In 1900, the Japanese government sent an Infantry Division to join the Allied Relief Expedition to free the sieged foreigners in Peking.

The Imperial Edict No. 142 of 21 April 1901 promulgated a commemorative award for this campaign. Theoretically it should have been awarded to foreigners too, but no case of such award is recorded. The award is bestowed to armed forces personnel who saw active service both in Japan and China between 11 June and 30 November of 1900. It is 30 mm. in diameter, of coppered bronze, with a crysanthemum crest , the "ho-o" (a peacock-like bird) and "war medal" characters in the obverse.  The reverse has 11 characters that means "Great Japanese Empire Meiji 33rd year" in two horizontal lines.

Suspender bar has the four characters for "China incident". Ribbon is of 37 mm. watered silk with 2 mm. green borders and three 7 mm. white stripes separated by two 6 mm. green stripes. Latter Replacement ribbons were oftenly of unwatered silk.