Russian Finance Minister Sergei Witte controlled East Asian policy in the 1890s. His goal was the peaceful expansion of trade and the increase of Russian influence over China. Japan's greatly-expanded and -modernized military easily defeated the antiquated Chinese forces in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895). Russia now faced the choice of working with Japan, which had fairly good relations for some years, or acting as protector of China against Japan. Witte chose the latter policy, and in 1894 Russia joined Britain and France in forcing Japan to soften the peace terms that it had imposed on China. Japan was forced to return the Liaodong Peninsula and Port Arthur (both territories in southeastern Manchuria, a Chinese province) to China. The new Russian role angered Tokyo, which decided that Russia was the main enemy in its quest to control Manchuria, Korea, and China. Witte underestimated Japan's growing economic and military power and exaggerated Russia's military prowess.