Ch 25 - End of the Hermit Kingdom

America First

The United States, working closely with Chinese negotiators concluded the Treaty of Peace, Amity, Commerce and Navigation with Korea. Within months, Korea concluded similar treaties with Britain and Germany. In less than four years, Korea concluded commercial treaties with Russia, France, Austria, Belgium, Denmark and others.

Under a Qing imperial edict dated January 23, 1882, Li Hongzhang began work in Baoding on a document he envisioned as the basis for all future treaties between Korea and the West. Li apparently shared Korea's apprehension that certain witnesses, Russia and Japan, might dislike the idea of China helping Korea conclude a treaty with the Americans. In an atmosphere of near complete secrecy, he instructed Ma Chien-chung, an expert on international law, and Chou Fu, the senior customs officer of Tianjin, to prepare the Chinese draft treaty for the Korean government as a reference.

Commodore Shufeldt, who had his own reasons for avoiding the watchful eyes of foreign representatives in China, declined to meet with Li at Baoding for the preliminary treaty discussions. Instead, with the able assistance of Chester Holcombe, America's chargé d'affaires in Beijing, Shufeldt conducted preliminary treaty talks with Ma Chien-chung and Chou Fu. The talks dragged on for weeks without agreement and Shufeldt became quite impatient with the slow pace. In mid-March, he announced his intention to go to Korea and hold direct talks with Korean authorities. The surprise announcement moved Li Hongzhang to act. Unwilling to lose the initiative in the treaty process, Li decided to enlist the aide of Ma Chien-chung and Chou Fu and personally negotiate with Shufeldt on Korea's behalf. In the month-long deliberations that began in late March, the central problem became Korea's international political status.

Li Hongzhang saw an opportunity in the Korean treaty talks to remedy some of the damage done by the 1876 Treaty of Kanghwa. He insisted that the document's first article should clearly address the issue of Korea's international status by declaring the kingdom's dependence on China. Kim Yun-sik preferred wording that said, "for China, Korea is a dependent country;   for all others, Korea is independent."

China's often repeated claim that Korea acted as a sovereign in matters of foreign relations prompted Commodore Shufeldt to take a position that differed little from the Japanese position as outlined by Mori Arinori or defined by General Kuroda Kiyotaka in his talks with General Sin Hon. America would conclude a treaty with Korea on the basis of complete equality between the two partners. From America's perspective, there was no need to recognize Korea's dependence on China and it did not care if Korea had to ask China's approval for the treaty.

Li Hongzhang repeatedly tried, and failed, to insert a treaty clause that implied China's continued suzerainty over Korea. When negotiations stalled over this point, Li balked at pursuing the matter further and suggested that Shufeldt send a telegram to Washington to ask for instructions. Shufeldt remained unyielding on the issue of Korean sovereignty and never received further instructions from Washington. Li's determination to preserve Chinese suzerainty over Korea under the tribute system could not overcome his belief that an American treaty with Korea would be far more important than an explicit reference to tributary relations. As a final compromise, Li agreed that after signing the treaty, King Kojong would send a communique to the president of the United States that declared Korea's dependency on China.

After carefully considering each article in the proposed document, Li Hongzhang, Ma Chien-chung, and Chou Fu produced a preliminary fourteen article treaty convention by late April 1882 that seemed moderately satisfactory to all parties. The three Chinese diplomats demonstrated their knowledge of international law and their diplomatic skill by obtaining far better terms for Korea in the treaty convention than those obtained by China in its treaties with Western powers or in Korea's treaty with Japan. Li affixed his seal to the document, dated according to the Chinese calendar and Commodore Shufeldt signed for the United States .

Article 1 guaranteed perpetual peace and friendship between the United States and Korea and also provided for the good offices of either government in case of oppression by another power. Article 2 provided for the exchange of diplomatic and consular officers, and Article 3 secured protection for navigation. Article 4 provided extraterritoriality for American citizens until such time as the laws of Korea could be changed to conform with those of the United States. By carefully crafting the tariff provisions of the treaty, in Article 5 Li Hongzhang helped insure that American economic activities in Korea would not seriously compete with those of China. The draft treaty placed a ten percent customs duty on the import of necessities and a thirty percent duty on luxuries;   commodities exported to America would pay a duty of only five per cent. Article 6 provided concessions for Americans to lease land in the capital city of Seoul for a legation and residences. Article 7 prohibited the import of opium into Korea.

Article 8 authorized the king to temporarily prohibit the export of foodstuffs whenever they became scarce. This article also prohibited the export of rice and grains of every description from the open port of Inchon. Article 9 restricted the import of all kinds of weapons into Korea. Article 10 permitted either country to employ natives for lawful work, and Article 11 created a student exchange program. According to Article 12, further negotiations would be held within five years for detailed commercial provisions and trade regulations. Article 13 established that English and Chinese would be the official languages in communications between Korea and the United States. Finally, Article 14 contained the clause granting the United States the right to trade under most-favored-nation status.

News of Shufeldt's positive gains negotiating with Li Hongzhang during the spring of 1882 triggered anxiety in London and Berlin. Harry Parkes became worried that the United States, with negligible commercial interests involved, would concentrate only on signing the first treaty with Korea. If the treaty granted Korea high trade tariffs, it might do serious harm to Britain's future prospects for trade on the peninsula. Germany's minister Karl von Eisendecher remained unconcerned about the matter of trade, but considered it a matter of great political prestige for Germany to play a role in Korea. To better monitor developments in Korea, the British government ordered Vice Admiral George O.J. Willes, commander of Britain's China Station, to cruise the waters off Korea's west coast to observe Shufeldt's actions.

Li had received a letter from Seoul in mid-April in which Chief State Councillor Yi Choe-ung announced the appointment and dispatch of two plenipotentiaries to Tianjin. The treaty was now finished however, and there was not a Korean representative in sight. Commodore Shufeldt had scheduled his trip to Korea for May 7 and refused to postpone his departure just to wait for them. Li and Kim Yun-sik decided to rush an envoy from the Korea Winter Solstice Mission, then in Beijing, back to Seoul along with the treaty document.

Concerned that the treaty alone might be insufficient to guarantee a smooth understanding with the Seoul government, Commodore Shufeldt and Kim Yun-sik asked the Chinese government to assign some experts to help with negotiations. Since no one in Korea was fluent in foreign languages or familiar with the conduct of foreign affairs, Li feared that if Shufeldt went to Korea alone, he might soon find himself in trouble. Li Hongzhang informed Chief State Councilor Yi Choe-ung that Shufeldt would soon be leaving for Korea. To demonstrate China's magnanimity toward Korea, he added that Ma Chien-chung and Admiral Ting Ju-shang, commander of the Beiyang Navy, would accompany Shufeldt to mediate between the commodore and Korean officials. This time, there would be no failure.

The diplomatic party gathered in Tianjin on May 3 and left China three days later. In a tradition-shattering display of the method by which Li executed China's new Korean policy, the Chinese delegation sailed from the port of Chefoo (modern Yantai) aboard the modern Chinese warships Wei-Yuan, Yang-wei and Chen-hai. A less dramatic, but equally significant aspect of this mission, was the fact that for the first time in the history of Qing-Korean relations, the Imperial Court dispatched Han Chinese, not Manchus, as its principal official representatives to Korea. When the Chinese warships reached the mouth of the Han River on May 8, they discovered Hanabusa Yoshitada's ship resting at anchor. The Japanese envoy, recently returned from Nagasaki, was evidently eager to observe the impending events from nearby.

Commodore Shufeldt departed Chefoo (modern Yantai) aboard the USS Swatara on May 7 and anchored in the port of Inchon four days later. Korean officials welcomed Shufeldt's party ashore the next day at a reception house prepared for him in town. Prior to the arrival of the Korean negotiating team, Ma Chien-chung made one final attempt to gain Shufeldt's consent for ordering King Kojong to issue a declaration of Korea's dependency on China before concluding the treaty. Shufeldt again refused.

The Korean negotiating team, comprised of chief negotiator General Sin Hon, a newly appointed minister of the T'ongnigimu Amun, his deputy Kim Hong-jip, and an attendant named So Sang-u, arrived in Inchon on May 14. General Sin and Kim first paid an official visit to Ma Chien-chung and Admiral Ting. Upon boarding the Admiral's flagship, both officials kowtowed in the direction of the Chinese Emperor in Beijing and extended official greetings to the Han emissaries. With the ceremonial preliminaries concluded, Sin and Kim next greeted Commodore Shufeldt aboard the USS Swatara.

In the few days of negotiations that followed, General Sin and Kim proposed only one minor change to the draft treaty. They requested that instead of a ban only on grains, Article 9 be changed to permit the king to issue a general prohibition on all exports from Inchon. In his eagerness to conclude his mission, Shufeldt readily agreed to the addition. On May 22, 1882, Shufeldt and his party proceeded to the reception tent where General Sin Hon, Kim Hong-jip, Ma Chien-chung, and Admiral Ting Ju-shang waited.

After a short, very friendly and harmonious ceremony, the Americans suddenly realized they did not carry a seal of the United States. A single $20 gold piece served in its place. Commodore Shufeldt, General Sin Hon and Kim Hong-jip signed the fourteen article "Treaty of Peace, Amity, Commerce and Navigation ," and sealed the document, not with the imprint of the great seal of the United States, but that of the Double Eagle. At the conclusion of the signing ceremonies, the Swatara fired a twenty-one gun salute. Commodore Shufeldt left Inchon the following day and, after an extended stay in Japan, returned to the United States.

With the Korean-American treaty now an accomplished fact, England finally decided to conclude its own treaty with Korea. The British Parliament gave Vice Admiral Willes the authorization to negotiate with Korean authorities to secure most-favored-nation status for Great Britain. Sir Thomas Wade, who felt that Britain could not get terms more favorable than the Americans without resorting to force, worked behind the scenes to advocate using the Shufeldt Convention as a model for the British treaty. Wade reportedly urged Li Hongzhang to disuss the dispatch of Vice Admiral Willes to Korea with the Chinese Foreign Office. Li's initial reluctance to agree to the proposal disappeared after Wade promised that Britain would use the exact wording of the American treaty "without changing a single character." Li then gave Wade a copy of the American treaty and a letter of introduction to Ma Chien-chung.

Vice Admiral Willes aboard the British dispatch-boat HMS Vigilant, and C.T. Maude, Minister Wade's secretary aboard the gunboat HMS Sheldrake, departed Chefoo for Korea on May 25, just three days after Commodore Shufeldt signed the American treaty. On the evening of May 27, as Ma Chien-chung and Admiral Ting Ju-Chang returned to Inchon from a royal audience in Seoul, they were surprised to find British ships anchored offshore. After C.T. Maude contacted the Chinese, they postponed their departure for China and hurriedly sent word to Seoul for negotiators. Although Ma stubbornly opposed even the slightest change to the American treaty text, Cho Yong-ha and Kim Hong-jip agreed to three supplementary articles contained in a separate protocol.

After brief negotiations, again with Ma Chien-chung acting as intermediary, the separate protocol agreement gave the British access to the Japanese treaty ports of Pusan, Wonsan and Inchon. It permitted British warships to enter any Korean harbor to buy provisions, take on fresh water and conduct maintenance, and permitted the British navy to conduct navigation surveys along the Korean coast. On the afternoon of June 6, 1882, in a ceremonial tent pitched near the beach, Willes, Cho, and Kim signed and sealed the British "Treaty of Peace, Amity, Commerce and Navigation." The document was supplemented by a Communication from the King of Korea to the Queen of England that contained a declaration of Korea's dependency on China.

Within days after Li Hongzhang consented to the British mission to Korea, Germany's minister in Beijing, Maximilian von Brandt, expressed his intention to the acting governor-general of Chihli Province, Chang Shu-sheng, that Germany wished to conclude a treaty with Korea. Chang had a difficult time convincing Brandt there would be no changes to the wording of the treaties established for the Americans and the British. After a few days of talks, Brandt and his party sailed for Inchon, accompanied by the recently returned Chinese envoys Ma and Ting. Following the exchange of credentials on June 27 with Cho Yong-ha and Kim Hong-jip, Maximilian von Brandt, Cho and Kim signed and sealed the German-Korean Treaty on June 30, 1882, a document identical to the previous treaties with the United States and Great Britain. The document was supplemented by a Communication from the King of Korea to the King of Prussia that declared Korean dependency on China.

The rapid succession of treaties with Korea in 1882 climaxed the long and difficult effort to open Korea, an effort initiated by France and the United States in the late 1860s and early 1870s. From beginning to end, Korea's first treaties with Western powers had been masterminded and negotiated by the diplomatic efforts of China's statesman Li Hongzhang under his new "treaty-system policy" for Korea. By departing from its tradition of non-interference in Korean affairs, the Qing government directly intervened and virtually took over the entire conduct of Korean foreign policy.

Korea's treaties with the West at last tied it to the legal structure of the "unequal treaties" that the West began imposing on East Asia in 1842. Korea signed treaties with Italy and Russia in 1884, and with France in 1886. Subsequently, Korea concluded treaties of commerce with Austria, Belgium, Denmark and others. Korea, the very touchstone of East Asian diplomacy, irreversibly marked the end of its seclusion by taking its first steps on the international stage. It opened itself not just to Western commerce, but to outside pressures and influences that held unforeseeable consequences.

Japan drove the first wedge into the facade of China's ancient world order with the Treaty of Kanghwa, but China presided over the distribution of treaty favors to the West. Japan took a great interest in the rapid succession of treaties between Korea and the West, each made with China's help. Hanabusa Yoshitada and Kondo Masuki eagerly sought to catch even a glimpse of the treaty language, but they were refused every time with the answer that the treaties would remain secret until they were ratified. It must have seemed particularly humiliating when Commodore Shufeldt, in Hanabusa's presence, praised Li Hongzhang and Ma Chien-chung for their assistance in concluding the American treaty. China and Korea considered the treaty with the United States, not the Kanghwa Treaty with Japan, to be the first step in opening the hermit kingdom to the outside world.