In June 1896， the struggle between the villagers and Churches for lands in Caozhou city， Shandong Province triggeredan uprising by the local branch of the Broadsword Association，who were then joined by other branches of the BroadswordAssociation in nearby Jimo city demanding the demolition ofthe churches and elimination of the foreigners. They threatenedto "extinguish Christianity and Catholicism， and drive allforeigners out of China"s Central Plain‘。 They destroyed over 30churches and killed two German priests. In 1897， Kaiser Wilhelmtook advantage of this accident and a German army landed inJiaozhou Bay and occupied Jiaozhou City. An alarmed Qinggovernment eventually agreed to all the German demands.
Besides punishing the perpetrators and local officials， otherclauses included： 1） compensation of 3000 taels of silver forlosses of the churches; 2） building one church in each of thethree places （Jining， Caozhou and Juye） with each church costing66 thousand taels of silver; 3） a law to protect Germanmissionaries in China. The China-Germany Jiao Ao ConcessionTreaty was signed， defining that the whole area of Jiaozhou Baywas leased to Germany， which was entitled to build the Jiao JiRailway and to explore for minerals in a strip 15 km wide onboth sides of the line. As a result， China not only lost JiaozhouBay， but also gradually yielded the whole Shandong Province into the hands of German forces. The Caozhou case had alsodemonstrated that the integration of the foreign missionary forceswith foreign aggression and expansion had evolved to a newstage.
Yi He Tuan Movement In 1900， the Yi He Tuan （Boxer） Movement broke out inChina， which shocked the world. It was an anti-imperialismpatriotic movement launched mainly by peasants in which theconfrontation between Christianity and the Chinese people overthe previous half century reached its peak. The Yi He Tuan，Broadsword Association and Mei Hua Quan were originallysecret martial arts clubs in north China. At the beginning， Yi HeTuan raised the banner of "overturning Qing Dynasty andsupporting the Ming Dynasty‘ and "resisting the government andeliminating violence‘。 Later on， it gradually involved itself intoan anti-foreign movement， especially the churches. It wassupported by some diehards in the Qing government who reliedon Yi He Tuan to realize their goal of defeating the foreignersand saving the Qing Dynasty.
In June 1900， Yi He Tuan marched from Shandong Provinceto Beijing， burned the racetrack and villas of the British Embassy，and besieged all foreign churches and diplomatic compounds inthe capital. The Christian missionaries motivated five to sixthousand believers to build defensive works around theircompounds and to fight with their soldiers. Many of these believers died unfortunately. The Yi He Tuan， together with thearmy of the Qing government besieged the diplomatic compoundsand two churches for 56 days until 14th August when the eightpowerallied forces captured Beijing. Almost at the same time，Yi He Tuan"s branch in Tianjin raised the banner of "Supportingthe Qing Dynasty and Eliminating Foreigners‘。 They burned threechurches on 14th June and one more the next day. The governmentgave them great encouragement， and even the governor"s officebuilding was used as their headquarters. Many Christians ran tothe Zizhulin Concession for refuge， and while some barricadedthemselves in the churches. They would be severely punished ifcaptured， possibly beheaded. Yi He Tuan in Zhili Province，headed by a woman boxer named Zhu Hongdeng， attracted manycivilian recruits. It kept its momentum of development uncheckedby "destroying railways， burning churches and killing foreignpriests‘。 Especially in Baoding， when the local people got to knowthat the eight-power allied forces had conquered Dagukou （amilitary base defending Tianjin）， they were so angry that theyburned several churches and killed many foreign missionaries.
Six American and British priests asked the army of the Qinggovernment for help， but the army feared the power of Yi HeTuan and turned the foreigners over to the insurgents forexecution. This movement even spread to such remote areas asInner Mongolia and northeast China. Foreigners were killed whencaptured， and those Chinese Christians who did not abandon theirreligious belief or even spoke up for it were also killed.
Surrounded by the national exclusive sentiment of the Chinesepeople， Western religions became the biggest target for attack.
Statistics in The History of Chinese Christianity by WangZhixin showed that during the Yi He Tuan movement， 53 Catholicmissionaries and 188 Protestant missionaries were killed.
To oppress the Yi He Tuan movement， the imperial powersdirectly resorted to the use of armed force. Britain， U.S.， Germany，Italy， Russia， Austria， Japan and France formed the eight-powerallied forces to intimidate the Qing government into suppressingthe movement. They committed untold crimes on Chineseterritory by burning， killing and robbing at will. In the middle ofJuly 1900， the eight-power allied forces captured Tianjin， andon 14th August Beijing was occupied. On 9th Sept. 1901， theQing government was compelled to sign the humiliating XinchouTreaty and to pay 450 million taels of silver as war reparations.
With that， China became "a semi-colonial country under the jointmandate of the imperial powers‘。 Even during the process ofinvasion by the eight powers， the missionaries played adisgraceful role. Many of them became guides and accompaniedthe invaders as military padres， attended the looting of Beijingand presented suggestions and proposals for the dismembermentof China.
