peace between China and Japan, but the fall of Nanking in December 1937 effectively put an end to any mediation that would be acceptable to the Chinese government. Therefore, all hope of a German-mediated truce was lost. In 1938, Germany officially recognised Manchukuo as an independent nation. In April that year, Göring banned the shipment of war materials to China, and in May, German advisors were recalled to Germany after the Japanese had insisted. The shift from a pro-China policy to a pro-Japan damaged German business interests, as Germany had far less economic exchange with Japan. Pro-China sentiment was also apparent in most Germans in China. For example, Germans in Hankow raised more money for the Red Cross than all other Chinese and foreign nationals in the city combined. Military advisors also wished to honour their contracts with Nanking. Von Falkenhausen was finally forced to leave at the end of June 1938 but promised Chiang that he would never reveal his work to aid the Japanese. On the other hand, Nazi Party organs in China proclaimed Japan as the last bulwark against communism in China. Germany's relationship with Japan would prove to be less fruitful. Japan seized foreign businesses in North China and Manchukuo, and German interests were treated no better than others. Negotiations were ongoing in mid-1938 to address the economic problems, but the next year, Hitler agreed to the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, which effectively nullified the Anti-Comintern Pact of 1936. The Soviet Union agreed to allow German use of the Trans-Siberian Railway to transport goods from Manchukuo to Germany. However, quantities remained low, and the lack of established contacts and networks between Soviet, German, and Japanese personnel compounded the problem further. When Germany attacked the Soviet Union in 1941, Germany's economic goals in Asia were conclusively ended. China and Germany continued to maintain diplomatic relations in 1941, with elements from both sides wishing to resume co-operating despite the declining German interest in Asia. However, Germany's failure to defeat the United Kingdom steered Hitler away from that move. Germany signed the Tripartite Pact, along with Japan and Italy, at the end of 1940. In July 1941, Hitler officially recognised Wang Jingwei's puppet government in Nanking. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, China formally joined the Allies and declared war on Nazi Germany on December 9, 1941. Legacy The Sino-German cooperation of the 1930s was perhaps the most ambitious and successful