What is history: it is the echo of the past to the future, the reflection of the future on the past. - Hugo
Looking back at the past, economic boycott was often a patriotic means of nationalism, when China's politics were chaotic, full of flames, the people were not happy, the lack of a strong central government and thick national strength to deal with the great powers, often can only use the simple action of refusing to buy and refuse to use foreign commodities, to show the will not to yield to foreign forces, for example, the United States, Britain, Japan and other countries have been the object of resistance, especially Japan, which has the fiercest aggression against China, has been boycotted the most.
Perhaps few people know that as early as 1908, the people of Chinese launched a boycott of Japanese goods because of the seizure of arms smuggled by the Japanese merchant ship "Erchen Maru" to Macao, and Japan in turn demanded that the ship be released to apologize and buy the arms unreasonably, and many commercial houses either self-immolated Japanese goods or posted a notice that "Japanese goods are not in arrears, and those who buy Japanese goods are not allowed to enter", which for a while had a quite impact on Japan's trade with China. Although in the end, because the movement was a spontaneous lack of coordination at the local level, and the Qing Dynasty suppressed the boycott movement under japanese coercion, which made the first movement in Chinese history fail, it symbolized the awakening of modern nationalism: patriotism can be more than love for individuals and goods.
Then, whenever Japan bullied China further, There was always another huge boycott of Japanese goods in Chinese society. For example, in 1915, Yuan Shikai's government accepted the "twenty-one demands" put forward by Japan, causing the Chinese people to angrily launch a boycott movement again, and Japan's exports to China plummeted by 13.4 percent; in 1919, the Paris Peace Conference would hand over Germany's rights and interests in Shandong to Japan, and forced out the "May Fourth Movement" that shouted "foreign countries fight for national rights, except for national thieves at home.", and many cities went on strike and strike in anger and burned Japanese goods. However, unfortunately, because at that time, European and American countries had not yet recovered from the trauma of the First World War, so that the advantages of Japanese goods in China were temporarily irreplaceable, so the export to China not only soared several times, but also the total exports to China accounted for 38.2% of Japan's total exports.
In 1923, Japan refused to return Lushun and Dalian according to the agreement, which once again triggered a huge boycott of Japanese goods, forcing Japan's exports to China to plummet by about 31%. And the scope of the boycott is not only limited to refusing to buy Japanese goods, the Monthly Report of the Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce also called: "Even if the cloud economy is cut off, it is not only forbidden to buy Japanese goods, but also contains the meaning of cutting off all social interaction with Japanese people." Since The cloud cuts off all social interaction, then all the undertakings that Japan is doing in China should be disassociated from them. If you are not employed by a Japanese company, if you do not advertise in Japanese news, if you do not carry goods on Japanese merchant ships, if you do not buy Japanese company insurance, if you do not deposit with Japanese banks, if you do not accept Japanese banknotes, if you do not go to Japanese hospitals for medical treatment, you will not be treated." The losses suffered by Japan in this move were extremely great, and the import of Japanese goods from Hankou and downstream ports alone decreased by six tenths, forcing Japan to issue three consecutive notes in three months, demanding that the Chinese government must severely ban the anti-Japanese movement and compensate japanese businessmen for their losses.
In 1927, Japan, together with Britain and the United States, shelled Nanjing and obstructed the Kuomintang Northern Expedition, which caused a new round of boycotts of Japanese goods, causing Japan's exports to China to plummet by 20.8%, and the backlog of cotton yarn that could not be exported to China in Osaka alone was 500,000 bales, forcing Japanese spinning mills to reduce production. In 1931, due to a series of tragedies of invasion of China, such as the "Wanbaoshan Incident", "918 Incident", and "128 Incident", the sentiment of Chinese people's exclusion of Japan reached a boiling point, and Japan's exports to China decreased even more sharply, and cotton products alone fell by 56% in 1932 and 76% in 1933, which made many Japanese businessmen cry bitterly for days.
Japan, which suffered heavy losses, accused the Nationalist government of directing the boycott movement in various places and submitting the "China's Foreign Boycott Campaign" to the League of Nations, in disguise, to exonerate itself of the crime of encroaching on Chinese territory. Japanese Prime Minister Takeshi Inuyasha (1855-1932) also claimed to the Lytton Investigation Team that "China's political situation is chaotic, especially the xenophobic movement ignores the interests of treaties with various countries." The various actions taken by the Imperial Government are intended to correct this anomaly", deliberately coercing the great powers, which also enjoy huge interests in China through unequal treaties.
Although the final Lytton Report acknowledges that the motives of the Chinese people to boycott Japanese goods are due to damage to their sovereignty, saying that "the boycott itself is a legitimate defensive weapon in the face of military aggression by powerful powers", it also contradicts that "the Committee also believes that in the near future the interests of all countries on this issue (the arrival movement) should be considered and restrained through international agreements", catering to Japan's argument that "boycotting Japanese goods is illegal". After all, the European and American powers, together with Japan, are imperialist countries that rely on capitalism and industrial superiority to extract benefits, and naturally do not want any counterattack from the third world countries.