Treaty of Whampoa

The Treaty of Whampoa (simplified Chinese: 黄埔条约; traditional Chinese: 黃埔條約; pinyin: Huángpǔ Tiáoyuē; Shanghainese: Waonphu Tiauyu) was an unequal commercial treaty between France and China, which was signed by Théodore de Lagrené and Qiying on October 24, 1844 aboard the warship L’Archimède.

Based on the terms of the accord, China granted the same privileges to the Kingdom of France 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.

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 Qiying, most of which de Lagrené entrusted to his interpreter , the Daoguang Emperor issued an edict in February 1846, which legalized the practice of Christianity in China.

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