Treaty of Whampoa

The Treaty of Whampoa (zh-tsp|t=黃埔條約|s=黄埔条约|p=Huángpǔ Tiáoyuē) was a commercial treaty between France and China, which was signed by Théodore de Lagrené and Qiying on October 24, 1844.

Contents of the Treaty

Based on the terms of the accord, China granted the same privileges to the French Empire as it had done to Britain in the Treaty of Nanking and subsequent treaties. These privileges included the opening of five harbors 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.

Toleration of Christianity

Although French prime minister Guizot only had given de Lagrené a mandate to negotiate a commercial treaty with France, de Lagrené decided that he wanted to enhance France's international prestige by securing a rescission of Yongzheng Emperor's prohibition of Christianity in China from 1724. By so doing, France could become the protectorate of Catholics in China, just like France played the same role in the Levant. After protracted negotiations with Qiting, most of which de Lagrené entrusted to his interpreter Joseph-Marie Callery, the Daoguang emperor issued an edict on February 1846, which legalized the practice of Christianity in China.

References

*Cady, John Frank. "The Roots of French Imperialism in Eastern Asia." Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1967.
*Grosse-Aschhoff, Angelus Francis J. "The Negotiations between Ch'i-Ying and Lagrené, 1844-1846." St. Bonaventure, New York: Franciscan Institute, 1950.