Moreover , Roosevelt 's February 1945 Yalta Conference with Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin resulted in a secret agreement in which the Soviet Union was granted concessions in China that the Russian Empire had lost in the Russo-Japanese War in the early 20th century . That , Hurley believed , was the beginning of the end of a non-Communist China . Hurley , an Anglophobe , wanted to eliminate British influence in China . In 1945 , Hurley repeatedly suggested for the United States threaten to cease Lend-Lease supplies to Britain until the British promised not to retake Hong Kong , a city that the anti-imperalist Hurley believed rightfully belonged to China . When the American military attache suggested in a cable in March 1945 that the Chinese might be willing to accept Hong Kong being liberated from the Japanese by the British , Hurley wrote to Washington that it was " British imperialist propaganda-and while supporters of this propaganda may be entitled to their own views in their premises , I know of no reason why American officers serving in China should undertake to sponsor such propaganda or to disseminate it within the American government . " Hurley 's relations with General Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart who was Churchill 's special envoy to China were not good , as Hurley saw Carton de Wiart as a sinister figure upholding the British Empire , which Hurley wanted to see dismantled . Roosevelt had also sent Hurley to China to keep " an eye on European imperialism , " a directive that Hurley very seriously , believing America had a special mission to end all European power and influence in Asia
Yalta Conference
Yalta Conference
Patrick J. Hurley