Qing China

Treaties and the Limits of Sovereignty

Qing diplomacy with the United States developed within a treaty system imposed after military defeat by Western powers. Britain’s victory in the First Opium War opened ports to foreign trade; Caleb Cushing then negotiated comparable American privileges in 1844. Under extraterritoriality, American officials generally tried American defendants in China instead of Chinese courts. [6]

Recognition and a Resident Legation

The Qing government and the United States formally recognized one another during Caleb Cushing's treaty mission in 1844. The Treaty of Wangxia followed on July 3, establishing the framework for American diplomatic and commercial activity in China. A resident Chinese legation in Washington came later: Chen Lanbin opened the mission in 1878, three years after his appointment. [1] [2]

Commercial equality became an early part of the legation's work. When the Chinese steamer Wo Chung encountered discriminatory tonnage and import duties at San Francisco in 1880, Chen and Yung Wing argued that American vessels faced no equivalent discrimination in Chinese ports. Secretary of State William Evarts accepted their assurances. President Rutherford B. Hayes issued a proclamation on November 23 suspending the discriminatory American duties on Chinese vessels and their cargoes for as long as China maintained reciprocal treatment. [3]

A Mission Abroad and Rights at Home

The resident legation followed an earlier attempt to negotiate through a traveling delegation. Anson Burlingame left American service to accompany Chinese representatives abroad and negotiated the 1868 treaty with William Seward. Its promises of travel, immigration, and reciprocal protection gave Chinese diplomats standards against which to challenge American conduct. The 1880 revision and the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 narrowed those promises, making the protection of migrants a recurring dispute rather than a settled consequence of treaty relations. [7]

Protection of Chinese Residents and a Change of Government

The legation also pressed Washington over violence against Chinese residents. After the October 1880 Denver riot, Chen commissioned an investigation through the San Francisco consulate. Consul Frederick Bee gathered statements of losses and evidence about the death of a Chinese resident. In January 1881, Chen demanded protection and compensation, arguing that treaty obligations bound the federal government even when officials invoked limits on intervention in a state's affairs. [4]

The Qing monarchy ended with the emperor's abdication in February 1912, but the Washington legation continued to communicate through its serving minister, Chang Yin Tang. On March 9, he notified the State Department that Yuan Shikai would take office as provisional president of the Republic of China the following day. Chang's service crossed the change of government, while American recognition of the republic followed in May 1913. [1] [5]

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