In 1900, eight Western powers, led by Britain and Russia, launched a war against China under the pretext of suppressing the Boxer Rebellion. At that time, the Qing government was corrupt and incompetent, and in the face of the war of aggression against China united by the eight countries, Empress Dowager Cixi had no power to fight back, and could only flee to the west with the Guangxu Emperor and other party, and a year later, Li Hongzhang signed a series of unequal treaties with the Eight-Nation Alliance, the most famous of which was the "Xinugu Treaty".
The signing of the Treaty of Xinugu deprived the Qing government of most of its national strength and property. The Qing Dynasty's international status plummeted, and the signing of this treaty was one of the most humiliating treaties in Chinese history. In addition to these demands for the cession of land and the need for various countries to garrison troops, there was also the need for the Qing Dynasty to pay compensation to various countries. Since the Qing Dynasty was compromising with many countries this time, the indemnities he needed were not a small amount. The treaty stipulated that the Qing Dynasty would need to pay a total of 450 million taels of silver.
But for the Qing government at that time, there was no way to take out so much money at once. Therefore, the Western powers demanded that the Qing government repay the loan in installments, and the term of the 450 million taels of silver indemnity was 39 years, and it was still necessary to calculate interest every year, and after 39 years, the Qing government needed to pay a total of 980 million taels of silver. Because of the huge amount of compensation, this indemnity is also known as "Gengzi indemnity"
Speaking of this, friends who are familiar with Chinese history have doubts, the Qing Dynasty ceased to exist in 1912, and at this time, it was only more than ten years since the signing of the "Xinugu Treaty", and the Qing government only paid back for more than 10 years, and it was impossible to pay this almost astronomical amount of indemnity at once. But it is incumbent upon us to kill people and pay off debts, so what about the remaining debts? Could it be that the debt of national demise has been extinguished? The answer, of course, is no.
Even after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the Western powers had no intention of giving up this indemnity, but continued to demand that the Nationalist government pay off the remaining debts. In a later negotiation, U.S. officials mentioned Gengzi's reparations and said that the United States wanted more, so Chinese officials seized the opportunity to let the United States return it. In the face of the pressure of public opinion, the United States can only return the favor.
Later, with the changes in the international pattern, after the outbreak of World War I, various countries began to win over China, so the matter of indemnity came to an end. As China's national power increased, victories were won in the wars between Germany and Austria-Hungary, so this reparation was offset. In 1924, with the impetus of the "October Revolution" in Russia, Tsarist Russia collapsed and established the Soviet government, and the newly established government also voluntarily gave up reparations.
With the changes in China's international situation, countries have also returned the reparations to China one after another, and only one country has been asking China to continue to pay reparations, that is, Japan. It was not until 1939 that the Chinese government officially announced that it would stop paying reparations to Japan.
From 1902 to 1939, in the past 37 years, China has paid more than 576 million taels in compensation.