THE Chinese empire includes an area larger than the United States with the addition of Alaska and our insular possessions. A large part of this vast area, however, is made up of dependencies which are but loosely joined to China proper, and are not essential to its integrity. She has lost and regained these dependencies from time to time in the past, and the same process may continue. The accompanying map will serve to show the relation of these component parts of the empire to each other and to surrounding countries.

Divested of its outlying possessions, China consists of eighteen

Fig. 1. Sketch Map of China, showing its outlying dependencies and its relations to other countries.