| China’s modern history begins from the Sino-British Opium War broke out in 1840,with humiliation and modernization through.Under the military force of the western powers,the government of the Qing Dynasty was forced to sign a series of unequal treaties,the state sovereignty was taken away, it seriously affected the normal development of the country.At the same time,the traditional suzerain vassal system was broken in the foreign relations of China,the modern diplomatic method of the Occident was introduced to China,China was incorporated into the capitalist world system.It was under this background that the Qing government began to send envoys overseas in 1875.After going abroad,they saw the prosperity of the western world and the order of communication between countries,and then thought of the China’s suffering, they expressed great indignation to those unequal treaties which hamper the development of China。On the basis of the traditional culture,combined with the modern western knowledge,they made a certain analysis to the nature and function of international law,the implication and characteristics of the treaty and so on. Especially, they carried on a deep analysis to those treaty privileges,such as the consular jurisdiction,one-sided agreements tariff privileges,one-sided unilateral most-favoured-nation treatmentand and etc which affected China worst.On the basis of these,the early ministers to foreign countries sprout a thought that they must amend or even to abolished those privileges and nationalized, some of them challenged to the whole unequal treaty system,hoped our country can develop Normally.At the same period,there had another group,we called them the westernization group,and some of the early ministers to foreign countries were also members among them,this made these two groups have much in common about treaties.However these envoys resident overseas after all,they took an uncompared advantage over the westernization group,therefore the twos showed differences on what to know and how to deal with the treaties.And,different opinions on the treaties also existed inside the early ministers to foreign countries.As an important group in the late Qing Dynasty, although the understanding about the treaty of the early ministers to foreign countries existed some limitations, such as their understanding was not systematic,but had tendency towards compromise and their opinion were backward, but we can’t deny the importance of their thought,their understanding about the treaty resisted further aggression in a certain extent,it provided important reference for amendment and abolishment of treaties from then on,It is a huge sum of spiritual wealth. |
