SHANGHAI- Is China now inferior? It is beginning to be perceived this way because China seems to be under the order of Japan and the selfish West. Beginning with the defeat of the Opium War, series of unequal treaties were made. Since the Treaty of Nanking two years ago, Great Britain began to be the most belligerent power, demanding favor over the other Western powers (1). Each time China was defeated by one or more Western powers, it lost some of its territories and some of its rights as an independent state (2). When Hong Kong was ceded to Britain, China paid 21 million Mexican dollars and British troops were to occupy the Zhoushan Islands until it was handed over (3). Owing to the so-called most-favored-nation clause, China was taken advantage of as other powers attempted to take over as well, forming the basis of the unequal treaties system (4). The locally hired military leaders or warlords, were persuaded to sell lands off the coast, to these strangers with their foreign guns. Maybe through British force, the warlords were compelled to announce that their certain province belonging to Britain, would never be ceded to another nation (5).
Five major ports have opened up for these dominating nations. Shanghai, Guangzhou, Xiamen, Fuzhou, and Ningbo were declared treaty ports. After the Sino-Japanese War, Britain refused to help China to regain its strength, fearing Japanese aggression (6). Therefore, they demanded these trading ports known as spheres of influence. Each treaty port is subject only to the legal jurisdiction of their consul, can anchor their warships in the port, have access to any Chinese port when the interests of trade demanded, and can buy land and open schools-a privilege particularly advantageous to the missionaries, though they were not specifically mentioned in the treaties (7). Furthermore, these powers freely build their own offices, warehouses, and hotels and hire the Chinese for cheap labor (8). They are controlling our natural resources, trade, transportation and our lives.

On China's territory, it is respectable that foreign countries abide by
China's governing laws. However, they want their own laws, rather than Chinese ones. Britain uses this to their advantage. They have the right of extra-territoriality which permits them to apply their own laws and ignore those of China in specified sections within ports (9). Instead, they have seriously undermined the territorial integrity of China (10). Moreover, Chinese troops are not allowed to come within a specified distance of Chinese ports, usually fifteen miles (11). Even more, China's citizens have paid for the construction of these spheres for these intruders (12). Is this not our China? Why do other nations try to colonize our domineering power in Asia? They say the spheres of influence are not colonies (13). One excellent reason why China is only moderately fond of trading with foreigners is that her home trade is immense... noted the traveler, Lazarist Evartiste Huc after his journey through China, it is such a vast, rich, and varied country that internal trade is more than enough to occupy the part of the nation which can perform commercial operation... there is everywhere to be seen movement and a feverish activity which is not to be found in the largest towns of Europe (14). But Europeans take this asset to their advantage. The guns of foreigners dominate our ports (15). How are we going to protect China's territory when we are faced with these weapons to our heads?
Some citizens have accepted the fact that China is no longer an dominant power. China is a sub-colony, Dr. Sun, a resident of Shanghai says of the effects made by these powers, a status below a normal colony which serves only one master (16). Britain is the strongest power of the other nations corrupting China including France, Germany, Russia, and Japan. Is it fair that our own land is being invaded by five other nations who show no respect for what we had as China? Our humiliation has only grown just as our reputation has been shut down. If we let the West take over Asia, we lose the pride we once had.

Text Sources:
1. Jean Chesneaux, Marianne Bastid, and Marie-Claire Bergere, China from the Opium Wars to the 1911 Revolution (New York: Pantheon, 1976), 65.
2. Lands and Peoples, 1995 ed., s.v. China.
3. Jean Chesneaux, Marianne Bastid, and Marie-Claire Bergere, 65.
4. Ibid., 65.
5. Ray Huang, China: A Macro History (Armonk: M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 1988), 215.
6. Steven Warshaw, China Emerges (Berkeley: Diablo Press Inc., 1994), 80.
7. Jean Chesneaux, Marianne Bastid, and Marie-Claire Bergere, 65.
8. Warshaw, 80.
9. Ibid., 77.
10. China: Understanding its Past (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1998), 113.
11. Huang, 215.
12. Warshaw, 80.
13. China: Understanding its Past, 113.
14. Pere Huc, L' Empire chinois (Paris, 1879) 153-154.
15. Warshaw, 81.
16. Huang, 215.

Image Sources:
1. Map
"Prentice Hall school | Brief Reviews," [http://www.phschool.com/curriculum_support/brief_review/global_history/essay_questions/dbq6.cfm], 2001.

2. Boats at Port

J. Buschini, "The Boxer Rebellion," [http://www.smplanet.com/imperialism/fists.html], 2000.

3. The Treaty of Nanjing

Pat Elliott Shircore, "East Asian Studies Images: Treaty of Nanjing," [http://www.isop.ucla.edu/eas/images/nanjingtreaty.htm]