Treaty of Shimonoseki

Eleven articles at Shimonoseki

At Shimonoseki on 17 April 1895, the Japanese plenipotentiaries Itō Hirobumi and Mutsu Munemitsu and the Qing plenipotentiaries Li Hongzhang and Li Jingfang signed an eleven-article peace treaty.

It was the seventh negotiating session. Li Hongzhang had returned to the table after being shot in the face by Koyama Toyotarō on 24 March, an attack that prompted Japan to soften its armistice position and agree to an unconditional armistice on 30 March.

What China conceded

China agreed to recognise Korea's full independence and autonomy and to end Korean tribute and related formalities. It ceded to Japan the southern portion of Fengtian, including the Liaodong Peninsula, together with Taiwan and the Penghu Islands.

China also accepted an indemnity of 200,000,000 Kuping taels, payable in eight instalments with the last due within seven years of the exchange of ratifications and 5% annual interest on arrears. Four further cities — Shashi, Chongqing, Suzhou and Hangzhou — were opened to Japanese trade, residence, industry and manufacturing.

Signing was not the end of it

Not every clause took effect on signature. Article X delayed the legal cessation of offensive operations until ratifications were exchanged, which happened on 8 May 1895, and fighting continued in Taiwan afterwards.

Residents of the ceded territories were given two years from that exchange to sell their property and leave.

Six days after the signatures, Russia, Germany and France delivered the Triple Intervention against Japan's possession of Liaodong; the territory had been ceded in full sovereignty, and a separate convention later formally retroceded it to China.