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⁹ Xu Guoqi shows that behind China's multiple attempts to ally with the Entente powers in the First World War was a desire to bolster its international position in a manner that shows the ‘nationalism of internationalism’ at play early on. Meanwhile, Aiqun Hu and Patrick Manning have pointed out how policy-makers across the world sought to ‘enhance the image and status of the nation in the international world’ through adopting progressive social policy. That said, even in its eagerness to enhance its international position, China was not a passive agent. Margherita Zanasi has shown that, in spite of the colonial overtones of the League's Program of Technical Cooperation with underdeveloped nations, the collaboration between the National Economic Council and the League's technical experts took place on terms agreeable to China. Advice was only taken when it aligned with the regime's corporatist nation-building project. See Xu, Guoqi, China and the great war: China's pursuit of new national identity and internationalization, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005, p. 63Google Scholar;

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²⁵ Deguo laodong zhenyi tiaoting fa zhi yanjiu (A study of German labour dispute and mediation law), Shanghai, 1927; Su'e xin laodongfa (Soviet Russia's new labour laws), Shanghai, 1928; Riben jiankang baoxian faling (Japanese health insurance laws and regulations), Shanghai, 1927; Geguo laogong yundong gaiguan (A survey of labour movements in other countries), Shanghai, 1928.

²⁶ Sheng Jun, ‘Laogong wenti congshu xu (Introduction to the labour problems series)’, Shehui baoxian (Social insurance), Shanghai: Guomin zhengfu caizheng bu zhu hu diaocha huojia chu, 1928, p. 3.

²⁷ On growing public discussions of labour welfare after the First World War, see Donghui, Rao, ‘Minguo Beijing zhengfu de laodong lifa chutan (A preliminary exploration of labour legislation under the republican Beijing government)’, Jindaishi yanjiu (Modern Chinese History Studies), 1, 1998, pp. 147–148Google Scholar.

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⁴⁸ Simpson, Smith, ‘International Labour Conference: twenty-sixth session’, American Journal of International Law 38, 4, 1944, p. 558CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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⁸⁴ Howard, Workers, p. 147Google Scholar. Hu suggests that a handful of municipal governments and trade congresses held the same view, and in 1930–1 they lobbied the Ministry of Internal Affairs to do something about it. In 1948 a post-war commentator also remarked how the communist threat could effectively be neutered with ‘social security’ after he read the British Embassy's Information Office's Chinese language pamphlet The British Social Security System (Yinguo shehui an'quan zhidu). See

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⁹¹ Osterhammel, Jürgen, ‘ “Technical co-operation” between the League of Nations and China’, Modern Asian Studies, 13, 1974, p. 665Google Scholar.

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⁹⁴ CMI, China handbook, pp. 127–152Google Scholar. The Factory Law contained a number of regulations that applied to mechanized factories with thirty or more workers. These included restrictions on the use of child and female labour, regulation of the hours of labour, and welfare provisions such as maternity leave, worker housing, and compensation for injury, sickness, and death. See

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⁹⁷ Bian, ‘Zhongguo de “Bei-fo-li-zhi” jihua ruhe’, p. 5Google Scholar.

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¹⁰⁰ Xinzhe, Yan, ‘Wei shenme xianfa li duiyu shehui anquan ying you jiben de guiding? (Why should the constitution have a basic provision for social security?)’, Zhongyang ribao, 27 November 1946Google Scholar.

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¹⁰² Ho, Yao-tsu, ‘Chinese economic policy in wartime’, International Labour Review, 47, 5, 1943, p. 557Google Scholar.

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¹⁰⁴ Djang, T. K., ‘Social policy in China’, International Labour Review, 52, 1945, pp. 166Google Scholar, 169.

¹⁰⁵ See for example ‘The new China’, New York Times, 14 September, 1945; ‘Social security plan is drafted for China’, New York Times, 17 July 1946; ‘China's plans for social security’, Straits Times, 16 August 1946.

¹⁰⁶ Mitter, ‘Imperialism’, p. 64Google Scholar.

¹⁰⁷ Sun Fo, China looks forward (with an introduction by Lin Yutang), New York: John Day, 1944, p. 41Google Scholar.

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¹¹⁰ Ibid., p. xiii.

¹¹¹ Ibid.

¹¹² Ibid., p. xv.

¹¹³ ‘Longines chronoscope with Tingfu F. Tsiang’, US National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC, ARC 96033, LI LW-LW-486.