While Shao was recognized as an outstanding journalist, politics was an inseparable ingredient in his journalistic career. Shao foresaw Yuan's aggression to set up his own regime and thus launched the anti-Yuan force in China. His open objection to the new power naturally put him into trouble. Shao was arrested twice and his newspaper Hanmin Daily was forced to close down. He fled to Japan to continue working in the field of journalism. He was the earliest to unveil Yuan's conspiracy in accepting the infamous Twenty-One Demands proposed by the Japanese Government. In December 1916 he flew back to China to join the protest against Yuan's coronation.