A New Pacific Border: William H. Taft, the Philippines, and Chinese Immigration, 1898–1903

The annexation of the Philippines in the wake of the Spanish–American War of 1898 caused imperialists to contemplate the extent to which US policies ought to be extended to the islands. Central to these discussions was the possibility of applying US Chinese exclusion laws to the new Pacific border, which threatened to become yet another immigrant gateway to the United States. William H. Taft, the first US civil governor of the islands, worked toward a permanent US imperial relationship with the islands, which would involve investment and infrastructural improvements that required additional labor immigration. Called upon by US and European businessmen interested in importing cheap Chinese labor to the Philippines, Taft toyed with the possibility of a separate immigration policy for the archipelago and thus became the center of a complex debate over America's new Pacific border.