U.S A. which did not possess any base on the main land of China, in view of her growing interest in the region sought an assurance from the governments of Great Britain, Germany, Russia, Japan and Italy that (i) they would not interfere with any treaty port or any vested interests within any so called sphere of interest on lease territory held by them in China, (ii) The Chinese tariff would apply to all mechan- dise shipped into such ports within these ‘spheres’ no matter to what nationality it belonged and that the duties would be collected by the Chinese government.
(iii) No higher harbour dues would be extacted from vessels of another nation entering ports and no higher charges be made on railroads within the ‘sphere’ than on merchandise belong to the citizens of the power which had the sphere.
With the exception of Italy and Japan, who readily gave the requisite assurance, all other powers viz., Britain, Germany, Russia and France were rather lukewarm in their response and put forth certain reservations and exceptions, while conceding the American demands. This insistence on the part of USA on policy on ‘Open Door’ not only guaranteed equality of commercial opportunity to all the states but also checked further territorial seizures of China.
As a result of the Open Door Policy advocated by USA the European powers abstained from further partitioning of China. The critics have alleged that USA did not advocate Open Door Policy to protect the integrity of China, but to gain a share in all the profits from European aggression without sharing its expense.