Surrounding Great Power’s Policies on the ‘Independent issue of Corea' with Relation to the Sino-Japanese War

Abstract

The study focuses on the ‘independent issue of Corea and the international relations under the situations of the Sino-Japanese War. During the War, ‘the independence of Corea’, regardless of sovereignty and territorial integrity as an independent nation, was under the restrictions of the structure of strategic interest for the Great Powers including Japan and China. Japan’s exclusive ambition over the Korean Peninsula, which pretended to be ‘independence of Corea’, consistently revealed during the war period. China, on the other hand, wanted to prevent the Korean Peninsula from the falling into the hands of the Japanese as a whole, leaning on the intervention of the Powers. The ambiguous attitudes of China between ‘independence of Corea’ and suzerainty were one of the major factors in prolonging the war and delaying the peace negotiations. Of the Powers with concerns in East Asia, the United States hoped to use Japan to terminate China’s suzerainty over Corea, open the door to Chinese trade and investment and weaken the influence of Britain and Russia in East Asia. Britain and Russia also checked each other because the partner country might try to expand its power alone in the Korean Peninsula. British Lord Kimberley’s ‘common intervention’ by the powers was a way to prevent Russian monopoly on the Korean Peninsula, and to avoid ‘armed intervention’. His proposals of ‘joint occupation of Corea’ and ‘separate Protection’ by China and Japan came from a large frame to control Russia, but as a result, it became a guideline to Japan to open the war. Since the beginning of October in 1894, when the war spread to mainland China, Kimberley’s proposal, ‘independence of Corea guaranteed by the Powers’, was intended to exclude any power’s monopolies on the Korean peninsula including victorious Japan. Russia also hoped to prevent the subjugation of Corea by any power and adopt a wait-and-see policy at least until the completion of the Trans-Siberian Railway. But as soon as Japan’s crucial victory threatened the ‘independence of Corea and of China’, Russia will be involved actively the issue through the Triple Intervention in April 1895.