 After the Triple intervention, they paid another 30 million taels for a total of over silver, worth about $5 billion US Dollars in 2015.During the summit between Japanese and Qing representatives in March and April 1895, Prime Minister Hirobumi Ito and Foreign Minister Munemitsu Mutsu were serious about reducing the power of Qing Dynasty on not only the Korean Peninsula but also the Taiwan islands.Moreover, Mutsu had already noticed its importance in order to expand Japanese military power towards South China and Southeast Asia.