Of the German gunboats in China, four were very large (900 to 1,100 tons) and it is doubted they could have traversed anything other than the lower waterways. These ships, SMS Iltis, SMS Jaguar, SMS Tiger and SMS Luchs were built in 1898-99 (SMS Iltis and SMS Jaguar were sisters (1898), SMS Tiger and SMS Luchs were sisters (1899)). It should be noted that the Jaguar was assigned to the lower West River and she has been reported as appearing on the lower Yangtze. All four of these ships were eventually blown up or scuttled in 1914.
At the outbreak of WWI, the Japanese attacked German interests at Tsingtau (a German holding on coast of China). Many of the ships mentioned here fought in defense of that attack and others were scuttled to avoid capture on their way there. To my knowledge, Germany lost all their holdings in China as a result of WWI.
