Regarding Levying of Daties and Taxes on Foreigners Residing in China taxes is inherent fo the right of The right of levying duties and
administration of a state. In a state which is entirely sovereign this right of administration is exercised without restriction what soever, and therefore its right of levying duties and taxes is also sub-Jeet to no limitation.
As far as China is concerned, ever since she entered into tra relations with foreign countries, in no treaty of any sort is there to be found any provision which concedes to foreigners living in or outside the Settlements in China exemption from taxation. But, in recent years, when China commenced to enforce her revenue laws, foreigners declined to perform their obligations on the pretext that they Tesided in the Settlement areas or that they had not received insstructions from their governments. Besides, those residing outside the Settlements or within the Railway Zones, putting a different interpretation to the treaties, have adopted the same attitude. These examples unfortunately have become precedents for even the Chinese living in the Settlements and Railway Zones and they, too, have been encouraged to refrain from paying their taxes. Although various steps had been taken by the Chinese Government to but an and to this state of things, yet no satisfactory result has been obtained, and the Chinese Government has been obliged to establish provisional barriers around the Settlements and Railway Zones in order to collect taxes and duties, Such an abnormal situation is detrimental not only to the administrative authority of the Chinese Government but also to the trade between. China and foreign countries.
It is indeed inadmissible, in the enforcement of a fiscal regime, to make any discrimination either' between citizens on account of their nationality or residence or between different parts of a territory subject to the jurisdiction of the same state. This would violate the principle, in international law, of equal treat ment for the citizen#of a state and run counter to the spirit of the Washington Conference which was designed to respect the ferrite and administrative integrity of China. The Chinese Government, therefore, proposes that these im: Pediments should be removed that it may be enabled to exercise completely its right of taxation.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.