Evening star., 1928-12-28
China's Falling Shackles.


The shackles are falling from China.
Hodays oficial confirmation from Lon
don of news foreshadowed earlier this
week in The Star-that Great Britain
has signed tariff treaty with the Man.
king government-is an event OF
transcendent import.
John Bull now follows the lead which
Uncle Sam gave the nations, in recog-
Yizing Nationalist China's full tariff
autonomy. Germany, France and one
or two smaller countries had already
done so. But until Britain acted, there
was a vitally missing link in the chain
Of treaties necessary to China's fiscal
independence.
Japan has not yet consented to re-
wise her tariff relations with her great
Asiatic neighbor. but with united Oc-
cident asserting to 1t, China's liberty
of action in respect to her customs sys-
TEN may be said to be substantially
restored. To withhold her own recog-
milton of it would subject Japan to
something like hostility not only to
China, but to the rest of the world.
Enlightened craftsmanship at Toxic is
not likely to fall into so perilous an
error.
Recovery of tariff freedom represents
bne of the ideals Republican China has
cherished since the hour it set itself
che cardinal task of abrogating the So
called unequal treaties" extorted In
the decadent days of the defunct EN-
pire. On her own part China agrees,
In return for non-foreign intervention
In her tariff system, to abolish that
most ancient Of the worlds graft"
schemes--the notorious ''likin"-on
which Chinese ofilcialdom so long waxed
fat at the expense ofs foreigners and
Chinese alike. 'Likin' was legalized
method Of imposing internal taxes on
goods which had already been subjected
to import duties. It was pried out of
Its helpless victims in the guise of local
transport taxes.
Chinas right to be master in her own
customs house was one of the primary
bbjectives Of the Washington confer
ence Of 1e21-22. Provision was made
for commissions which actually essayed
In China itself to arrive at some new
and universally acceptable basis of
tariff reform. Little real progress was
made, due to the civil war. But since
then Nationalism has established its
supremacy In the country and, throw
ing overheard the status quo ante. has
proceeded to negotiate a brand-new
tariff deal with the powers, which 80
long assumed a self-granted hegemony
over China. Where hegemony once
prevailed, autonomy now has stepped in.
The tariff shackles have dropped
from her nascent body polite, but new
China has still another objective on
the road to complete sovereignty-the
abolition Of extraterritoriality. That,
too, was contemplated by the Washing
ton conference. Undoubtedly the OUT
side world Ii as ready to acknowledge
Chinas right to order her own juridical
destinies as it is to concede tariff in
dependence. But In that domain the
Chinese themselves must move first.
They must demonstrate that they pos
sess not only the will, but the power. to
administer and enforce justice before
the nations will willingly relinquish
the safeguards they have so long main
tanned for their own legal protection In
China.
/, Extraterritoriality will vanish the
moment China convinces the world
that its alternatives secure and re-
liable Chinese system of justice-S
ready to take its place.