This political cartoon is about the Open Door Policy that was created when China opened its borders. This policy prevented any one country from gaining dominion over China’s economy or gaining a monopoly. The cartoonist’s message is that the United States was too ‘bossy’ in the sense of creating or agreeing on the open door policy, which is supported by the fact that Uncle Sam is standing in the center of a circle of symbolic people representing other countries, all with scissors. They seem to be waiting for him to tell them something, like a leader would. I can imagine another individual having the opinion that no, the US was not bossy in the creating of the Open Door Policy, and they did it exactly right.
The cartoonist definitely used symbolism, since they were representing other countries with people like Uncle Sam is for the US. All those symbolic figures are in a circle around Uncle Sam, waiting for him to say something. They each have scissors in their hands and they are waiting to cut up a map of China. Another technique that the cartoonist used was labeling, because the map on which the symbolic leaders are kneeling, is labeled: Map of China, as though they are preparing to claim their areas. This goes with anti-imperialism, because the US commanding other countries is definitely related to imperialism.
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