Sino-Japanese War, First, 1894-95, conflict between China and Japan for control of Korea in the late 19th cent. The Li-lto Convention of 1885 provided for mutual troop withdrawals and advance notification of any new troop movements into Korea. Accordingly, when a Korean revolt erupted in 1894, both countries sent troops. However, after the insurrection had been suppressed, Japan refused to withdraw its troops and induced the Korean court to abrogate its agreement with China. The fighting that ensued between Chinese and Japanese forces ended with an easy victory for the more modern Japanese army.

The Treaty of Shimonoseki (1895) declared Korea independent and provided for the cession of Taiwan, the Pescadores, and the Liaodong peninsula by China to Japan. China also had to pay a large indemnity. Within a week of the treaty signing, however, the diplomatic intervention of Russia, France, and Germany forced Japan to return the Liaodong peninsula to China. Under a subsidiary commercial treaty (1896), China yielded to Japanese nationals the right to open factories and engage in manufacturing in the trade ports. This right was automatically extended to the Western maritime powers under the most-favored-nation clause.

Sino-Japanese is often used to mean:

• Sino-Japanese vocabulary: That portion of the Japanese vocabulary that is of Chinese origin or makes use of morphemes of Chinese origin (similar to the use of Latin/Greek in English).
• Kanbun: A Japanese method of reading annotated Classical Chinese in translation; writing with literary Chinese for Japanese readers.
• The on'yomi or 'Chinese reading' of Chinese characters in Japanese.

"Sino-Japanese" is also used to refer to that which occurs between China and Japan, such as:

• The First Sino-Japanese War between 1894 and 1895, primarily over control of Korea.
• The Second Sino-Japanese War between 1931 and 1945, from 1941 on as part of World War II.
• Sino-Japanese relations. (See also Sino-Japanese relations (1931-1937).)
• Sino-Japanese Journalist Exchange Agreement
• Chinese in Japan
• Japanese Chinese cuisine, the style of Chinese cuisine served by Chinese in Japan
• Japanese people settled in China, and/or their descendants
• Japanese orphans in China
• People of mixed Chinese and Japanese descent