约

to weigh in a balance or on a scale

to make an appointment / to invite / approximately / pact / treaty / to economize / to restrict / to reduce (a fraction) / concise

spoon / ladle / CL:把[ba3] / abbr. for 公勺[gong1 shao2], centiliter (unit of volume)

"silk" radical in Chinese characters (Kangxi radical 120), occurring in 紅|红[hong2], 綠|绿[lü4], 累[lei4] etc / also pr. [mi4]

convention (i.e. international agreement)

to restrict / condition

to agree by chance (idiom); taking the same action without prior consultation

diligent and thrifty (idiom)

the Treaty of Beijing of 1860 between Qing China and Tsarist Russia

Treaty of Nerchinsk (1698) between Qing China and Russia

Treaty of Saint Petersburg of 1881, whereby Russia handed back Yili province to Qing China in exchange for compensation payment and unequal treaty rights

treaty of Tianjin of 1885 ceding Vietnam to France

credit default swap (finance)

sparing / economical

Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)

Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)

common factor / common divisor

book contract

to simplistically reduce (sth) to just ...; to regard (sth) as merely ...

having no common measure / incommensurable / incommensurate

(term coined c. 1920s) unequal treaty – a treaty between China and one or more aggressor nations (including Russia, Japan and various Western powers) which imposed humiliating conditions on China (in the 19th and early 20th centuries)

Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons

Treaty of Saint Petersburg of 1881, whereby Russia handed back Yili province to Qing China in exchange for compensation payment and unequal treaty rights