Dictionary

unequal treaty en · NOUN

Meanings

1. (historical) treaty forced upon weaker nations by imperialist powers
   • In China, where a subcolonial state had resulted from a series of unequal treaties imposed upon her, the Russian Communists found fertile soil for the reception of their ideas, and thus prepared the way for their subversive infiltration. 1957, Chiang Chung-cheng (Kai-shek), “Introduction”, in Soviet Russia in China: A Summing-up at Seventy, New York: Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 5:
   • Officials charged with managing China’s foreign relations offered concessions in various cities — but they deliberately invited multiple sets of foreigners to share in the spoils, so that they could “use barbarians against barbarians” and avoid dominance by any one power. They eventually insisted on scrupulous adherence to the “unequal treaties” with the West and to foreign principles of international law, not because Chinese officials believed them to be valid, but because such conduct provided a means to circumscribe foreign ambitions. 2011, Henry Kissinger, On China, New York: Penguin Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, pages 59–60:

Forms

Translations (6)

yue 不平等條約 /不平等条约 (treaty forced upon weaker nations by imperialist power) · nan-hbl 不平等條約 /不平等条约 (treaty forced upon weaker nations by imperialist power) · ko 불평등조약 (treaty forced upon weaker nations by imperialist power) · vi hiệp ước bất bình đẳng (treaty forced upon weaker nations by imperialist power) · ja 不平等条約 (treaty forced upon weaker nations by imperialist power) · cmn 不平等條約 /不平等条约 (treaty forced upon weaker nations by imperialist power)