 As anti-foreign violence began to rise in China in early 1900, the Great Powers began to send warships to the Far East to increase the pressure on the Chinese government to reign in the violence. At the peak of the Boxer Rebellion, Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia was deployed to the area under the command of Victor Ritter Bless von Sambuchi, along with numerous other European warships. She left Pola in June, and was followed by the cruisers Kaiserin Elisabeth and Aspern the next month. The ships joined the international fleet off Taku in September 1900, though by that time, most of the fighting had already occurred. Nevertheless, Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia and Aspern remained in East Asian waters for an extended deployment. Captain Anton Haus took command of the ship, and in June 1901, he took the ship to Hankow up the Yangtze River; she was the largest ship to have steamed that far up the river. She returned to Austria-Hungary in 1902, and was replaced in China by the new armored cruiser Kaiser Karl VI.
