Editing Gando Convention (section)

== Japanese interventions ==
By 1905, the [[Korean Empire]] was effectively a [[Empire of Japan|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 [[Imperial Japanese Army|Japanese troops]]. The negotiations to end the war resulted in the [[Portsmouth Treaty]], which stated, "Japan possesses in Korea paramount political, military, and economical {{sic}} interests"<ref>Text of the Portsmouth Treaty. New York Times, 1905 October 17. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1905/10/17/101829875.pdf</ref> 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. A few months later, 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 [[Jiandao|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]].

As the Korean boundary dispute with China and the large population of ethnic Koreans in Gando was no secret to anyone in [[Northeast Asia]], it is likely that the Japanese proposed the Gando Convention as a potential threat to continue pressing to claim [[Jiandao|Gando]] for Korea as a part of the [[Japanese Empire]] if the concessions by China to Japan listed in the Convention were not granted.