谢谢Steve，学习了

The phrase "sick man of Asia" or "sick man of East Asia" originally referred to China in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when it was riven by internal divisions and forced by the great powers into a series of Unequal Treaties, culminating in the Japanese invasion of China during World War II. The phrase was intended as a parallel to "sick man of Europe", referring to the weakening Ottoman Empire during the same period.[