An Outrage Having Been Committed Upon
Some Of Her Sailors, Japan Obtained, By Way Of Reparation From The Court
Of Seoul, The Opening Of The Port Of Fushan To Her Trade.
Four years
later, Chemulpo, the port of Seoul, was also opened.
These forward steps
on the part of the Japanese aroused the Chinese to activity, and, in 1881,
a draft commercial treaty was prepared by the Chinese authorities in
council with the representatives of the principal powers at Pekin, and
sent to Seoul, where it was accepted. The Japanese alleged, however, that
they possessed a historical right to an equal voice with China in the
Corean peninsula, and that, consequently, the treaty to which we have just
referred required their ratification. To sustain this claim, the Japanese
allied themselves with the Progressive party in Corea, a move which
compelled the Chinese to lean upon the Reactionists, who were opposed to
the concessions lately made to foreigners, and who, as events were to
show, were preponderant in the Hermit Kingdom. In June, 1882, the Corean
Reactionists attacked the Japanese Legation at Seoul, murdered some
members of it, and compelled the survivors to flee to the seacoast.
Thereupon, the Mikado sent some troops to exact reparation, and the
Chinese, on their part, dispatched a force to restore order. A compromise
was brought about, and, for two years, Japanese and Chinese soldiers
remained encamped beside one another under the walls of the Corean
capital. In December, 1884, however, a second collision occurred between
the Japanese and the Coreans, the latter being, this time, assisted by the
Chinese. The Mikado's subjects were again compelled to take to flight. The
Tokio government now resolved upon firm measures, and, while it exacted
compensation from the Coreans, it sent Count Ito Hirobumi to China to
bring about an accommodation with the Pekin government. At that
conjuncture, there is no doubt that China possessed advantages in the
Corean peninsula that were lacking to the Japanese. Not only was she
popular with the majority of the people, but the treaty powers were more
disposed to act through her than through Japan in order to secure the
general extension of trade with the Hermit Kingdom. Those advantages,
nevertheless, were thrown away by an agreement which the shortsighted
advisers of the Chinese emperor were persuaded to accept. Li Hung Chang
was appointed the Chinese Plenipotentiary to negotiate with Count Ito,
and, after a short conference, a convention was signed at Tientsin on
April 18, 1885. The provisions of the convention were, first, that both
countries should withdraw their troops from Corea; secondly, that no more
officers should be sent by either country to drill the Corean army; and,
thirdly, that if, at any future time, either of the two countries should
send troops to Corea, it must inform the other. It is manifest that, by
this agreement, China, practically, acquiesced in Japan's assertion of an
equal right to control the Hermit Kingdom. Thenceforth, it was impossible
to speak of Corea as being a vassal state of the Celestial Empire.
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