The International Transactions Respecting Telecommunication In Late Qing Dynasty

Since the sixties of 19th century, the western powers managed to expand their telecommunication in China. Lacking in the knowledge and consciousness of maritime sovereignty, the Qing government was content with retaining the land telecommunication sovereignty, permitted the western powers to lay submarines in China's territorial sea and waived the maritime telecommunication sovereignty, which actually led to the loss of jurisdiction over submarine cable landing.In order to relieve the Chinese international telecommunication from being bound, contain foreign telecommunication's expansion and contest the economic interests from foreign telecommunication companies, China managed to link land cables near the boundary together with neighbors, on the other hand, contest to share the telegraph fee income of foreign companies, which took some effect.Along the international telecommunication transactions, China came to apprehend deeply the international law and had a rational belief in it. As a important theoretical weapon and tool, international law was cited and manipulated more and more skillfully by Chinese, which to some extent fortified the China's telecommunication right and benefit. However, the effect of international was slim. China had to take back the lost right and benefit by purchasing , lending and linking cables, although Chinese confirmed more than once the illegality of the western powers' acts. Furthermore, China's land telecommunication sovereignty couldn't keep its integration.