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| Chefoo Convention | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 煙臺條約 | ||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 烟台条约 | ||||||
| Literal meaning | Yantai Treaty | ||||||
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TheChefoo Convention, known inChinese as theYantai Treaty, was anunequal treaty betweenBritiain andQing China, signed bySir Thomas Wade andLi Hongzhang inChefoo (now adistrict ofYantai) on 21 August 1876. The convention settled theMargary Affair in exchange for expanded commercial concessions to Britain.[1]
The Chinese government has described the Chefoo Convention as an "unequal treaty".[2]
The convention consisted of sixteen articles and was divided into three sections. The first section dealt with the resolution of theMargary Affair, calling for the punishment of the people implicated in the murder ofAugustus Raymond Margary 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 theLijin 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 byGuo Songtao, became a permanent diplomatic mission in Britain, opening the way for a permanent foreign representation of China.
The Chefoo Convention was ratified immediately by the Qing government, but was not ratified by Britain until July 1885, due to criticism and opposition from British opium merchants inCalcutta andBombay, as well as from the government of theBritish Raj.[3][4][5]