 A Korean historian stated that "the Chinese government began to turn its former tributary state into a semi-colony and its policy towards Korea substantially changed to a new imperialistic one where the suzerain state demanded certain privileges in her vassal state".On October 4, 1882, the Korean government signed a new set of trade regulations that permitted Chinese merchants to trade in Korea and gave them substantial advantages over the Japanese and Westerners, the regulations also granted the Chinese unilateral extraterritoriality privileges in civil and criminal cases.Although it allowed Koreans reciprocally to trade in Beijing the agreement was not a treaty but was in effect issued as a regulation for a vassal, it also reasserted Korea's dependency on China.