The era of unequal treaties is etched deeply into the Chinese historical memory.
From the middle of the 19th century until the First World War, the European colonial powers forced the weak emperor in Beijing to open up the country to western traders and even to cede areas such as Hong Kong, Macao and Qingdao.
Every Chinese knows this time as an era of humiliation - and the self-confident to aggressive behavior of the Chinese rulers today also has its origin in it. But now China is itself a great power and is economically active in all corners of the world. Above all, the inferior developing countries are now dictated by contracts that can certainly also be described as “unequal” - and that is still a cautious assessment.