Hay Announces Open Door: US Trade in China
Secretary of State John Hay sent identical diplomatic notes to six world powers in 1899, asking them to keep China's markets open to everyone. Nobody actually agreed. But Hay announced the Open Door Policy anyway on January 2, 1900, declaring that silence meant consent. The policy kept China from being carved into exclusive European colonies and positioned the U.S. as a Pacific power for the next century. Hay never got a single written yes.
January 2, 1900
126 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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