Written by Bobby

There were two Chinese-Japanese wars, one from 1894-1895 and one from 1937 –1945. The first conflict was for Korea, which at the time was owned by China. It started when Japan set up a rebellion in Korea. War broke out in July
1894. This war ended April 17, 1895, with the Treaty of Shimonoseki.
This treaty grated Korea its freedom and Japan the Liadong Peninsula.
However, Russia, Germany, and France forced Japan to return Liadong.
Korea was annexed by Japan in 1910.

This next war was also started over Chinese land, but China was
stronger when Japan attacked again in 1937. Undeclared war was fought
until 1941, when China declared war on Japan, Italy, and Germany. At
first, Japan captured quite a bit of Chinese territory, but Chinese
guerrillas fought behind enemy lines. Eventually, this became part of
WWII. The war ended with the surrender of Japan to the Allies in
1945.

When the Chinese
Communists conquered the Mainland, the Chinese Nationalists moved to
Taiwan to escape the laws. Once there, they refused to listen to the
Communists. The Nationalists also controlled several islands in the
Taiwan Straight, which separated Taiwan and China.

The Opium War, also known as the Angio-Chinese war, was probably
China’s most humiliating defeat. This war was started over the
drug trade. Lin Tse-hsu, a highly moral Chinese official, wanted to stop the
drug trade, and by May 1839, he had stopped the trade of this drug in
China. When asked, the English refused to stop trading the drug, mainly
because of other quarrels going on at the time. Lin then threatened to
cut off all trading with England. The Opium War broke out in June
1840. Soon China was forced to accept peace under the Treaty of
Nanking. This treaty changed the way many Chinese laws affected the
English when they were on Chinese land. Two years later, China was
forced to sign similar treaties with the United States and France.

Sources:
http://www.lcsc.edu/modernchina/images/China-Japannego.jpg