Section 2 Unification of Post all over the Country

During the long time after Qing Post was established, there were still other communication organizations in parallel with post, i.e, national post delivery, public post office and the "Guest Post" office, so modern post had been facing the task to gradually replace these communication organizations and to realize the unification.

A. Abolishing old post delivery and public post office

By late the Qing Dynasty, old post delivery had been declining. With the rapid development of modem communication vehicles such as ships, trains, and the construction of cable lines, the importance of old post delivery had vanished. After Emperor Tongzhi Period, many officials and civilians exposed the corruption of the old post, and strongly suggested to change it into post and set up post. But the Qing Dynasty stuck to the old post all the time. In early 1913, the ministry of Communication of the Republic Government announced to replace it with post. The Document Office set up by local government was also dismantled. By then, delivery of documents of government departments was taken over by post.

Public post office was the main organization of civil communication. When official communication organization didn't undertake civil communication, public post office developed naturally, operated arduously and played an important historical role in promoting the development of commercial economy, linking up civil information exchange and Promoting social progress. But, public post office had its limitation that its services were mainly for businessmen and didn't have services in most inland areas. Therefore, after modem post developed which aimed at covering all nation and serving the society, public post office finished it historical mission. Under the great competition Pressure of the official post, in late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China, public post offices in many areas closed or changed to other business, others operated arduously and withered gradually. By 1934, Communication Ministry of the Republic Government ordered all public post offices to close, on the basis that mails were state-run business. Public post office industry with over 500 year history ended by then. Post communication market was occupied by the government. The abolition of old post delivery and public post office marked the unification of modern China Post.

B. Abolishing "Guest Post"

After 1896 when Qing Post was set up, it firstly took over the "mail office" in Shanghai concession. Then "mail offices" in other areas closed one by one. "Guest post" offices of other countries weren't be abolished. Qing Post administrators made use of "Guest Post" as the "Bridge" of exchanging mails with other countries all over the world. It signed the agreements of exchanging mails with France, Germany, UK, USA, Russia and Japan to deliver international mails through "Guest Post" which actually recognized the legal position of "Guest Post", thus the activities of "Guest Post" was more and more unbridled. Although Qing Post took some measures to limit "Guest Post" in operation and competition, such as to break the combination of "Guest Post" with public post office, regulating that trains and ships couldn't carry mails of "Guest post", all these didn't play the role in restraining the expansion of "Guest post" in China. It was recorded that the number of post offices and agencies of UK, France, USA, Russia, Germany and Japan in China was 25 in 1897, reached 344 in 1918. The Qing Government discussed with envoys of these countries in China to abolish it, but these countries shifted the responsibilities so that it couldn't be solved for a long time' In 1919 China broke diplomatic relations with Germany because of the World War l, Germany post offices in China were closed. In 1919 in the peace talk conference in Paris, delegate of China government put forward the motion to abolish foreign post offices in China which wasn't be adopted. In Sept. 1920, China government stopped the diplomatic treatment for old Russia after Russian "October Revolution", Russian post offices in China were abolished. In 1921, the Ministry of foreign Affairs of China addressed notes to the envoys of UK, France, USA and Japan in China to abolish "Guest Post" in China immediately. In Nov 1921 in the Pacific Conference on Armament Reduction sponsored by USA, China Government Put forward the motion of abolishing "Guest Post" once again, which was parsed at last on Feb. l,1922 after several times of discussion. It was decided that Jan.1, 1923 was the time limit for abolishing "Guest Post". By Dec. 1922, all post offices of UK, USA and France in China were closed, the number of Japanese post offices abolished was 66, except several Japanese post offices along "Nan-Man Railway" were retained. By then, "Guest Post" offices that had violated the sovereignty of China by western powers for 80 years were at last basically solved.