been laboring under these grievous burdens and because we are 
 firmly determined to labor under them no more: 
 
 Our territorial integrity has been mutilated by the great Powers 
 positively through cessions, concessions, leaseholds and settlements and 
 negatively through diverse spheres of influence; 
 
 Our right of self-defense has been denied through the inhibition 
 of fortifying our strategic points by the great Powers and through the 
 stationing of foreign garrisons in our ports and foreign naval vessels on 
 our inland waters; 
 
 Our administrative entity has been impaired by the forced appoint- 
 ment of foreign advisers by the great Powers, by exterritorial jurisdic- 
 tion, and postal and wireless communications; 
 
 Our economic freedom has been restricted by the conventional 
 tariff, by the control of our tariff administration, salt gabelle and other 
 branches of our financial administration; 
 
 Our economic freedom is further hampered by invidious provisions 
 of the other innumerable economic concessions. 
 
 Consequently we have been suffering under foreign economic 
 exploitation, we have been treated as beasts of burden and we have been 
 denied even the mere right of existence. For the last eitghy years, we 
 have been governed virtually by the foreign imperialists — by their 
 intemperance, their ignorance, their brutality. In a word, we have been 
 deprived of every right of liberty, equality and independence. 
 
In order that we may freely develop our national life, we do hereby 
 solemnly declare: 
 
 That the Powers must restore to us our lawful territory including 
 the ceded territories of Hongkong, Maritime Province, Amur Province, 
 Macao and Formosa, the leaseholds of Port Arthur and Dairen, Wei-hai- 
 wei, Kwang-chow-wan and Kowloon and all consessions and settlements; 
 
 That the Powers must renounce all claims to the so-called spheres 
 of influence; 
 
 That the Powers must withdraw all their police and troops from 
 our territory and their naval vessels from our inland waters; 
 
 That the Powers must remove the restrictions upon our right of 
 self-defense with regard to Teintsin, Taku, the route between Peking 
 and the sea and the neutralized territory north of the Kwantung 
 Province; 
 
 That the Powers must waive all the special privileges which inter- 
 national law does not sanction but are now enjoyed by the Legation 
 Quarters at Peking; 
 
 That the Powers must give up their extraterritorial rights; 
 
 That the Powers must abolish the present conventional tariff and 
 restore to us our tariff autonomy; 
 
 That the Powers must forfeit their claims to special administrative 
 advantages regarding the customs administration, the salt gabelle, and 
 the postal and wireless administrations; and 
 
 That the Powers must revise the present treaties with regard to 
 Tibet and Outer Mongolia. 
 
 This is a declaration of our rights. China knows no salvation until 
 these are met. Our people tried, first at Versailles and later at Wash- 
 ington, to secure the readjustment of our relations through the hands 
 of the diplomats. But our supplication only produced increased viol- 
 ence. Our people did not understand that, after a century of servitude, 
 a nation can only be regenerated either through virtue or through death. 
 
 For us, believers of the creed of nationalism, the lesson is plain. 
 We know what is wanting to the four hundred millions of people, de- 
 sirous of emancipating themselves, is not power but faith. We, the 
 young, have faith in our nation, united for a common purpose. The 
 rising of China, for the cause of liberty, in the name of independence, is 
 invincible. With such a power and such a faith as ours, we might easily 
 make the French Revolution insignificant and the Russian Revolution 
 a mere trifle. Let the imperialist tremble at the thought of a Chinese 
 Revolution. The world did little note how we have suffered for the last 
 eighty years, but they shall never forget what we are going to achieve 
 in the near future. 
 
 September 12, 1925. 
 
 Syracuse, New York and 
 Lafayette, Indiana.