The unequal treaties were a series of agreements made between Asian countries – most notably Qing China, Tokugawa Japan and Joseon Korea – and Western countries – most notably the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy, the United States and Russia – during the 19th and early 20th centuries.^[1] They were often signed following a military defeat suffered by the Asian party, or amid military threats made by the Western party. The terms specified obligations to be borne almost exclusively by the former party and included provisions such as the cession of territory, payment of reparations, opening of treaty ports, relinquishment of the right to control tariffs and imports, and granting of extraterritoriality to foreign citizens.^[2]

With the rise of Chinese nationalism and anti-imperialism in the 1920s, both the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party used the concept to characterize the Chinese experience of losing sovereignty between roughly 1840 to 1950. The term "unequal treaty" became associated with the concept of China's "century of humiliation", especially the concessions to foreign powers and the loss of tariff autonomy through treaty ports, and continues to serve as a major impetus for the foreign policy of China today.

Japan and Korea also use the term to refer to several treaties that resulted in a reduction of their national sovereignty. Japan and China signed treaties with Korea such as the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1876 and China–Korea Treaty of 1882, with each granting privileges to the former parties concerning Korea. Japan after the Meiji Restoration also began enforcing unequal treaties against China after its victory in the First Sino-Japanese War for influence over Korea as well as China's coastal ports and territories.

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.^[3] The term was popularized by Sun Yat-sen.^[4]: 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."^[3] 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.^[5]

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".^[6]

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.^[5]

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.^[5] 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.^[7]: 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.^[5] Germany was forced to terminate its rights, the Soviet Union surrendered them, and the United States organized the Washington Conference to negotiate them.^[8]

After Chiang Kai-shek declared a new national government in 1927, the Western powers quickly offered diplomatic recognition, arousing anxiety in Japan.^[8] 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.^[9]

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.^[10]

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.^[11][12]

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.^[10]

During the Nanjing period, the Republic of China unsuccessfully sought to negotiate an end to the unequal treaties.^{[13]: 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.^[14] 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]}

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.^[15] 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.^[16]

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.^[17]

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.^[18]

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.^[19]

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.^[20]

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,^[21] and in subsequent treaties China also obtained concessions in Korea, such as the Chinese concession of Incheon.^[22][23] However, Qing China lost its influence over Korea following the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895.^[24]

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.^[25]

Treaty		Year	Imposer	Imposed on
English name	Chinese name
Treaty of Nanking	南京條約	1842	United Kingdom	Qing dynasty
Treaty of the Bogue	虎門條約	1843	United Kingdom
Treaty of Wanghia	中美望廈條約	1844	United States
Treaty of Whampoa	黃埔條約	1844	France
Treaty of Canton	中瑞廣州條約	1847	Sweden-Norway
Treaty of Kulja	中俄伊犁塔爾巴哈臺通商章程	1851	Russia
Treaty of Aigun	璦琿條約	1858	Russia
Treaty of Tientsin (1858)	天津條約	1858	France
			United Kingdom
			Russia
			United States
Convention of Peking	北京條約	1860	United Kingdom
			France
			Russia
Treaty of Tientsin (1861)	中德通商条约	1861	Prussia, also for Deutscher Zollverein
Chefoo Convention	煙臺條約	1876	United Kingdom
Treaty of Livadia	里瓦幾亞條約	1879	Russia
Treaty of Saint Petersburg	伊犁條約	1881	Russia
Treaty of Tientsin (1885)	中法新約	1885	France
Sino-Portuguese Treaty of Peking	中葡北京條約	1887	Portugal
Treaty of Shimonoseki (Treaty of Maguan)	馬關條約	1895	Japan
Li–Lobanov Treaty	中俄密約	1896	Russia
Convention for the Lease of the Liaotung Peninsula	旅大租地条约	1898	Russia
Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory	展拓香港界址專條	1898	United Kingdom
Treaty of Kwangchow Wan [fr]	廣州灣租界條約	1899	France
Boxer Protocol	辛丑條約	1901	United Kingdom
			United States
			Japan
			Russia
			France
			Germany
			Italy
			Austria-Hungary
			Belgium
			Spain
			Netherlands
Sino-Swedish Treaty of 1908[26]	中瑞通商條約	1908	Sweden
Simla Convention	西姆拉條約	1914	United Kingdom	Republic of China
Twenty-One Demands	二十一條	1915	Japan
Sino-Japanese Joint Defence Agreement	中日共同防敵軍事協定	1918	Japan
Tanggu Truce	塘沽協定	1933	Japan

Treaty			Year	Imposer	Imposed on
English name		Japanese name
Convention of Kanagawa		日米和親条約	1854[27]	United States	Tokugawa shogunate
Anglo-Japanese Friendship Treaty		日英和親条約	1854[28]	United Kingdom
Treaty of Shimoda		下田条約	1855	Russia
Ansei Treaties
	Treaty of Amity and Commerce between the United States and Japan (Harris Treaty)	安政条約	1858[29]	United States
	Treaty of Amity and Commerce between the Kingdom of the Netherlands and Japan			Netherlands
	Treaty of Amity and Commerce between the Russian Empire and Japan			Russia
	Treaty of Amity and Commerce between British Empire and Japan			United Kingdom
	Treaty of Amity and Commerce between France and Japan			France
Prussian-Japanese Treaty of Amity, Commerce and Navigation		日普修好通商条約	1861[30]	Prussia
Treaty of Amity, Commerce and Navigation between Austria and Japan		日墺修好通商航海条約	1868[31]	Austria-Hungary	Japan
Spanish-Japanese Treaty of Amity, Commerce and Navigation		日西修好通商航海条約	1868[32]	Spain
Retrocession following the Triple Intervention Convention of retrocession of the Liaodong Peninsula [ja]		遼東還付条約	1895[33]	France  Russia  Germany

Treaty		Year	Imposer	Imposed on
English name	Korean name
Japan–Korea Treaty of 1876 (Treaty of Ganghwa)	강화도 조약 (江華島條約)	1876[34]	Japan	Joseon dynasty
United States–Korea Treaty of 1882	조미수호통상조약 (朝美修好通商條約)	1882[35]	United States
Japan–Korea Treaty of 1882 (Treaty of Chemulpo)	제물포 조약 (濟物浦條約)	1882	Japan
China–Korea Treaty of 1882 (Joseon-Qing Communication and Commerce Rules)	조청상민수륙무역장정 (朝淸商民水陸貿易章程)	1882[36]	Qing dynasty
Germany–Korea Treaty of 1883	조독수호통상조약 (朝獨修好通商條約)	1883[37]	Germany
United Kingdom–Korea Treaty of 1883	조영수호통상조약 (朝英修好通商條約)	1883[38]	United Kingdom
Russia–Korea Treaty of 1884	조로수호통상조약 (朝露修好通商條約)	1884[39]	Russia
Italy–Korea Treaty of 1884	조이수호통상조약 (朝伊修好通商條約)	1884[40]	Italy
Japan–Korea Treaty of 1885 (Treaty of Hanseong)	한성조약 (漢城條約)	1885[41]	Japan
France–Korea Treaty of 1886	조불수호통상조약 (朝佛修好通商條約)	1886[42]	France
Austria–Korea Treaty of 1892	조오수호통상조약 (朝奧修好通商條約)	1892[43]	Austria-Hungary
Belgium–Korea Treaty of 1901	조벨수호통상조약 (朝白修好通商條約)	1901[44]	Belgium	Korean Empire
Denmark–Korea Treaty of 1902	조덴수호통상조약 (朝丁修好通商條約)	1902[45]	Denmark
Japan–Korea Treaty of 1904	한일의정서 (韓日議定書)	1904[46]	Japan[47]
Japan–Korea Agreement of August 1904	제1차 한일협약 (第一次韓日協約)	1904[48]	Japan[49]
Japan–Korea Agreement of April 1905		1905[50]	Japan[51]
Japan–Korea Agreement of August 1905		1905[52]	Japan[53]
Japan–Korea Treaty of 1905	제2차 한일협약 (第二次韓日協約) (을사조약 (乙巳條約))	1905[54]	Japan[55]
Japan–Korea Treaty of 1907	제3차 한일협약 (第三次韓日協約) (정미조약 (丁未條約))	1907[56]	Japan
Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910	한일병합조약 (韓日倂合條約)	1910[57]	Japan

In 2018, Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad criticized the terms of infrastructure projects under the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative in Malaysia,^[58][59] 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."^[60]

• 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

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