Most other people still did not see Mongolia or Tibet as independent. They said that these areas belonged to China. Western powers had made treaties with the Qing Dynasty, and China had said it would honour these treaties. If they had recognised either Tibet or Mongolia, these treaties would have become invalid. The main Western powers were the United Kingdom and Russia. Both feared that if they saw the countries as independent, they could come under the influence of the other western powers. In their opinion, that situation was worse than if China controlled both of them, because China was weak.