Unequal Treaties

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

Unequal Treaties, a term mainly used in reference to China, refers to a type of treaty signed by several East Asian states, including Qing Dynasty 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.

China and a number of foreign powers signed the first unequal treaties in the wake of the First Opium War, 1839-42. 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, as regards the administration of justice, foreign residents in the port cities were afforded trials by their own consular authorities rather than the Chinese legal system, a concept termed extraterritoriality.

Although the term "unequal treaty" did not come into use until early in the twentieth century, many Chinese considered the treaties unequal since the foreign powers did not reciprocate most of China's concessions with similar privileges. In many cases China was effectively forced to pay large amounts of reparations, open up ports for trade, cede or lease territories (such as Hong Kong Island and Kowloon Peninsula to Great Britain), and make various other concessions of sovereignty to foreign "spheres of influence", following humiliating military defeats.

When the United States Commodore Matthew Perry forced open Japan in 1854, Japan was soon prompted to sign treaties that were similar treaties to the ones China had signed and the same thing soon happened to 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. Most of China's unequal treaties were abrogated during World War II, when the Republic of China led by Chiang Kai-shek emerged victorious and became a permanent member of the Security Council of the United Nations. China's unequal treaties almost 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) with the exception of territory seized by Imperial Russia (Outer Manchuria). Korea's unequal treaties with European states became largely null and void in 1910, when it became a Japanese colony.