ABSTRACT
By examining Morrison's activities in Sino-Anglo-Japanese relations, this study showed the way in which Japan politically and economically encroached into China while diplomatically dealing with the Western powers, especially with Britain. The study found that this was the time when Japan began its expansion overseas. With regard to Japan's advance into China, V A. Yakhontoff points out that:
When, after a long period of isolation, Japan emerged as a new adept of the Western civilization, she soon demonstrated that, having imitated her new tutors [the Western powers] in many other fields, she was willing also to imitate them in that of building a Colonial Empire. 1
It is interesting to find out how Japan ‘imitated’ the West in ‘building a Colonial Empire’. For this purpose, this section looks very briefly at the Western powers' imperialism which expanded into Asia, after the colonization of the African continent.