ABSTRACT
Nature placed the barriers of mountain, desert and ocean between the Land of Sinim and the Western World, and in those barriers are to be seen the cause of China's remoteness from other lands. China had created for her people a civilization which had its own justification. The political problem of China thus has its origin in a conflict of ideas, though it has since expressed itself in a conflict of interests. It is true that the always shadowy connection between China and some of the "vassal" states on her borders was broken by the Powers during those years, but throughout this process Chinese sovereignty and the territorial integrity of China proper remained intact. It is also true that the operation of extraterritoriality was a thorn in Chinese flesh; but neither foreign consular jurisdiction nor any of the other foreign privileges constituted a threat to the very existence of China.
