In April 1900, was ordered to sail to Japan and then to Taku, China as part of the multinational China Relief Expedition being mobilized to rescue the foreign legations in Peking that were then besieged by the Boxers, a movement that opposed the growing influence of European business interests and Christian missionaries in China. The joint naval force was under the command of Vice Admiral Edward Hobart Seymour, Royal Navy with Captain Bowman H. McCalla, USN of the , second in command. As a naval cadet member of the multinational landing force that came to be known as the Seymour Relief Expedition Taussig served alongside and began a long and fraternal professional association with Royal Navy officers Captain John Jellicoe and Lieutenant David Beatty who later advanced to First Sea Lords of the Royal Navy.