Treaty of Shimonoseki

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Treaty of Shimonoseki" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (April 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Treaty of Shimonoseki

Japanese version of the Treaty of Shimonoseki, April 17, 1895
Type	Unequal treaty
Signed	April 17, 1895
Location	Shimonoseki, Japan
Effective	May 8, 1895
Signatories	China Japan
Parties	Li Hongzhang, Li Jingfang Itō Hirobumi, Mutsu Munemitsu
Depositary	National Palace Museum, Taiwan National Archives of Japan
Language	Chinese and Japanese

The Treaty of Shimonoseki (Japanese: 下関条約, Hepburn: Shimonoseki Jōyaku), also known as the Treaty of Maguan (Chinese: 馬關條約; pinyin: Mǎguān Tiáoyuē; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Má-koan Tiâu-iok) in China or the Treaty of Bakan (馬關條約, Bakan Jōyaku) in Japan, was signed at the Shunpanrō [ja] hotel in Shimonoseki, Japan, on April 17, 1895, between the Empire of Japan and Qing China. It was an unequal treaty and ended the First Sino-Japanese War, in which Chinese land and naval forces were decisively defeated by the Japanese. The treaty was signed by Count Ito Hirobumi and Viscount Mutsu Munemitsu for Japan and Li Hongzhang and his son Li Jingfang on behalf of China.

The peace conference took place from March 20 to April 17, 1895, and the treaty followed and superseded the Sino-Japanese Friendship and Trade Treaty of 1871.^[1][2] It consisted of 11 articles which provided for the termination of China's tributary relations with Korea; required that China pay an indemnity of 200 million taels and cede Taiwan (Formosa), the Penghu (Pescadores) Islands, and the Liaodong Peninsula to Japan; and opened four cities (Shashi, Chongqing, Suzhou, and Hangzhou) to Japan as trading ports. However, due to the diplomatic Triple Intervention of Russia, Germany, and France just one week after the treaty was signed, the Japanese withdrew their claim to the Liaodong Peninsula in return for an additional war indemnity of 30 million taels from China.

Chinese scholars and officials vigorously opposed the harsh terms of the treaty, but it was ratified by the Guangxu Emperor. The cession of Taiwan and the Penghu Islands met with strong resistance by the local populace, and the islands were not taken over by Japan until October 1895. At the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1945, Japan surrendered and later signed the Treaty of Taipei with the Republic of China on 28 April 1952, which officially abrogated the Treaty of Shimonoseki.