The Chefoo Convention, known in Chinese as the Yantai Treaty, was a treaty between

Qing China The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speaki ...

and Great Britain, signed by Sir Thomas Wade and

Li Hongzhang Li Hongzhang, Marquess Suyi ( zh, t=李鴻章; also Li Hung-chang; 15 February 1823 – 7 November 1901) was a Chinese politician, general and diplomat of the late Qing dynasty. He quelled several major rebellions and served in important ...

Zhifu Zhifu District is an urban district of the prefecture-level city of Yantai in Shandong Province, China. Name As a separate city, Zhifu's name was variously romanized as Chefoo, and . Although this name was used for the city by foreigners pr ...

(now a

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivision ...

Yantai Yantai, formerly known as Chefoo, is a coastal prefecture-level city on the Shandong Peninsula in northeastern Shandong province of People's Republic of China. Lying on the southern coast of the Bohai Strait, Yantai borders Qingdao on the ...

) on 21 August 1876. The official reason for the treaty was to resolve the "

Margary Affair The Margary Affair ( or 滇案; ''Diān àn'') was a crisis in Sino-British relations, which followed the murder of British official Augustus Raymond Margary in 1875. As part of efforts to explore overland trade routes between British India and ...

," but the final treaty included a number of other items. China regards the Chefoo Convention as an "

unequal treaty Unequal treaty is the name given by the Chinese to a series of treaties signed during the 19th and early 20th centuries, between China (mostly referring to the Qing dynasty) and various Western powers (specifically the British Empire, France, the ...

The convention consisted of sixteen articles and was divided into three sections. The first section dealt with the resolution of the

, calling for the punishment of the people implicated in the murder of

Augustus Raymond Margary Augustus Raymond Margary (26 May 1846 – 21 February 1875) was a British diplomat and explorer. The murder of Margary and his entire staff, while surveying overland Asian trade routes, sparked the Margary Affair which led to the Chefoo Convent ...

the year before and stipulating that an indemnity be paid to Margary's relatives. The second section dealt with official intercourse between the two empires and specified the extraterritorial privileges of British subjects in China. The final section dealt with trade, prohibiting the levying of the '' Lijin'' in the treaty ports, outlawing other forms of taxes on foreign goods, and opening a number of new treaty ports. One practical result of the treaty was that the official mission of apology to Britain, led by

Guo Songtao Guo Songtao ( zh, 郭嵩燾, s=郭嵩焘, p=Guō Sōngtāo, w=Kuo Sung-t’ao; 11 April 1818 – 18 July 1891) was a Chinese diplomat and statesman during the Qing dynasty. He was among the first foreign emissaries to be sent abroad by the Qin ...

, became a permanent diplomatic mission in Britain, opening the way for a permanent foreign representation of China.

Ratification

The Chefoo Convention was ratified immediately by the Qing government, but was not ratified by Britain until July 1885.

References

* . {{Qing dynasty topics China–United Kingdom relations Unequal treaties 1876 in China 1876 treaties Treaties of the Qing dynasty Treaties of the United Kingdom (1801–1922)

Contents

Ratification

References