After the Japanese occupied Taiwan as well as to prevent the Japanese from further aiming for Gulangyu; local Xiamen authorities began to float ideas to seek "international protection" and asked European powers to "protect Xiamen". Philip Pitcher presciently notes that there was a sense that "Japan had designs upon Amoy (Xiamen), and that, if a good opportunity offered … she would step in and assume control." The burning of a Japanese Buddhist temple, the Higashi-honganji (东本愿寺) in Gulangyu, coupled with the "Japan Scare" of the 1900s led Beijing to come around to the idea that the establishment of an International settlement for Gulangyu would be beneficial.
