Speed Treaty Ports (China 1900):

A Diplomacy Variant

From the back of the box:

The missionaries’ newspapers speak of something called an “automobile” and of even stranger attempts to build flying machines.  Does the arrogance of these western barbarians know no bounds? 

Yes, China is weak now.  It has lost a series of wars. Its fleets were crushed in 1895 by the upstart Japanese barbarians.  It has lost control of its most important trading ports to the French, British, and Germans.  It has lost its tributary states like the Philippines first to the Spanish and now to the Americans.  Its back door is rattled incessantly by the hungry Russian giant.  Its southern and western provinces are constantly in revolt. 

However, this new “Boxer” rebellion might provide the pretext for the Celestial Kingdom to throw the foreign devils back into the sea and reclaim control of its outlying vassal states. 

It will require consummate statecraft to play the barbarians against each other while avoiding their treachery.  All must be used but none must be trusted.