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Convention of Peking

The Convention of Peking is an agreement comprising three distinct treaties concluded between the Qing dynasty of China and Great Britain, France, and the Russian Empire in 1860. In China, they are regarded as among the unequal treaties.

The content of the Convention of Beijing included:

  1. China's signing of the Treaty of Tianjin
  2. Opening Tianjin as a trade port
  3. Cede No.1 District of Kowloon (south of present-day Boundary Street) to Britain
  4. Freedom of religion established in China
  5. British ships were allowed to carry indentured Chinese to the Americas
  6. Indemnity to Britain and France increasing to 8 million taels of silver apiece
  7. Legalization of the opium trade

Japan was also interested in a cordial relationship with the US to further balance any possible threat from Russia. However, when the Americans established relations with Korea, they overlooked the fact that Korea had a history of being a tributary state of China, which started back in 1637. The US felt that Korea should be considered an independent state. The skilled statesman Li Hongzhang was in charge of the Chinese-Korean policy and presented a compromise that would satisfy both the US and China. Thus, the Japan-Korea Treaty, or Treaty of Kanghwa, was amended to state that Korea was "an independent state enjoying the same sovereign rights as does Japan."

Li Hongzhang spoke with Korean representatives and recommended that they emulate the self-strengthening policy that China had started and introduce reforms that would help them relate to other countries from a position of at least equal strength. The Chinese then sent over a military unit to train Korean soldiers in warfare techniques and provided them with upgraded weapons.