Russia, which had been expanding into Central Asia, had taken the first step in the foreign powers' effort to carve up the Qing Empire.

By the 1850s, tsarist troops also had invaded the Heilongjiang watershed of Manchuria, from which their countrymen had been ejected under the Treaty of Nerchinsk.

The Russians had used the superior knowledge of China they had acquired through their century-long residence in Beijing to further their aggrandizement.

In 1860 Russian diplomats had secured the secession of all of Manchuria north of the Heilongjiang and east of the Wusuli Jiang (Ussuri River).

Foreign encroachments had increased after 1860 by means of a series of treaties imposed on China on one pretext or another.

The foreign stranglehold on the vital sectors of the Chinese economy is reinforced through a lengthening list of concessions.

Foreign settlements in the treaty ports becomes extraterritorial—sovereign pockets of territories over which China has no jurisdiction.

The safety of these foreign settlements is ensured by the menacing presence of warships and gunboats.