ABSTRACT
The series of treaties which China concluded with the Western countries and Japan during the late Qing and the early Republic are known as the "unequal treaties." The first incidence and principal example of such treaties was the Sino-British Treaty of Nanjing, signed after the Opium War of 1840 to 1842. That treaty and its supplements established the foundation of China's inferior status in the world community she was now forced to join, namely, extraterritoriality and negotiated tariffs. These two principles were imposed on China but not on Great Britain, and there was no statement made in the treaty indicating a mutual respect of the integrity of sovereignty and a recognition of equal status between the two signatories. The treaties China subsequently concluded with other powers, such as the Treaty of Wangxia with the United States (1844) and the Treaty of Wham-poa with France (1844), automatically accepted this unequal practice.
