Unequal Treaties

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"Unequal Treaties"
Chinese
Traditional:	不平等條約
Simplified:	不平等条约
Korean
Hangul:	불평등 조약
Hanja:	不平等條約
Japanese
Kanji	不平等条約
Kana:	ふびょうどうじょうやく

The term Unequal Treaties, mainly used by modern China, refers to a series of treaties signed by several Asian states, including the Qing Empire in China, late Tokugawa Japan, and late Joseon Korea, with foreign powers, during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This was a period during which these Asian states were largely unable to resist the military and economic pressures of the primary Western powers.

The unequal treaties began with China after the First Opium War. Following Qing China's defeat, treaties with Britain opened up several ports to foreign trade, while also allowing Christians to reside and proselytize in such open ports unmolested. In addition, in the case of crimes, foreign residents in the port cities were afforded trials by their own consular authorities rather than the Chinese legal system (a concept termed extraterritoriality). China considered these treaties "unequal" because in most cases China saw itself as being forced to pay large amounts of reparations, open up ports, cede lands (such as Hong Kong Island and Kowloon Peninsula to the Great Britain), and make various other concessions of sovereignty to foreign "spheres of influence", following humiliating military defeats.

When the American Commodore Matthew Perry forced open Japan in 1854, similar treaties were soon forced upon it. Another similar scenario was played out in Korea. Ironically, Korea's first unequal treaties were not with the West but with Japan, which, taking a page from Western tactics, had forced Korea to open its doors to foreign commerce in 1876.

Such unequal treaties ended at various times for the countries involved. Japan was the first to throw off the shackles of its treaties during the mid 1890s, when its performance in the First Sino-Japanese War convinced many in the West that Japan had indeed entered among the body of "civilized nations". For China and Korea, the wait was somewhat longer, with China's unequal treaties completely dissolved only following Hong Kong's handover in 1997 (though it was agreed on in 1984 following talks between Deng Xiaoping and the British). The foreign unequal treaties with Korea became largely null and void following Korea's annexation by the Japanese Empire in 1910.