Foreign concessions in China were a group of concessions that existed during late Imperial China and the Republic of China, which were governed and occupied by foreign powers, and are frequently associated with colonialism and imperialism.
The concessions had extraterritoriality and were enclaves inside key cities that became treaty ports. All the concessions have been dissolved in the present day.
The unequal treaties were a series of agreements made between Asian countries—most notably Qing China, Tokugawa Japan and Joseon Korea—and Western countries—most notably the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy, the United States and Russia—during the 19th and early 20th centuries. They were often signed following a military defeat suffered by the Asian party, or amid military threats made by the Western party. The terms specified obligations to be borne almost exclusively by the Asian party and included provisions such as the cession of territory, payment of reparations, opening of treaty ports, relinquishment of the right to control tariffs and imports, and granting of extraterritoriality to foreign citizens.
With the rise of Chinese nationalism and anti-imperialism in the 1920s, both the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party used the concept to characterize the Chinese experience of losing sovereignty between roughly 1840 to 1950. The term "unequal treaty" became associated with the concept of China's "century of humiliation", especially the concessions to foreign powers and the loss of tariff autonomy through treaty ports, and continues to serve as a major impetus for the foreign policy of China today.
The colonial expansion of the Empire of Japan in the Western Pacific Ocean and East Asia began in 1895 with Japan's victory over the Chinese Qing dynasty in the First Sino-Japanese War. Subsequent victories over the Russian Empire (Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905) and the German Empire (World War I) expanded Japanese rule. Taiwan came under Japanese control from 1895, Korea in 1905, Micronesia in 1914, Southern Sakhalin in 1905, several concessions in China from 1903 onwards, and the South Manchuria Railway from 1905. In 1931, Japan invaded Manchuria, resulting in the establishment of the puppet state of Manchukuo the following year; thereafter, Japan adopted a policy of founding and supporting puppet states in conquered regions. These conquered territories became the basis for what became known as the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere from 1940. (The Co-Prosperity Sphere expanded to include much of China, Indo-China, Malaya, the Philippines, the East Indies, Burma and New Guinea by 1942.)
Including Mainland Japan, colonies, occupied territories, and puppet states, the Empire of Japan at its apex was one of the largest empires in history. The total amount of land under Japanese sovereignty reached 8,510,000 km (3,300,000 sq mi) in 1942. By 1943, it accounted for more than 20% of the world's population at the time, with 463 million people in its occupied regions and territories.
The Kwantung Leased Territory (traditional Chinese and Japanese: 關東州; ; pinyin: Guāndōng zhōu; Wade–Giles: Kuan-tung-chou; rōmaji: Kantō-shū) was a leased territory of the Empire of Japan in the Liaodong Peninsula from 1905 to 1945.
Japan first acquired Kwantung from the Qing Empire in perpetuity in 1895 in the Treaty of Shimonoseki after victory in the First Sino-Japanese War. Kwantung was located at the militarily and economically significant southern tip of the Liaodong Peninsula at the entrance of the Bohai Sea, and included the port city of Ryojun (Port Arthur/Lüshunkou). Japan lost Kwantung weeks later in the Triple Intervention and the Qing transferred the lease to the Russian Empire in 1898, who governed the territory as Russian Dalian and rapidly developed infrastructure and the city of Dairen (Dalniy/Dalian). Japan re-acquired the Kwantung lease from Russia in 1905 in the Treaty of Portsmouth after victory in the Russo-Japanese War, continued to rapidly develop the territory, and obtained extraterritorial rights known as the South Manchuria Railway Zone. Japan extended the lease with the Republic of China in the Twenty-One Demands and used Kwantung as a base to launch the Second Sino-Japanese War. The Kwantung Leased Territory ceased to exist following the Surrender of Japan in World War II in September 1945 when the Soviet Red Army began to administer the region until Kwantung and the Lüshun base was handed over to the People's Republic of China on 16 April 1955.
The Shanghai French Concession was a foreign concession in Shanghai, China from 1849 until 1943. For much of the 20th century, the area covered by the former French Concession remained the premier residential and retail district of Shanghai. It was also one of the centers of Catholicism in China. Despite re-development over the last few decades, the area retains a distinct character and is a popular tourist destination.
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Pudong is a district of Shanghai located east of the Huangpu, the river which flows through central Shanghai. The name Pudong was originally applied to the Huangpu's east bank, directly across from the west bank or Puxi, the historic city center. It now refers to the broader Pudong New Area, a state-level new area which extends all the way to the East China Sea.
The traditional area of Pudong is now home to the Lujiazui Finance and Trade Zone and the Shanghai Stock Exchange and many of Shanghai's best-known buildings, such as the Oriental Pearl Tower, the Jin Mao Tower, the Shanghai World Financial Center, and the Shanghai Tower. These modern skyscrapers directly face Puxi's historic Bund, a remnant of former foreign concessions in China. The rest of the new area includes the Port of Shanghai, the Shanghai Expo and Century Park, Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park, Shanghai Pudong International Airport, the Jiuduansha Wetland Nature Reserve, Nanhui New City, and the Shanghai Disney Resort.