Unequal treaties

File:China imperialism cartoon.jpg of Britain, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, Marianne of France and Japanese Emperor Meiji dividing China ruled by Emperor Guangxu. "Kiao-Tchéou" and "Port-Arthur," written on slices of the cake, represent those locations in China; a stereotyped mandarin reacts with horror in the background.]]

File:EightNations in1901.jpg inside the Chinese imperial palace, the Forbidden City, during a celebration ceremony after the signing of the Boxer Protocol, 1901]]

In China, the term "unequal treaties" first came into use in the early 1920s to describe the historical treaties, still imposed on the then-Republic of China, that were signed through the period of time which the American sinologist John K. Fairbank characterized as the "treaty century" which began in the 1840s.Wang, Dong. (2005). China's Unequal Treaties: Narrating National History. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books. pp. 1–2. {{ISBN|9780739112083}}. The term was popularized by Sun Yat-sen.{{Cite book |last=Crean |first=Jeffrey |title=The Fear of Chinese Power: an International History |date=2024 |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |isbn=978-1-350-23394-2 |edition= |series=New Approaches to International History series |location=London, UK |pages=}}{{Rp|page=53}}

In assessing the term's usage in rhetorical discourse since the early 20th century, American historian Dong Wang notes that "while the phrase has long been widely used, it nevertheless lacks a clear and unambiguous meaning" and that there is "no agreement about the actual number of treaties signed between China and foreign countries that should be counted as unequal." However, within the scope of Chinese historiographical scholarship, the phrase has typically been defined to refer to the many cases in which China was effectively forced to pay large amounts of financial reparations, open up ports for trade, cede or lease territories (such as Outer Manchuria and Outer Northwest China (including Zhetysu) to the Russian Empire, Hong Kong and Weihaiwei to the United Kingdom, Guangzhouwan to France, Kwantung Leased Territory and Taiwan to the Empire of Japan, the Jiaozhou Bay concession to the German Empire and concession territory in Tientsin, Shamian, Hankou, Shanghai etc.), and make various other concessions of sovereignty to foreign spheres of influence, following military threats.

The Chinese-American sinologist Immanuel Hsu states that the Chinese viewed the treaties they signed with Western powers and Russia as unequal "because they were not negotiated by nations treating each other as equals but were imposed on China after a war, and because they encroached upon China's sovereign rights ... which reduced her to semicolonial status".Hsu, Immanuel C. Y. (1970). The Rise of Modern China. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 239. {{ISBN|0195012402}}.

The earliest treaty later referred to as "unequal" was the 1841 Convention of Chuenpi negotiations during the First Opium War. The first treaty between the Qing dynasty and the United Kingdom termed "unequal" was the Treaty of Nanjing in 1842.

Following Qing China's defeat, treaties with Britain opened up five ports to foreign trade, while also allowing foreign missionaries, at least in theory, to reside within China. Foreign residents in the port cities were afforded trials by their own consular authorities rather than the Chinese legal system, a concept termed extraterritoriality.Dong Wang, China's Unequal Treaties: Narrating National History (Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2005). Under the treaties, the UK and the US established the British Supreme Court for China and Japan and United States Court for China in Shanghai.

The unequal treaties gave European powers jurisdiction over missions in China and some authority over Chinese Christians.{{Cite book |last=Moody |first=Peter |title=The Taiwan Question in Xi Jinping's Era: Beijing's Evolving Taiwan Policy and Taiwan's Internal and External Dynamics |publisher=Routledge |year=2024 |isbn=9781032861661 |editor-last=Zhao |editor-first=Suisheng |editor-link=Suisheng Zhao |location=London and New York |chapter=The Vatican and Taiwan: An Anomalous Diplomatic Relationship}}{{Rp|page=182}}

After World War I, patriotic consciousness in China focused on the treaties, which now became widely known as "unequal treaties." The Nationalist Party and the Chinese Communist Party competed to convince the public that their approach would be more effective. Germany was forced to terminate its rights, the Soviet Union surrendered them, and the United States organized the Washington Conference to negotiate them.Akira Iriye, After Imperialism: The Search for a New Order in the Far East, 1921–1931 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1965; Reprinted: Chicago: Imprint Publications, 1990), passim.

After Chiang Kai-shek declared a new national government in 1927, the Western powers quickly offered diplomatic recognition, arousing anxiety in Japan. The new government declared to the Great Powers that China had been exploited for decades under unequal treaties, and that the time for such treaties was over, demanding they renegotiate all of them on equal terms.{{cite news |title=CHINA: Nationalist Notes|newspaper=TIME|date=June 25, 1928|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,786420,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101121034607/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,786420,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=November 21, 2010|access-date=April 11, 2011}}

After the Boxer Rebellion and the signing of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance of 1902, Germany began to reassess its policy approach towards China. In 1907 Germany suggested a trilateral German-Chinese-American agreement that never materialised. Thus China entered the new era of ending unequal treaties on March 14, 1917, when it broke off diplomatic relations with Germany, thereby terminating the concessions it had given that country, with China declaring war on Germany on August 17, 1917.Andreas Steen: Deutsch-chinesische Beziehungen 1911-1927: Vom Kolonialismus zur „Gleichberechtigung“. Eine Quellensammlung. Berlin, Akademie-Verlag 2006, S. 221.

As World War I commenced, these acts voided the unequal treaty of 1861, resulting in the reinstatement of Chinese control on the concessions of Tianjin and Hankou to China. In 1919, the post-war peace negotiations failed to return the territories in Shandong, previously under German colonial control, back to the Republic of China. After it was determined that the Japanese forces occupying those territories since 1914 would be allowed to retain them under the Treaty of Versailles, the Chinese delegate Wellington Koo refused to sign the peace agreement, with China being the only conference member to boycott the signing ceremony. Widely perceived in China as a betrayal of the country's wartime contributions by the other conference members, the domestic backlash following the failure to restore Shandong would cause the collapse of the cabinet of the Duan Qirui government and lead to the May 4th movement.Dreyer, June Teufel (2015). China's Political System. Routledge. p. 60. {{ISBN|978-1-317-34964-8}}"May Fourth Movement". Encyclopædia Britannica.

On May 20, 1921, China secured with the German-Chinese peace treaty (Deutsch-chinesischer Vertrag zur Wiederherstellung des Friedenszustandes) a diplomatic accord which was considered the first equal treaty between China and a European nation.

During the Nanjing period, the Republic of China unsuccessfully sought to negotiate an end to the unequal treaties.{{Cite book |last=Laikwan |first=Pang |title=One and All: The Logic of Chinese Sovereignty |date=2024 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=9781503638815 |location=Stanford, CA}}{{Rp|page=69-70}}

Many treaties China considered unequal were repealed during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945). After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, China became an ally with the United Kingdom and the United States, which then signed treaties with China to end British and American extraterritoriality in January 1943.{{cite web | url = https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1943China/comp12 | title = FOREIGN RELATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES: DIPLOMATIC PAPERS, 1943, CHINA | access-date = July 7, 2024}} Significant examples outlasted World War II: treaties regarding Hong Kong remained in place until Hong Kong's 1997 handover, though in 1969, to improve Sino-Soviet relations in the wake of military skirmishes along their border, the People's Republic of China was forced to reconfirm the 1858 Treaty of Aigun and 1860 Treaty of Peking.{{Citation needed|date=March 2013}}

Prior to the Meiji Restoration, Japan was also subject to numerous unequal treaties. When the US expeditionary fleet led by Matthew Perry reached Japan in 1854 to force open the island nation for American trade, the country was compelled to sign the Convention of Kanagawa under the threat of violence by the American warships.{{Cite book |last1=Hall |first1=John Whitney |title=Japan: from prehistory to modern times |last2=Hall |first2=John Whitney |date=1991 |publisher=Center for Japanese Studies, the Univ. of Michigan |isbn=978-0-939512-54-6 |series=Michigan classics in Japanese studies |location=Ann Arbor, Mich}} This event abruptly terminated Japan's 220 years of seclusion under the Sakoku policy of 1633 under unilateral foreign pressure and consequentially, the convention has been seen in a similar light as an unequal treaty.{{Cite journal |last=Miyauchi |first=D. Y. |date=May 1970 |title=Yokoi Shōnan's Response to the Foreign Intervention in Late Tokugawa Japan, 1853–1862 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0026749x00011938 |journal=Modern Asian Studies |volume=4 |issue=3 |pages=269–290 |doi=10.1017/s0026749x00011938 |s2cid=145055046 |issn=0026-749X}}

Another significant incident was the Tokugawa Shogunate's capitulation to the Harris Treaty of 1858, negotiated by the eponymous U.S. envoy Townsend Harris, which, among other concessions, established a system of extraterritoriality for foreign residents. This agreement would then serve as a model for similar treaties to be further signed by Japan with other foreign Western powers in the weeks to follow, such as the Ansei Treaties.{{cite book|author=Michael R. Auslin|author-link=Michael Auslin|title=Negotiating with Imperialism: The Unequal Treaties and the Culture of Japanese Diplomacy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bS3w6tGiraEC&pg=PA44|year=2006|publisher=Harvard University Press|pages=17, 44|isbn=9780674020313}}

Unequal treaties with the United States and Europe prevented Japan from unilaterally setting tariff rates on imported goods.{{Cite book |last=Hirata |first=Koji |title=Making Mao's Steelworks: Industrial Manchuria and the Transnational Origins of Chinese Socialism |date=2024 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-009-38227-4 |series=Cambridge Studies in the History of the People's Republic of China series |location=New York, NY}}{{Rp|page=8}} As a result, it was hampered in developing domestic industries that could compete with imported goods.{{Rp|page=8}}

The enforcement of these unequal treaties were a tremendous national shock for Japan's leadership as they both curtailed Japanese sovereignty for the first time in its history and also revealed the nation's growing weakness relative to the West through the latter's successful imposition of such agreements upon the island nation. An objective towards the recovery of national status and strength would become an overarching priority for Japan, with the treaty's domestic consequences being the end of the Bakufu, the 700 years of shogunate rule over Japan, and the establishment of a new imperial government.Totman, Conrad (1966). "Political Succession in The Tokugawa Bakufu: Abe Masahiro's Rise to Power, 1843–1845". Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies. 26: 102–124. doi:10.2307/2718461. JSTOR 2718461.

The unequal treaties ended at various times for the countries involved and Japan's victories in the 1894–95 First Sino-Japanese War convinced many in the West that unequal treaties could no longer be enforced on Japan as it was a great power in its own right. This view gained more recognition following the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, whereby Japan most notably defeated Russia in a massive humiliation for the latter.{{cite journal |last1=Oye |first1=David Schimmelpenninck van der |title=The Immediate Origins of the War |journal=The Russo-Japanese War in Global Perspective |date=1 January 2005 |pages=23–44 |doi=10.1163/9789047407041_008|isbn=978-90-474-0704-1 }}

Korea's first unequal treaty was not with the West, but instead with Japan. The Ganghwa Island incident in 1875 saw Japan send the warship Un'yō led by Captain Inoue Yoshika with the implied threat of military action to coerce the Korean kingdom of Joseon through the show of force. After an armed clash ensued around Ganghwa Island where the Japanese force was sent, which resulted in its victory, the incident subsequently forced Korea to open its doors to Japan by signing the Treaty of Ganghwa Island, also known as the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1876.Preston, Peter Wallace. [1998] (1998). Blackwell Publishing. Pacific Asia in the Global System: An Introduction. {{ISBN|0-631-20238-2}}

During this period Korea also signed treaties with Qing China and the West powers (such as the United Kingdom and the United States). In the case of Qing China, it signed the China–Korea Treaty of 1882 with Korea stipulating that Korea was a dependency of China and granted the Chinese extraterritoriality and other privileges,{{cite book|last=Duus|first=Peter|title=The Abacus and the Sword: The Japanese Penetration of Korea|page=54|publisher=University of California Press|year=1998|location=Berkeley|isbn=0-52092-090-2}} and in subsequent treaties China also obtained concessions in Korea, such as the Chinese concession of Incheon.{{cite web | url = https://adventurekorea.com/guide-to-incheons-chinatown/ | title = Guide to Incheon's Chinatown | date = March 3, 2022 | access-date = September 30, 2023}}{{Cite book|title = A New Modern History of East Asia|last = Fuchs|first = Eckhardt|year = 2017|page = 97| publisher=V&R unipress GmbH | isbn=978-3-7370-0708-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pZlBDwAAQBAJ&pg=RA1-PA97}} However, Qing China lost its influence over Korea following the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895.{{cite journal |last1=Paine |first1=S. C. M. |title=The Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895: Perceptions, Power, and Primacy |journal=Cambridge University Press |date=18 November 2002 |doi=10.1017/CBO9780511550188|isbn=978-0-521-81714-1 }}

As Japanese dominance over the Korean peninsula grew in the following decades, with respect to the unequal treaties imposed upon the kingdom by the West powers, Korea's diplomatic concessions with those states became largely null and void in 1910, when it was annexed by Japan.I. H. Nish, "Japan Reverses the Unequal Treaties: The Anglo-Japanese Commercial Treaty of 1894," Journal of Oriental Studies (1975) 13#2 pp 137-146.

{{Further|Belt and Road Initiative#Support|Belt and Road Initiative#Opposition}}

In 2018, Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad criticized the terms of infrastructure projects under the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative in Malaysia,{{Cite news |last=Bland |first=Ben |date=2018-06-24 |title=Malaysian backlash tests China's Belt and Road ambitions |work=Financial Times |url=https://www.ft.com/content/056ae1ec-7634-11e8-b326-75a27d27ea5f |access-date=2022-03-22}}{{Cite news |title=Analysis {{!}} New Malaysian government steps back from spending, Chinese projects |language=en-US |newspaper=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/05/30/new-malaysian-government-steps-back-from-spending-chinese-projects/ |access-date=2022-03-22 |issn=0190-8286}} stating that "China knows very well that it had to deal with unequal treaties in the past imposed upon China by Western powers. So China should be sympathetic toward us. They know we cannot afford this."{{Cite news |last=Beech |first=Hannah |date=2018-08-20 |title='We Cannot Afford This': Malaysia Pushes Back Against China's Vision |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/20/world/asia/china-malaysia.html |access-date=2022-03-22 |issn=0362-4331}}

• Century of humiliation
• China Centenary Missionary Conference
• Client state
• Foreign concessions in China
• List of Chinese treaty ports
• List of treaties of China before the People's Republic
• Most favoured nation
• Normanton incident
• Puppet state
• Sick man of Asia
• Western imperialism in Asia

{{reflist}}

• Auslin, Michael R. (2004). [https://books.google.com/books?id=bS3w6tGiraEC&dq= Negotiating with Imperialism: The Unequal Treaties and the Culture of Japanese Diplomacy.] Cambridge: Harvard University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-674-01521-0}}; [https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/56493769 OCLC 56493769]
• {{cite book |title= The Rise of Modern China|last= Hsü

|first= Immanuel Chung-yueh|year= 1970|publisher= Oxford University Press|location= New York}} [https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/300287988 OCLC 300287988]

• Nish, I. H (1975). "Japan Reverses the Unequal Treaties: The Anglo-Japanese Commercial Treaty of 1894". Journal of Oriental Studies. 13 (2): 137–146.
• Perez, Louis G (1999). Japan Comes of Age: Mutsu Munemitsu & the Revision of the Unequal Treaties. p. 244.
• Ringmar, Erik (2013). Liberal Barbarism: The European Destruction of the Palace of the Emperor of China. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Wang, Dong (2003). "The Discourse of Unequal Treaties in Modern China". Pacific Affairs. 76 (3): 399–425.
• Wang, Dong. (2005). China's Unequal Treaties: Narrating National History. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books. {{ISBN|9780739112083}}.
• Fravel, M. Taylor (2008). [https://books.google.com/books?id=02Hjr6RUckwC Strong Borders, Secure Nation: Cooperation and Conflict in China's Territorial Disputes]. Princeton University Press. {{ISBN|978-1-4008-2887-6}}
• Halleck, Henry Wager. (1861). International law: or, Rules regulating the intercourse of states in peace and war. New York: D. Van Nostrand. [https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/852699 OCLC 852699]
• Korean Mission to the Conference on the Limitation of Armament, Washington, D.C., 1921–1922. (1922). Korea's Appeal to the Conference on Limitation of Armament. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office. [https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/12923609 OCLC 12923609]
• Fravel, M. Taylor (2005). [https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/10.1162/016228805775124534 Regime Insecurity and International Cooperation: Explaining China's Compromises in Territorial Disputes]. International Security. 30 (2): 46–83. doi:10.1162/016228805775124534. [https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1098720381 ISSN 0162-2889].

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Category:19th century in China

Category:19th century in Japan

Category:19th century in Korea

Category:Boxer Rebellion

Category:History of European colonialism

Category:Foreign relations of the Qing dynasty

Category:Free trade imperialism

Category:History of the foreign relations of Japan

Category:Lists of treaties

Category:Foreign relations of the Empire of Japan

Category:China–Russian Empire relations

Category:Extraterritorial jurisdiction