Research On Domestic Public Opinions Of Abolishing Unequal Treaties(1931—1937)

Nanjing national government continued the struggle against unequal treaties once founded. After the government has made some achievements, the Mukden Incident happened in1931interrupted the negotiation. As a result, public opinions became silent. There were only several articles published. Intellectuals paid their attention to resisting Japan. In1933,the trading contracts of Britain-China and the United States-China has expired, then public opinions gradually became active. In1937, Kuomintang five the third plenary session of the waste in China from all countries passed consular jurisdiction case, the national parties responded actively. In addition, Egypt made efforts to abolish the consular jurisdiction, stimulating patriotic persons. With these two factors, public opinion of abolishing unequal treaties was flourishing.The elites from political, legal science and business fields were key members of Public opinions in this period. Domestic people were guided by their speeches to pay attention to the task of abolishing unequal treaties. Public opinions formed certain pressure on Nanjing government and played supervision and effectiveness. National crisis, the domestic pressure of public opinion became the power of the Government’s denunciation of the practice. Meanwhile, the denunciation attitude of the government also promoted the enthusiasm of the public. The main content of the intellectual discussion was out of reality, such as repair about at the chattering classes to our country the practice of previous governments about movement of the overall review and reflection, to sum up experience, and of Sino-British, Central America, and the reasonable Suggestions about the proposed, remind the government taking about what problem that we should. The Oriental Journal Vol31, No.12, published in1934, is set to discuss the revision of unequal treaties, and it became an important filed of the public opinion. Considering how to abolish unequal treaties, scholars put forward the international law of new ideas, which was a reasonable advice. Since consular jurisdiction in the unequal treaties is one of the most serious privilege, many articles were written, to make people know more about it. At this time, with Japan direct military aggression, intellectuals also called for anti-Japan movements, public discussed the right chance to abolish unequal treaties. In addition, public opinions also explored other important treaty privileges, such as inland navigation right and one-sided most-favoured-nation treatment. According to the author’s research, there were two climaxes in1934and1937. After all, since some social elites join it, public opinion in this period gradually became rational, no longer blindly fierce view put forward. Social elites discussed the problems, providing some advice to the government. However, in the national crisis, resisting Japan is the most urgent task, so the development of public opinion is restricted, unlike the public opinion in the20’s which can affect the government’s decision.