after its crushing defeat in the first Sino-Japanese War in 1895, Chinese General Yuan Shi-kai requested German help in creating the Self-Strengthening Army () and the New Army (新建陸軍; Xīnjìan Lùjūn). German assistance concerned military, industrial, and technical matters. For example, in the late 1880s, the Chinese government signed a contract with the German company Krupp to build a series of fortifications around Port Arthur. Germany's relatively benign China policy, which was shaped by Bismarck, changed and gradually withered away under later German chancellors during the reign of Wilhelm II. After German naval forces were sent in response to attacks on missionaries in Shandong Province, Germany negotiated at the a 99-year leasehold for Kiautschou Bay in March 1898 and began to develop the region. The period of the Boxer Rebellion of 1900 proved the low point in Sino-German relations and witnessed the assassination of the German minister to China, Baron Clemens von Ketteler, and other foreign nationals. The tiny contingent of troops then in North China wanted to exact retribution for the murder of the diplomat. On 27 July 1900, Wilhelm II spoke during departure ceremonies for the German contribution to the international relief force. He made an impromptu but intemperate reference to the "Hun invaders" of Continental Europe, which was later resurrected by Allied propaganda against Germany during both World War I and World War II. In the decade before World War I, Sino-German relations became less engaged. One reason was the political isolation of Germany, as was evident by the 1902 Anglo-Japanese Alliance and the 1907 Triple Entente. Germany proposed a German-Chinese-American entente in 1907, but the proposal never came to fruition. In 1912, Germany granted a six-million German Goldmark loan to the new Chinese Republican Government. When World War I broke out in Europe, Germany offered to return Kiautschou Bay to China in an attempt to keep its colony from falling into Allied hands. However, the Japanese pre-empted that move and entered the war on the side of the Triple Entente, invading Kiautschou during the Siege of Tsingtao. As the war progressed, Germany had no active role or initiative in conducting any purposeful actions in East Asia, as it was preoccupied with the war in Europe. On 14 August 1917, China declared war on Germany and recovered the German concessions in Hankow and Tientsin. As a reward for joining the Allies, China was promised the return of