Tientsin Incident
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Tientsin Incident was the blockade by the Japanese occupying army in China of the British and French settlements in the North China Treaty Port of Tientsin in June 1939. Originating as a minor administrative dispute and escalated into a major international issue. Four Chinese, who allegedly killed a Japanese customs officer, took refuge there. On June 14. Japan blockaded British and French concessions, mistreated British, and interfered with their shipping at Tientsin.
Reasons for the incident are said to have been the hostility engendered by Japan's occupation of China; the role of Tientsin in Japan's narcotics trade; a growing tendency within Japan to utilize any opportunity to blame western powers and particularly Britain for Japan's Chinese occupation woes; and British and French efforts to take advantage of the incident to pressure the United States to shore up their waning imperial interests in Asia by adopting a more overtly anti-Japanese stance.
