46-857: The Sino-Japanese Joint Defence Agreement was a series of secret military unequal treaties between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan , signed in May 1918. Drawn up following China's entry into the First World War on the part of the Allied Powers , the agreements, which were concluded in secrecy, granted Japan numerous military privileges within Chinese territory along the Sino-Russian border . The content of agreements were leaked to
92-607: 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
138-632: A massive humiliation for the latter. 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
184-420: A military defeat suffered by the former party, or amid military threats made by the latter. Their terms specified obligations to be borne almost exclusively by the former party: provisions included the cession of territory, the payment of reparations, the opening of treaty ports , the relinquishment of the right to control tariffs and imports, and the granting of extraterritoriality to foreign citizens. With
230-547: A military pact with China, including a potential military alliance. In late January, Tanaka wired instructions to the Japanese military attaché in Beijing , ordering him to swiftly move to form a Sino-Japanese agreement, and furthermore, to try and get the Chinese side to suggest the idea first. Within the Chinese government, there were doubts about the Japanese side's intentions with regard to any agreement, and specifically, they were concerned that such an agreement might lead to
276-525: A personal envoy, a private businessman named Nishihara Kamezo (1873–1954) to negotiate a series of eight loans totaling 145 million yen to the leader of one of the splinter groups of the former Beiyang Army , Duan Qirui. Nishihara was backed by Finance Minister Shoda Kazue , formerly the president of the Bank of Chosen in Korea . The loans were ostensibly private loans made by private banks as investments in
322-410: 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. As World War I commenced, these acts voided the unequal treaty of 1861, resulting in
368-853: A war, and because they encroached upon China's sovereign rights ... which reduced her to semicolonial status". 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
414-725: The Convention of Kanagawa under the threat of violence by the American warships . 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. Another significant incident was the Tokugawa Shogunate 's capitulation to the Harris Treaty of 1858, negotiated by
460-699: 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
506-489: 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
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#1732772880583552-674: The First World War on the side of the Allied Powers , which included the Empire of Japan . As a result, Germany and Austria-Hungary became China and Japan's common enemy. Furthermore, following the outbreak of the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, the Allies declared the new communist government of Vladimir Lenin a threat. From this time, Tanaka Giichi , then Vice Chief of the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office , began planning to conclude
598-678: The May 4th movement. 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. Many treaties China considered unequal were repealed during
644-766: 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. 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
690-446: The 1840s. The term was popularized by Sun Yat-sen . 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
736-552: The 3 March 1918 signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk between the nascent Russian Soviet Republic and Germany, the Chinese side grew increasingly concerned about the presence of 100,000 German prisoners of war in neighbouring Siberia . Worried that these German forces would be released and threaten the security of the Far East , they came to feel the necessity of concluding a Sino-Japanese agreement. The Terauchi Masatake government decided on 8 March to begin drawing up plans for
782-468: 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
828-524: The Japanese effecting control over Manchuria . However, Japanese foreign minister Motono Ichirō offered the example of Allied military co-operation in France, and said that, if the Allies could jointly operate their military forces there, it would be illogical to not do the same in Manchuria. The Japanese side also hinted at the possibility of unilateral deployment in the event China did not acquiesce. With
874-784: 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. 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
920-526: The agreement's ostensible goal was to counter German–Austrian forces, the emergent communist threat in Siberia and Manchuria was of a more immediate concern. The agreement allowed Japan to lay the groundwork for its intervention in Siberia , and effectively placed the Chinese military in northern Manchuria under Japanese command. Though the Japanese government had issued orders prohibiting any discussion of
966-647: The anti-agreement movement that it spurred laid the groundwork for the May Fourth movement . While Duan desired to retain the agreement in some form after the end of the First World War, public opinion driven by the protest movement made this impossible. Duan was forced to resign in August 1920 following his loss in the Zhili–Anhui War , and as a result, the basis for the agreement completely collapsed. It
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#17327728805831012-473: The autumn of 1918, however. Future Chinese premier Zhou Enlai , then studying in Japan, observed the movement with interest, but did not return to China. Protests also occurred in China, specifically by students in Beijing and by chambers of commerce across the country. The agreement, which was essentially an alliance, was viewed by the Chinese public as an attempt by Japan to use Duan Qirui to control China, and
1058-414: The conclusion of a joint defence agreement. While these negotiations were conducted in secret, newspapers quickly caught wind of them, and reported on them from early April. Opposition to the agreement spread quickly throughout China. The Japanese side's intent is made clear by a Foreign Ministry record written around this time, which states that the establishment of a Sino-Japanese alliance would allow for
1104-634: The development of China; however, in reality the loans were underwritten by the Japanese government in assisting Duan Qirui in his civil war to overcome his rivals for control of northern China. In return for this financial support, Japan received confirmation of its claims to the former German Kiautschou Bay concession in Shandong Province , control of the railways in Shandong Province, and additional rights in Manchuria . When
1150-460: The end date of the agreements, which was done on 5 February for the army agreement and 1 March for the naval agreement. The pact was thus specified to terminate when both the Chinese and Japanese governments approved the peace treaties with Germany and Austria negotiated by the European powers, and when all Chinese and Japanese troops stationed outside of Chinese territory had been withdrawn. While
1196-538: 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 . The enforcement of these unequal treaties were a tremendous national shock for Japan's leadership as they both curtailed Japanese sovereignty for
1242-504: The establishment of a new imperial government. 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
1288-469: 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
1334-596: The free movement of Japanese troops within Chinese territory, the commandeering of any resources that were militarily required, active interference in China's domestic politics, and the "planting" of pro-Japanese forces across China. On 3 May, Tanaka Giichi visited Zhang at the Chinese Legation in Tokyo, and demanded an apology from the Chinese side for doubting Japan's intentions and failing to participate in further deliberations. He stated that, until an agreement
1380-420: The negotiations in the domestic media, Chinese students in Japan were made aware of the impending signing of the agreement through reporting in foreign newspapers, and swiftly moved to organise a protest movement against the agreement from the end of April 1918. Called the "Returning Home Movement", it resulted in one-third of the three thousand students in Japan returning to China. The students returned to Japan in
1426-418: The parties of the agreement as equals, the third article specifies that the Chinese authorities must "try their best" to co-operate with the Japanese military in the relevant regions and prevent them from "experiencing any obstacles" in their operations. The fourth article specifies that Japanese troops will be "entirely withdrawn" from Chinese territory at the termination of the war. The seventh article specifies
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1472-629: The past imposed upon China by Western powers. So China should be sympathetic toward us. They know we cannot afford this." Nishihara Loans The Nishihara Loans ( 西原借款 , Nishihara Shakkan ) were a series of loans made by the Japanese government under the administration of Prime Minister Terauchi Masatake to the Anhui clique warlord Duan Qirui from January 1917 to September 1918 to persuade him to favor Japanese interests in China. They were named after Nishihara Kamezō , Masatake's secretary. In January 1917, Prime Minister Terauchi sent
1518-489: The placement of liaison officers in each party's military to facilitate communication between the two parties, and specifies that both parties must provide whatever resources are required to for facilitate their joint defence. The full contents of the pact were not officially disclosed until 14 March 1919. Because of the start of the Paris Peace Conference on 18 January 1919, it was necessary to clarify
1564-770: The port cities were afforded trials by their own consular authorities rather than the Chinese legal system , a concept termed extraterritoriality . 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. After World War I , patriotic consciousness in China focused on
1610-413: The press at an early stage, sparking a widespread protest movement by Chinese students in Japan and across China. The agreements were officially terminated in January 1921, their continuance made untenable by Chinese public opinion. The government of the Republic of China , led by Premier Duan Qirui , declared war on the German Empire and Austria-Hungary on 14 August 1917, marking China's entry into
1656-619: The proposed Sino-Japanese agreement, and informed Chinese Minister in Tokyo Zhang Zongxiang as such. A team led by Major General Saitō Suejirō was despatched to China to negotiate the terms of the agreement. On 25 March, Zhang and foreign minister Motono exchanged correspondence wherein they agreed that enemy forces were spreading rampantly along the Russian border, threatening the Far East's security, and agreed to consider
1702-459: 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 ,
1748-600: 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
1794-607: 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
1840-564: 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. After Chiang Kai-shek declared a new national government in 1927,
1886-548: 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 . In 2018, Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad criticized the terms of infrastructure projects under the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative in Malaysia, stating that "China knows very well that it had to deal with unequal treaties in
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1932-470: 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 . 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
1978-457: Was a dependency of China and granted the Chinese extraterritoriality and other privileges, and in subsequent treaties China also obtained concessions in Korea, such as the Chinese concession of Incheon . However, Qing China lost its influence over Korea following the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895. As Japanese dominance over the Korean peninsula grew in the following decades, with respect to
2024-501: Was officially terminated on 28 January 1921. Unequal treaty 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. They were often signed following
2070-502: 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 . 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
2116-492: Was signed, Japan would have no choice but to suspend the financial and military aid it had been providing to China through the Nishihara Loans . Accordingly, negotiations were reopened the following day, and by 16 May, the army agreement was signed. A naval agreement, largely mirroring the army agreement, was signed on 19 May. The army agreement consists of twelve articles. While the second article ostensibly establishes
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