Reconciling the Open Door with the Closed Gate: Chinese Exclusion and US Imperialism

When the U.S. attempted to close its gates to Chinese migrants in the late 19th century, it was trying to stop a problem of its own making. U.S. imperialism in China and U.S. settler colonialism in California helped to spark a mass migration from Guangdong Province in the mid-19th century. But, starting in the 1870s, U.S. leaders attempted to slow the stream of Chinese migrants through a series of exclusionary laws. Traditionally, scholars have seen Chinese exclusion and U.S. imperialism in China in direct tension, arguing that the closed gate in America impeded the open door in China. They tell a story of the federal government’s domestic racial prerogatives clashing with its foreign policy objectives. But this was not a zero sum game. This paper examines a key moment when these policies were synergistic: when the hardening of Chinese exclusion in 1888 forced a reimagining of U.S. imperialism in China.

For two decades previous the law, America’s relationship with China represented an open door imperialism, in which the U.S. sought dominance in China through a paternalistic and consensual relationship. The U.S. engaged China in direct diplomacy, developing treaties that masked the power imbalance even as they sought to tip the scales farther in America’s favor. Key to maintaining a “friendly” open door and its façade of equality was maintaining direct and kindly relations between the two countries. But Chinese Exclusion unilaterally expanded U.S. gatekeeping and blatantly abrogated America’s treaties with China. Chinese exclusion, primarily meant to respond to domestic demands, pushed the U.S. to reformulate its imperial project in Asia. After 1888, the U.S. imagined a more exclusionary open door that would be negotiated between western powers, instead of with China. With this new logic, Chinese exclusion could advance U.S. imperialism by aggrandizing American power and further eroding Chinese sovereignty.