Basically, during the signing of the Treaty of Versailles the Allies tried to give the German Chinese territories to the Japanese. The Chinese found this unacceptable, as the territories included the birthplace of Confucius. They said something to the effect that the Chinese could no more give up the territories than the Christians could give up Jerusalem (which, ironically, had only recently been controlled by the "muslim" Ottomans). The Chinese refused to sign the treaty and later signed a separate one with the Germans where they regained control of the territories and the US helped mediate the problem at the Washington Naval Conference. What if the Japanese had moved troops into the territories against Chinese wishes? Could it have caused a Second Sino-Japanese War just after World War One? Would the world powers be willing to do anything about it?