An Analysis On The Effect And Impact Of The Unequal Treaties Of Modern China Under The Perspective Of International Law

Modern China has suffered imperialist aggression, and was forced to sign a large number of unequal treaties. These treaties of surrendering China's sovereign rights under humiliating terms have brought a profound impact on modern China's Politics, economy and legal, some of which even has resulted in historical issues. Based on the theory of international law, the analysis of these unequal treaties, has a practical guiding significance for China's today's active participation in international competition by drawing lessons from history.The thesis based on the theory of international low, will study the treaties of China modern history from the perspective of international lawThe first part is introduction of some basic issues and concepts. In international law, "unequal treaty" is not a purely legal concept, and has been controversial. Undeniably, the unequal treaties truly exist in the international communication and practice. It is necessary to clarify two concepts when discuss"unequal treaty": treaty and inequality. Definition of the concept of treaty should judge from the aspects of party, form and contents. Inequality in "unequal treaty" it legally is the national inequality. Criteria for the unequal treaties should contain two aspects, form elements and essential elements. In addition, the "unequal treaty" appeared in Chinese of the twentieth century. Created by the Chinese people, it is the medium for Chinese people to express long term of depressed anger and frustration. John King Fairbank viewed the unequal treaties as treaty system, which has harmed China for hundred years. It must see that treaty system formed in China and East Asia, on the basis of development of European International law, was combined with the intrinsic motivation of bourgeoisie expansion. It is the process that China was forced to joint the international order led by Western Powers and the existed tribute system was destroyed. Treaty system is essentially illegal.The second part emphatically analyzes the effect of unequal treaties. From the perspective of international law, because the modern international law has two sides, on the one hand, it can be the standard equal relationship of European countries and America; on the other hand, it is the legal basis of invading and enslaving the small and weak countries. Therefore, we can not deny all the unequal treaties'validity on the traditional international law. However, with the progress of human civilization and the rapid development of international law, treaties which was concluded compellable should be regarded as invalid, as a standard, modern unequal treaties shall be null and void. From the domestic point of view, in the late Qing dynasty, the Qing government had a changing awareness of the binding force of the treaty, the unequal treaties in China gradually established a comprehensive effect. After the fall of Qing government, the Beiyang government had some activities of amending and abrogating unequal treaties, which made some progress, but did not undermine the status and effectiveness of unequal treaties fundamentally. The Kuomintang Government of Nanjing has also tried hard to abolish the unequal treaties, and during the anti-Japanese war, it annulled all the unequal treaties since modern times in form, which make these treaties lose their legal effect, but due to various reasons, their legacy still alive. Only after the new China was founded, their effectivess was completely abolished.The third part is the analysis of the profound impact on China brought by a large number of unequal treaties, which, like Shackles, seriously blocked the development and progress of China. Western Power plundered a lot of wealth and resources from China which burdened on Chinese people. At the same time, these unequal treaties objectively help propagate of advanced politics, economy, legal systems and thoughts and establish the foundation of transformation to modern society for China. This part first has an overall analysis of the effectiveness of the unequal treaties on the Chinese sovereignty, territory, foreign policy and etc. then from the following aspects: the specific consular jurisdiction concerning the relevant treaty, the territorial boundaries treaties and the colonial treaties, it analyzes their impact on modern China and even today's new China.Look back into history of China's unequal treaties, it is the confirmed truth that lagging behind leaves one vulnerable to attack and the status and influence of a country in international society is in direct proportion to its power. International low is omnipotent, although it plays an important role in maintenance of international peace and specification of international competition. International communication should be backed with national power. It is not desirable to blindly worship international law or view it as useless. Therefore, China, in the premise of improving comprehensive national strength and respecting for international law, should make full use of the relevant rules of international law to protect our national interests and strive to promote the creation of fair international order and construction of harmony word.