The concessions had extraterritoriality and were enclaves inside key cities that became treaty ports. All the concessions have been dissolved in the present day.
History
Emergence of the foreign concessions
The emergence of foreign concessions in Imperial China was an indirect[citation needed] offshoot of the 19th century unequal treaties following China's defeat against Great Britain in the Opium Wars. The 1842 Treaty of Nanjing between China and Great Britain stated that "British Subjects, with their families and establishments, shall be allowed to reside, for the purpose of carrying on their mercantile pursuits, without molestation or restraint at the cities and towns of Canton, Amoy, Foochow-fu, Ningpo and Shanghai",[1] but nothing was said, including in the supplementary treaty of the following year, about separate residential areas for foreigners in those ports, let alone their right to govern themselves.[2][3] However, the imperial commissioner who had negotiated the supplementary treaty reported to the Qing emperor that by signing the treaty he had successfully arranged that in the treaty ports "the boundaries of an area should be designated which foreigners are not allowed to exceed" (yiding jiezhi, buxu yuyue), an intent however that was not clearly stated in the English-language version of the treaty.[4] The Qing rulers, by wishing to confine the "barbarians" to an officially designated special zone, hoped to resurrect the old Canton system, that is, a system that strictly confined foreigners to a segregated zone that also was off-limit to Chinese subjects. At Shanghai, there was initially an attempt by imperial officials to keep the foreigners out as much as possible and the first British consul, Captain George Balfour, could not even find a house for the consulate upon his arrival in 1843. The British finally decided to locate themselves in the northern suburbs of the walled Chinese city and they asked the Daotai, Gong Muiju, to designate an area for their establishment there. This dovetailed with the Daotai's intentions, since following two violent incidents between local Chinese and foreigners, he had endeavored to limit contacts between Chinese and foreigners.[5][6] This was formalized in 1845 with the delimitation of a segregated area north of Yangjingbang, a creek that ran north of the Chinese city. Later that year Gong Muiju and Balfour concluded an agreement called the Land Regulations (Shanghai zudi zhangcheng), which set forth the institutional basis for the British settlement.[7]
Following the British example, Charles de Montigny, the French consul at Shanghai, and the Daotai Lin’gui agreed in 1849 that a French settlement be established on a strip of land between the Chinese city and the British settlement. The American consul George Seward was dissatisfied with the fact that the British and the French had obtained the best plots of land in the area, and after lengthy deliberations, the Americans established their own settlement in Hongkew northeast of Shanghai, although it was not to be delineated until 1863.[8] In September of the same year, the British and American settlements were amalgamated into a single Foreign Settlement. A Municipal Council, officially known as "The Council for the Foreign Community of Shanghai", was established.[9]
Local French representatives had agreed to amalgamate the French settlement with the other two but this was not accepted by the French Government and, as a consequence, a French concession was to exist alongside the International Settlement until World War II. The International Settlement began with the 138 acres of the British settlement, which was increased to 470 acres in 1848. The addition of the American area and a number of subsequent additions brought the total area to 5,584 acres. Including the 2,525 acres of French Concession, the total area was eventually to reach 12.66 square miles.[10]
Additional foreign concessions were set up in other treaty ports especially following the 1858 and 1860 Anglo-Chinese treaties, and from the mid-1890s to 1902, following the Boxer Rebellion (1899–1901). While the settlements at Shanghai had been set up in cooperation with the local authorities and with the tacit, but not explicit, consent of the central Chinese government, the concessions that were established later had a more definitive treaty basis and their development as well as the extension of their boundaries has been regularized by agreements with the Chinese government.[11]
An inventory of all the concessions along with a survey of their status done by W. C. Johnstone in 1937 shows that, aside from the two international settlements at Shanghai and Kulangsu (Amoy), there had been grants by the Chinese government of 23 national concessions to eight nations in 10 Chinese ports. In addition to the 23 formally established concessions, Great Britain, Japan, and the United States were granted rights to concessions in several treaty ports but these rights were never exercised.[12] On the eve of World War II, four Powers still possessed concessions: Great Britain (two, at Canton and Tientsin); Japan (three, at Hangchow, Hankow, and Tientsin); France (four, at Canton, Hankow, Shanghai, and Tientsin); and Italy (one, at Tientsin).[13] For his part, Kurt Bloch listed a total of 19 established national concessions.[14]
Operations
In these concessions, the citizens of each foreign power were given the right to freely inhabit, trade, perform missionary evangelization, and travel. They developed their own sub-cultures, isolated and distinct from the intrinsic Chinese culture, and colonial administrations attempted to give their concessions "homeland" qualities. Churches, public houses, and various other western commercial institutions sprang up in the concessions. In the case of Japan, its own traditions and language naturally flourished. Some of these concessions eventually had a more advanced architecture of each originating culture than most cities back in the countries of the origin of the foreign powers. Over time, and without formal permission, Britain, France, Japan and the United States established their own postal systems within their concession and trade areas.[15] Following Chinese complaints over the loss of postal revenue and the lack of customs inspections, all of them were abolished at the end of 1922.[16]
The Shanghai International Settlement became a major place of refuge for European immigrants, notably from Slavic and Baltic regions, and American travelers and displaced persons.[17]
Laws
Each concession also had its own police force and different legal jurisdictions with their own separate laws. Thus, an activity might be legal in one concession but illegal in another. Many of the concessions also maintained their own military garrison and a standing army. Military and police forces of the Chinese government were sometimes present. Some police forces allowed Chinese, others did not.
There were economic inequalities between the concessions and surrounding areas outside. European powers had citizens employed inside of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service. Despite the service being sovereign to China, Europeans often influenced taxes levied and tariffs imposed upon foreign concessions—often to their own benefit. Foreign entities also benefited from imposing their own local taxes inside of their nation's respected concession.
Wars
Several wars would lead to the creation of colonial concessions taken from Qing China. These included the First Opium War (1839–1842), Second Opium War (1856–1860), Sino-French War (1884–1885), First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895), and Russian invasion of Manchuria (1900).[18] The Eight Nation Alliance's suppression of the Boxer Rebellion (1899–1901) would lead to participants being rewarded with concessions taken from the Qing dynasty, in the years following the conflict. It also led the foreign powers to station barracks and troops in the existing concessions, especially Tianjin, and increased the immigration of entire families to the concessions.[19]:98–100
Wars that changed the ownership of existing concessions between the foreign powers included the Triple Intervention (1895) and the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905).
Republic of China period
The Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, built in 1923 and The Customs House, built in 1927, Shanghai
The foreign concessions continued to exist during the mainland period of the Republic of China.
Many foreigners arrived in the cities aiming primarily to get rich. During the first phase of the Chinese Civil War in the 1920s, the concessions saw a sharp increase in immigration both from surrounding Chinese territory, and from the West and Japan. The population of Chinese residents eventually surpassed foreigners inside the concessions. With international travelers, culture took on an eclectic character of many influences—including both language and architecture. This effect was exemplified in the Shanghai International Settlement and the multi-concessions in Tianjin. Writings from the time period indicate that both the Prussians and Russians were seen as acting culturally British. The wealthy built opulent buildings with multiple European and Chinese inspirations. Some Chinese entrepreneurs became very wealthy and hired foreign designers and architects.[19]:95–96
In major cities like Shanghai and Tianjin, due to the existence of numerous jurisdictions, criminals could commit a crime in one jurisdiction and then easily escape to another. This became a major problem during the Republican period, with the rise of the post–Imperial Warlord era and the collapse of central authority in the 1920s and the 1930s. Crime often flourished, especially organized crime by different warlord groups.[23]
Some efforts were made by the foreign powers to have the different police forces cooperate and work together, but not with significant success. The image of gangsters and Triad societies connected with the major cities and concessions of the period is often due to extraterritoriality within the cities.[23] Underdeveloped economies under a foreign government led many laborers without opportunities to be recruited by triads, who developed a subculture inspired by other eras that China was under foreign domination. Secret societies controlled drug trade, gambling, and prostitution in Shanghai.[24] Western outlaws also created organized crime groups, in one instance creating an "orientalist mini crime empire" in 1930s Shanghai.[25][26]
From the 1919 Karakhan Manifesto to 1927, diplomats of the Soviet Union would promise to revoke concessions in China, but the Soviets secretly kept tsarist concessions such as the Chinese Eastern Railway, as well as consulates, barracks, and Orthodox churches. This led Chiang Kai-Shek—who pushed foreign powers such as Britain to return some of their concessions from 1925 to 1927—to turn against his former Soviet ally in 1927, seizing Soviet legations. The Soviets would later fight an armed conflict to keep control over the Chinese Eastern Railway in 1929.[27]
At the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945), the standing army in the Japanese concessions would be used against the Chinese forces.[note 1][citation needed] However the inland concession of Chongqing was abandoned by the Japanese as they began the invasion.[28]
Shanghai's status as a safe haven ended, as Jews who sought refuge in the city from 1933 to 1941, were forced into the Shanghai Ghetto in 1943, most survived the war due to the deeply established community with Chinese residents before 1941.[32][17]
In 1943 Italy surrendered its treaty rights in cooperation with the Japanese controlled puppet Nanjing government. Italy surrendered its special treaty rights, including its concession at Tientsin, and rights in the international settlements at Shanghai and Amoy (Xiamen) in its peace treaty with the Allies in 1945.[33]
Formed from the British and American concessions. It was initially ruled by: Austria-Hungary, Denmark, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway-Sweden, Portugal, Russia, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Covering some 3 acres and including 11 foreign embassies, the entire Legation Quarter was considered foreign sovereign ground and was off limits for Chinese citizens who were not allowed to take up residency within the legation grounds
On January 10, 1902, the consuls of Great Britain, the United States, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden-Norway, Japan and other eight countries signed the "Gulangyu delimitation charter" in the Kulangyu Japanese Consulate. Subsequently, in January 1903, the Kulangsu International Settlement Municipal Council was established
Treaty ports were the port cities in China and Japan that were opened to foreign trade mainly by the unequal treaties forced upon them by Western powers, as well as cities in Korea opened up similarly by the Qing dynasty of China and the Empire of Japan.
In international law, extraterritoriality or exterritoriality is the state of being exempted from the jurisdiction of local law, usually as the result of diplomatic negotiations.
The Treaty of Tientsin, also known as the Treaty of Tianjin, is a collective name for several unequal treaties signed at Tianjin in June 1858. The Qing dynasty, Russian Empire, Second French Empire, United Kingdom, and the United States were the parties involved. These treaties, counted by the Chinese among the unequal treaties, opened more Chinese ports to foreign trade, permitted foreign legations in the Chinese capital Beijing, allowed Christian missionary activity, and effectively legalized the import of opium. They ended the first phase of the Second Opium War, which had begun in 1856 and were ratified by the Emperor of China in the Convention of Peking in 1860, after the end of the war.
The unequal treaties were a series of agreements made between Asian countries – most notably Qing China, Tokugawa Japan and Joseon Korea – and Western countries – most notably the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy, the United States and Russia – during the 19th and early 20th centuries. They were often signed following a military defeat suffered by the former party, or amid military threats made by the latter. Their terms specified obligations to be borne almost exclusively by the former party: provisions included the cession of territory, the payment of reparations, the opening of treaty ports, the relinquishment of the right to control tariffs and imports, and the granting of extraterritoriality to foreign citizens.
The Shanghai International Settlement originated from the 1863 merger of the British and American enclaves in Shanghai, in which British and American citizens would enjoy extraterritoriality and consular jurisdiction under the terms of unequal treaties agreed by both parties. These treaties were abrogated in 1943.
In international relations, a concession is a "synallagmatic act by which a State transfers the exercise of rights or functions proper to itself to a foreign private test which, in turn, participates in the performance of public functions and thus gains a privileged position vis-a-vis other private law subjects within the jurisdiction of the State concerned." International concessions are not defined in international law and do not generally fall under it. Rather, they are governed by the municipal law of the conceding state. There may, however, be a law of succession for such concessions, whereby the concession is continued even when the conceding state ceases to exist.
The foreign concessions in Tianjin were concession territories ceded by the Qing dynasty to a number of European countries, the United States and Japan within the city of Tianjin. There were altogether nine foreign concessions in old Tianjin on the eve of World War II. These concessions also contributed to the rapid development of Tianjin from the early to mid-20th century. The first foreign concessions in Tianjin were granted in 1860. By 1943, all the foreign concessions, except the Japanese concession, had ceased to exist de facto.
The Treaty of the Bogue was an unequal treaty between the United Kingdom and China, concluded in October 1843 to supplement the previous Treaty of Nanking. The treaty's key provisions granted extraterritoriality and most favored nation status to Britain.
Shanghailanders were foreign – principally European and American – settlers in the extraterritorial areas of Shanghai, China, between the 1842 Treaty of Nanjing and the mid-20th century.
The century of humiliation was a period in Chinese history beginning with the First Opium War (1839–1842), and ending in 1945 with China emerging out of the Second World War as one of the Big Four and established as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, or alternately, ending in 1949 with the founding of the People's Republic of China. The century-long period is typified by the decline, defeat and political fragmentation of the Qing dynasty and the subsequent Republic of China, which led to demoralizing foreign intervention, annexation and subjugation of China by Western powers, Russia, and Japan.
The Sino-British Treaty for the Relinquishment of Extra-Territorial Rights in China, or the Sino-British New Equal Treaty, was a bilateral treaty concluded between the British and the Chinese government in Chongqing on 11 January 1943. The formal name of the treaty was Treaty Between His Majesty in Respect of the United Kingdom and India and His Excellency the President of the National Government of the Republic of China for the Relinquishment of Extra-Territorial Rights in China and the Regulation of Related Matters.
The British Supreme Court for China was a court established in the Shanghai International Settlement to try cases against British subjects in China, Japan and Korea under the principles of extraterritoriality.
In countries outside of its borders, a foreign power often has extraterritorial rights over its official representation. If such concessions are obtained, they are often justified as protection of the foreign religion such as the ahdname or capitulations granted by the Ottoman Sultan to commercial Diasporas residing in the Ottoman Empire. The Sultan did not see this agreement as a bilateral agreement between equals, but merely as acknowledging the nation of foreigners living within his territory and offering them privileges similar to those given to non-Ottoman subjects. However, the European states viewed the ahdname as formal and official and therefore had difficulty enforcing the privileges to their satisfaction on many occasions.
The Italian concession of Tianjin was a small territory (concession) in central Tianjin, China, controlled by the Kingdom of Italy between 1901 and 1943, officially ceded to China in 1947.
The Banca Italo-Cinese established in 1919, later dissolved and renamed Banca Italiana per la Cina in 1925, was the most important Italian financial intermediary in Asia until the outbreak of World War Two. The history of the bank is significantly intertwined with the development of the Sino-Italian political relations during the interwar period.
The Shanghai Mixed Court was an international court applying Chinese law to Chinese nationals and unrepresented nationals in the Shanghai International Settlement between 1864 and 1927.
The Kulangsu International Settlement was an international settlement in China on the Kulangsu or Gulangyu Island of Xiamen, Fujian province. During the Opium Wars, the British army occupied Gulangyu Island for four years and did not withdraw until 1845. After 1843, Xiamen was opened as a treaty port in accordance with the Sino-British Nanjing Treaty. The United Kingdom also acquired a beach on the coast of Xiamen's main island to build a British concession, while Gulangyu retained its original features. Over time, more nations established embassies as the settlement prospered.
The British concession of Tianjin was one of seven total British concessions in China. It was one of nine foreign concessions in Tianjin, and was the earliest established and most successful out of all of the concessions. The concession bordered the French and Germans to the northwest and southeast, respectively, and faced the Russian concession across the Hai river. The settlement prospered economically, and many legacies of the British influence over Tianjin can be seen today.
The American concession of Tianjin was a territory (concession) in the Chinese city of Tientsin de facto occupied by the United States between the 1860s and 1901 in present-day Xiaobailou Subdistrict. American administration of the settlement existed in a legal gray area where no material paperwork ever existed to demarcate the concession. Its existence was only made possible by acknowledgment by all sides: the United States, the Qing dynasty, and other local concession municipal governments, including the German, Russian, and British concessions.
Concessions of Italy in China were territories that the Kingdom of Italy controlled in China during the first half of the 20th century. After participating with other colonial powers in the war against China in the second half of the 19th century, Italy obtained a concession in Tianjin (Tientsin) with full colonial rights and some minor areas in the defeated China.
References
↑ C. F. Fraser, The Status of the International Settlement at Shanghai,, Journal of Comparative Legislation and International Law, Vol. 21, No 1 (1939), p. 39.
↑ "However, not a single word on concession was found in the treaties, not to mention its establishment and government." Wanshu Cong, Frédéric Mégret, International Shanghai (1863–1931): Imperialism and private authority in the Global City, Leiden Journal of International Law (2021, 34), p. 918.
↑ "The treaties that followed the Opium Wars only gave foreigners the right to reside in the newly-opened ports and said nothing about separate foreign settlements as such." P. K. Cassel, Grounds for Judgment, Oxford University Press (2012), p. 64.
↑ "The Chinese version of the Bogue Treaty actually carried this wording, but the tone was not clearly reflected in the English version". Hanchao Hu, Beyond the Neon Lights - Everyday Shanghai in the Early Twentieth Century, University of California Press (1999), p. 31.
↑ H. L., The Internal Status of Shanghai, Bulletin of International News, Vol. 14, No. 12 (Dec. 11, 1937), Royal Institute of International Affairs, p. 5.
↑ William C. Johnstone, The Status of Foreign Concessions and Settlements in the Treaty Ports of China, The American Political Science Review, Vol. 31, No. 5 (Oct. 1937), p. 946).
↑ "With the outbreak of the war, five concessions, two German, two Russian and one Austro-Hungarian – in Tientsin and Hankow – were liquidated and taken over by the Chinese government. Of the remaining fourteen developed concessions, the British held six, the French four, Japan two and Italy and Belgium one each. Between the outbreak of the Nationalist Revolution of 1925 and the beginning of the Sino-Japanese hostilities of 1931, another five concessions were taken over by the Chinese. Britain surrendered her areas in Hankow, Chinkiang, Kiukiang and Amoy, and Belgium in Tientsin. Of the remaining nine concessions – four in Tientsin, one in Shanghai, two in Hankow and two in Shameen (Canton) – four are French, two (in Tientsin and Shameen) are British, two (in Tientsin and Hankow) Japanese, and one (in Tientsin) Italian." Kurt Bloch, The Basic Conflict Over Foreign Concessions in China,, Far Eastern Survey, Vol. 8, No. 10 (May 10, 1939), p. 113–114.
↑ Cassel, Par Kristoffer (2012-01-11). Grounds of Judgment: Extraterritoriality and Imperial Power in Nineteenth-Century China and Japan. Oxford University Press, USA. p.179. ISBN978-0-19-979205-4. The circumstances surrounding the eventual abolition of extraterritoriality in China are full of ironies. The Japanese, who had given the treaty port system a "new lease on life" in the wake of the First Sino-Japanese War, would render the practice inoperative in large parts of the country following their full-scale invasion of China in 1937. Later, as the Japanese government and the Allies were clamoring to win the support of the Chinese, extraterritoriality was officially abolished in both the Nationalist and Japanese-occupied areas with great fanfare in early 1943.
1 2 3 Rethinking the Russo-Japanese War, 1904-5. Vol. 2, The Nichinan papers. Chiharu Inaba, J. W. M. Chapman. Folkestone, UK: Global Oriental. 2007. p.187. ISBN978-90-04-21332-6. OCLC755068887. After the [First] Sino-Japanese War, Japan had won jurisdiction over concessions in ports such as Tianjin, Mukden, Hankou, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Shashi, and Chongqing. [...] Those at Tianjin and Hankou were seen by the Japanese Government as 'developed' concessions, while those at Suzhou, Hangzhou, and Chongqing were called 'undeveloped'.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
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