TheTreaty of Whampoa (simplified Chinese:黄埔条约;traditional Chinese:黃埔條約;pinyin:Huángpǔ Tiáoyuē;Cantonese Yale:Wòhngbou Tìuhyeuk) was anunequal treaty between theKingdom of France and theQing dynasty of China, which was signed byQiying andThéodore de Lagrené on October 24, 1844, aboard the warshipL’Archimède.
China was to grant the same privileges to theKingdom of France as to Britain in theTreaty of Nanking and subsequent treaties. The privileges included the opening of five harbours to French merchants, extraterritorial privileges French citizens in China, a fixed tariff on Sino-French trade and the right of France to station consuls in China.
Although French Prime MinisterFrançois Guizot had given Lagrené only a mandate to negotiate a commercial treaty with France, Lagrené decided that he wanted to enhance France's international prestige by securing a rescission ofYongzheng Emperor's prohibition ofChristianity in China from 1724. France could thus become theprotectorate of Catholics in China, like France in theLevant. After protracted negotiations with Qiying, most of which Lagrené entrusted to his interpreterJoseph-Marie Callery, theDaoguang Emperor issued an edict in February 1846 that legalized the practice of Christianity in China.
