<P> The Open Door concept was first seen at the Berlin Conference of 1885, which declared that no power could levy preferential duties in the Congo . </P> <P> The Open Door Policy was a principle, never formally adopted via treaty or international law . It was invoked or alluded to but never enforced as such . Starting with the 1931 Japanese seizure of Manchuria and the creation of Manchukuo, however, the policy was broken with impunity and with increasing frequency . </P> <P> Technically, the term Open Door Policy was only applicable before the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949 . After Deng Xiaoping took office in 1978, the term referred to China's policy of opening up to foreign business that wanted to invest in the country, setting into motion the economic transformation of modern China . </P> <P> During the First Sino - Japanese War in 1895, China faced imminent threat of being partitioned and colonized by imperialist powers such as Britain, France, Russia, Japan and Germany . After winning the Spanish--American War of 1898, with the newly acquired territory the Philippine Islands, the United States increased its Asian presence and was expecting to further its commercial and political interest in China . It felt threatened by other powers' much larger spheres of influence in China and worried that it might lose access to the Chinese market should the country be partitioned . As a response, William Woodville Rockhill formulated the Open Door Policy to safeguard American business opportunities and other interests in China . On September 6, 1899, U.S. Secretary of State John Hay sent notes to the major powers (France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Japan, and Russia), asking them to declare formally that they would uphold Chinese territorial and administrative integrity and would not interfere with the free use of the treaty ports within their spheres of influence in China . The Open Door Policy stated that all nations, including the United States, could enjoy equal access to the Chinese market . </P>

What was the goal of the open door policy in china