Treaties and Concessions in China

The End of the First Opium War Started a Series of Treaties and Foreign Concessions in China

Henry Pottinger and the Emperor’s representatives signed a treaty at Nanjing, ending the Opium War between Great Britain and the Qing Dynasty of China. The provided compensation to Britain for the value of the opium that had been seized by Lin, as well as for war reparations to be paid over three years. Amnesty was also granted to Chinese who had cooperated with the British during the conflict. It also included some long-lasting provisions that should be discussed further.

Hong Kong Island was formally ceded to Great Britain. The Treaty also ended the monopoly of the Hong merchants in Guangzhou in foreign trade. Now five port cities were opened as treaty ports.

Those five ports where the British could trade were, Guangzhou, Xiamen, Fuzhou, Ningbo and Shanghai.

Foreign consuls were also allowed in those treaty ports.

The next year, the Treaty of the Bogue was signed. That added extraterritorial rights for the British as well as a most favoured nation clause. Which meant that any right granted to one nation by China was automatically extended to the British.

In 1844, the Americans signed the Treaty of Wangsha. The Americans were concerned about being left out if they did not gain similar rights to the British. But this treaty went further. It fixed tariffs on trade in the treaty ports. It legalized the purchase of lands in the treaty ports for the purposes of erecting churches and hospitals there. It also legalized foreigners learning Chinese. The US also negotiated to receive most favoured nation status as well. So now, both Britain and the US would automatically receive the same beneficial rights that China gave to any other Western power. In exchange, the US did confirm the right of the Chinese to confiscate American ships operating outside treaty ports and denied consular protection to Americans dealing in opium. It also promised to hand over offenders dealing in opium.

In 1844, the French signed the Treaty of Whampoa with the Qing Dynasty. France gained the same rights as the British. Also, the French negotiator got the Qing Emperor to rescind the prohibition on Christianity which had been in effect since 1724. Now, Catholicism could be promoted in China.

So, the treaties were building on each other, with western powers now continually expanding their rights and privileges in China and having these rights extended to other Western countries. As a result, in the treaty ports, concessions were built where Europeans traded, lived and spread religion.

In 1851, Russia gained rights to trade by land with Xinjiang province through a treaty.

By the fall of 1856, Harry Parkes, the British consul in Guangzhou, was keen on further war. He took advantage of the pretext of the Chinese capture of a pirate vessel, the Arrow, operating with Chinese pirates, but registered in Hong Kong. Its registration might even have already lapsed, which would have meant there was actually zero connection to Britain. But Parkes was looking for a fight. The British captured a Chinese ship and stormed Guangzhou. When word got to Britain, opinion was generally against Parkes.

In 1857, a potential war with China was debated, Lord Palmerston (who was now Prime Minister), his government, was defeated by a majority in the House of Commons who opposed a further war with China.

As a result, Queen Victoria called an election. Lord Palmerston’s Whig party campaigned aggressively in favour of war with China. Palmerston clearly lied about what was happening in China and blatantly misrepresented the offences against Britain. The voters sided with Palmerston and he won the Chinese Election convincingly. Palmerston now had his majority for a second war against China.

What came out later is that, without the support of Parliament, and even before the original unsuccessful vote, the British had been in secret negotiations with other European powers for a new Chinese war. Lord Palmerston had already sent instructions to India to prepare for an expedition and before the election was won, Lord Elgin had already been appointed as Plenipotentiary for the expedition. Lord Palmerston was committed to this campaign and he seemed prepared to go to any lengths to get it, including lies and undemocratic maneuvers.

Initially, the British postponed further activities because of the Indian Mutiny in May 1857. That was of utmost importance to the British Empire.

In the meanwhile, a French missionary was killed in China. Britain had been looking for allies for the campaign. The USA and Russia had declined, but the French agreed.

As a result, the second Opium War is sometimes called the Anglo-French expedition to China.

Chinese defences in the south were complicated by the nearby rebellions in Guangxi province. Governor Ye did not dare transfer his forces from there to Guangzhou.

On December 29, 1857, Britain and France shelled the port city into submission. The wood and thatched roofs caught on fire. On January 5, 1858, British and French troops entered the city.

There was also an incident when the Chinese attacked an American ship. The Americans then retaliated, but quickly came to terms with the Chinese and were officially neutral in the war.

The British captured the Governor of the province, Ye, and sent him to Calcutta, India, where he died, perhaps starving himself to death.

In May, the fleet sailed north and destroyed forts that controlled access to Beijing and negotiated the Treaty of Tianjin.

In June 1859, when Lord Elgin’s brother Frederick Bruce returned to have the document ratified in Beijing, the Chinese blocked the waterway. He opened fire on remaining forts south of Beijing. To the British surprise, the Chinese responded with strong accuracy. 519 British sailors and soldiers died and 456 were wounded. The casualties were particularly heavy among the infantry who landed, sunk in the mud of the riverbank and were picked off by Qing snipers.

Peace negotiations broke down and in Tianjin, Harry Parkes and some other British officers were kidnapped and tortured, including with feces forced down their throats.

The British and French regrouped, attacked the next year, the Emperor fled and then the Anglo-French expedition looted and burned the Imperial Summer Palaces and its countless treasures.

The Convention of Beijing was the result, which also ratified the Treaty of Tianjin.

As a result, Kowloon, just across the harbour from Hong Kong, on the mainland, would then be added to the British holdings. These territories then remained under British control until 1997, when they were returned to China under a new international treaty, which started China’s One Country, Two Systems policy.

Other outcomes of the Convention of Beijing in 1860 included the legalization of opium and reparations. China's defeat also opened up all of China to merchants, and exempted foreign imports from internal transit duties.

Russia took advantage of the British and French invasion, as well as the Taiping Rebellion which will be discussed separately. Russia massed troops and threatened invasion. Its threats and negotiations resulted in the Treaty of Aihun in 1858 and an amendment to the Convention of Beijing in 1860, collectively they transferred around 600,000 square kilometres of land from China to Russia. This allowed Russia to build a major year-round Pacific port at Vladivostok. Before these treaties, the Qing Dynasty controlled those lands.

Collectively, these treaties with the Qing Dynasty are now known in China as the Unequal Treaties.

That term Unequal Treaties came into effect in the 1920’s in the Republic of China and is still used today in the People’s Republic of China.

Interestingly, in 1969, the Chinese Communist Party officially confirmed parts of the Convention of Beijing and the Treaty of Aihun that transferred to Russia the Chinese territory in the mid 1800s. This confirmation was done at a time when the Soviet Union and Communist China had border skirmishes.

In 1860, the treaties did serve one advantage to the Qing Dynasty. They ended conflict with the Europeans and freed up the Qing State to battle the rebellions that were forming a kind of civil war.

Next, we turn to the Taiping Rebellion, when a Chinese man who believed himself to be the younger brother of Jesus Christ, led one of the Qing’s many rebellions and gained enough ground to make Nanjing his capital city.