Gando Convention - Japanese Interventions

Japanese Interventions

By 1905, the Korean Empire was effectively a Japanese protectorate (see Eulsa Treaty). As a result of the Russo-Japanese War which ended in the same year, Korea was fully surrounded and occupied by Japanese troops. The negotiations to end the Russo-Japanese War resulted in the Portsmouth Treaty, which stated that "Japan possesses in Korea paramount political, military, and economical interests" and with the Russian concessions to Japan effectively ensured a Japanese sphere of influence in northeast Asia.

In 1907, Japanese forces infiltrated the rather porous border between Korea and China, but a few months after this infiltration, the Japanese called the border issue "unsettled" because the majority of the population there was still ethnically Korean; as effective overlords of Korea, they claimed that Japan's jurisdiction over Korean subjects should extend into Gando, and invaded Gando in force in August 1907, which resulted in the Qing administration of China issuing a 13-point refutation asserting its claim to Jiandao.