China had always tried to keep foreign influence out of China but from my own knowledge, the Boxer Rebellion, of which the main objective was driving out Western (as well as Japanese) Imperial powers. The Eight-Nation alliance, comprised Japan, Russia, the British Empire, France, the United States, Germany, Italy and Austria-Hungary, was created in order to protect the trade ports of which are essentially European colonies (since European laws only applied in those areas and often stationed some number of troops) acquired through two Opium wars and a collection of (dubbed) "Unequal treaties" (which they really were, for example, a portion of Shanghai was handed over to the colonising powers). With all this humiliation, it's no surprise that the Chinese would want to drive western influence out of China. Evidently, that endeavour has failed.
