unequal treaty

Noun

unequal treaty (plural unequal treaties)

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...2011, Henry Kissinger, On China, New York: Penguin Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, pages 59–60