16 Regarding the activities of foreign powers in Shandong from the end of the Qing Dynasty to the beginningof the Republic of China, which of the following statements is NOT correct?
(A) In 1897, Germany sent troops to occupy Jiaozhou Bay and opened up the following partition crisis.
(B) After the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Japan declared war on Germany under the pretext of Anglo-Japanese alliance and thus gained control over Qingdao, Shandong.
(C) In the 1915 Sino-Japanese Twenty-One Negotiations, Yuan Shikai recognized Japan’s inheritance of all German rights in Shandong. In the exchange treaty, he expressed his willingness to accept Japan’s proposal, which became the basis for Japan’s acquisition of Shandong at the Paris Peace Conference.
(D) On May 4, 1919, after the resolution of the Paris Peace Conference on the Shandong issue was sent back to China, students in Beijing protested, demanding the authorities not sign the treaty and punish relevant officials. This became the fuse of the May Fourth Movement.