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{{redirect|Treaty of Peking|the 1887 treaty signed by the Qing dynasty of China and Kingdom of Portugal|Sino-Portuguese Treaty of Peking}}
{{Short description|1860 unequal treaty between Qing China and Britain, France, and Russia}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2021}}

{{Infobox Treaty
|name = Convention of Peking
|long_name =
|image = Signing of the Treaty of Peking.jpg
|image_width = 300px
|caption = Signing of the treaty by [[James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin|Lord Elgin]] and [[Prince Gong]]
|type = [[Unequal treaty]]
|date_drafted =
|date_signed = 24 October 1860 (Anglo–Chinese)<br>25 October 1860 (Franco-Chinese)<br>14 November 1860 (Russo-Chinese)
|location_signed = Beijing, China
|date_sealed =
|date_effective =
|condition_effective =
|date_expiration =
|signatories = 
* [[Prince Gong]]
* {{flagicon|UKGBI}} [[James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin]]
* {{flagicon|Second French Empire}} [[Jean-Baptiste-Louis Gros]]
* {{flagicon|Russian Empire}} [[Nikolay Pavlovich Ignatyev]]

|parties = 
* [[Qing Empire|China]]
* {{flagicon|UKGBI}} [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|United Kingdom]]
* {{flagicon|Second French Empire}} [[Second French Empire|France]]
* {{flagicon|Russian Empire}} [[Russian Empire|Russia]]

|ratifiers =
|depositor = 
|language  = 
| wikisource          = 
}}
{{Chinese|t=北京條約|s=北京条约|p=Běijīng Tiáoyuē|h=Bet<sup>5</sup>gin<sup>1</sup> Tiau<sup>2</sup>yok<sup>5</sup>|j=bak1 ging1 tiu4 joek3}}
{{History of Hong Kong}}
The '''Convention of Peking''' or '''First Convention of Peking''' is an agreement comprising three distinct [[Unequal treaty|unequal treaties]] concluded between the [[Qing dynasty]] of China and Great Britain, [[Second French Empire|France]], and the [[Russian Empire]] in 1860.

==Background==
On 18 October 1860, at the culmination of the [[Second Opium War]], the British and French troops entered the [[Forbidden City]] in [[Beijing|Peking]]. Following the decisive defeat of the Chinese, [[Prince Gong (Qing dynasty)|Prince Gong]] was compelled to sign two treaties on behalf of the Qing government with [[James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin|Lord Elgin]] and [[Jean-Baptiste Louis Gros|Baron Gros]], who represented Britain and France respectively.<ref name="Harris">Harris, David.  Van Slyke, Lyman P.  [2000] (2000).  Of Battle and Beauty: Felice Beato's Photographs of China.  University of California Press. {{ISBN|0-89951-100-7}}</ref> Although Russia had not been a belligerent, Prince Gong also signed a treaty with [[Nikolay Ignatyev]].

The original plan was to burn down the Forbidden City as punishment for the mistreatment of Anglo-French prisoners by Qing officials.  Because doing so would jeopardize the treaty signing, the plan shifted to burning the [[Old Summer Palace]] and [[Summer Palace]] instead.<ref name="Harris" /> The treaties with France and Britain were signed in the [[Ministry of Rites]] building immediately south of the Forbidden City on 24 October 1860.<ref name="Naquin">Naquin, Susan.  [2000] (2000).  Peking: Temples and City Life, 1400-1900.  University of California Press. {{ISBN|0-520-21991-0}}</ref>

==Terms==
{{wikisource}}
[[Image:Felice Beato (British, born Italy - Portrait of Prince Kung, Brother of the Emperor of China, Who Signed the Treaty - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|right|160px|[[Prince Gong (Qing dynasty)|Prince Gong]], photographed by [[Felice Beato]], 2 November 1860, just days after he signed the treaty on 24 October 1860.]]
In the convention, the [[Xianfeng Emperor]] ratified the [[Treaty of Tientsin]] (1858).

In 1860, the area known as [[Kowloon Peninsula|Kowloon]] was originally negotiated for lease in March, but in few months' time, the Convention of Peking ended the lease, and ceded the land formally to the British on 24 October.<ref>{{cite book |title= A biographical sketch-book of early Hong Kong|last= Endacott|first= G. B.|author-link=George Beer Endacott|author2=Carroll, John M. |year= 2005|orig-year= 1962|publisher= [[Hong Kong University Press]]|isbn=978-962-209-742-1}}</ref>

Article 6 of the Convention between China and the United Kingdom stipulated that China was to cede the part of Kowloon Peninsula south of present-day [[Boundary Street]], [[Kowloon]], and [[Hong Kong]] (including [[Stonecutters Island]]) in perpetuity to Britain.<ref>
{{Citation
| last = 
| first = 
| author-link = 
| last2 = 
| first2 = 
| title = Hong Kong Government Gazette - "Convention of Peace Between Her Majesty and the Emperor of China, signed at Peking, October 24th, 1860"
| place = Hong Kong
| publisher = Hong Kong Government
| series = 
| volume = 
| orig-date = 15th December
| year = 1860
| edition = 
| chapter = 
| chapter-url = 
| page = 270
| language = English
| url = https://webb-site.com/codocs/ConventionOfPeking.pdf
| doi = 
| id = 
| isbn = 
| mr = 
| zbl = 
| jfm = }} Article IV. ''With the view of law and order in and about the harbour of Hong-kong, His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of China agrees to cede to Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, and to Her Heirs and Successors, to have and to hold as a dependency of Her Britannic Majesty's Colony of Hongkong, that portion of the township of Cowloon, in the province of Kwang-Tung, of which a lease was granted in '''perpetuity'''  to Harry Smith Parkes, Esquire, Companion of the Bath, a Member of the Allied Commission at Canton, on behalf of Her Britannic Majesty's Government, by Lau Tsung-kwang, Governor-General of the two Kwang.''</ref>

Article 6 of the Convention between China and France stipulated that "the religious and charitable establishments which were confiscated from Christians during the persecutions of which they were victims shall be returned to their owners through the French Minister in China".<ref>{{CathEncy|wstitle=The Church in China}}</ref>

=== Manchuria ===
The treaty also confirmed the cession of the entirety of what is now known as [[Outer Manchuria]] to the Russian Empire, a total of 400,000 square kilometers,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ghosh |first1=S.K. |title=Sino-Soviet Border Talks |journal=India Quarterly |date=1977 |volume=33 |issue=1 |pages=57–61 |doi=10.1177/097492847703300105 |jstor=45070611 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/45070611 |access-date=28 September 2023|url-access=subscription }}</ref> with Russia achieving the strategic goal of sealing off Chinese access to the [[Sea of Japan]]. It granted Russia the right to the [[Ussuri krai]], a part of the modern day [[Primorsky Krai|Primorye]], the territory that corresponded with the ancient [[Manchu]] province of [[East Tartary]]. See [[Treaty of Aigun]] (1858), [[Treaty of Nerchinsk]] (1689) and [[Sino-Russian border conflicts]].{{citation needed|date=December 2018}}

In addition to ceding territory that had been ruled by the Qing dynasty, the treaty also ceded territory under [[Joseon|Korean]] jurisdiction, notably the island (by that time and currently a peninsula at the southernmost end of [[Primorsky Krai]]) of [[Noktundo]]. This was not known to the Koreans until the 1880s (20 or so years after the signing of the treaty, to which Korea was not a party), at which point it became a matter of official protest as the Koreans asserted that the Qing had no authority to cede Noktundo to Russia.

According to the Institute of Qing History the ceding of territory which created the modern [[North Korea–Russia border|border between Russia and North Korea]] and blocks China's access to the [[Sea of Japan]] was caused as a result of mismanagement during the demarcation process: Article 1 of the 1860 Sino-Russian Peking Convention stipulates that the southeastern section of the Sino-Russian eastern border "...from the mouth of the Bailing River along the mountains to the mouth of the Hubutu River, and then from the mouth of the Hubutu River along the [[Hunchun River]] and the ridge between the sea to the mouth of the Tumen River, the east belongs to Russia; the west belongs to China." In 1861, Chinese and Russian representatives signed the "Sino-Russian Eastern Boundary Agreement: ({{langx|zh|中俄勘分東界約記}}), in which the border between the two countries is on the east bank of the Tumen River estuary and the Sea of Japan. The coast from the north-eastern bank of the lower reaches of the Tumen River to the coast of the Sea of Japan still belongs to China, where China separates Russia and Korea through the 3km wide Japanese coast.<ref name="Institute">{{cite web|url=http://iqh.ruc.edu.cn/qdzwgxyj/zwgx_yjqy/js/80642d1a5e854846831be686ac6ffd7c.htm|title=吴大澂恢复中国图们江出海权再探讨|lang=zh|publisher=Institute of Qing History|accessdate=2024-12-11}}</ref> However, the "Border Map from the Ussuri River to the Sea" ({{langx|zh|烏蘇里江至海交界記文}}) document handed to China by Russia in 1862 shows that the border between the two countries is 20km north of the Tumen River estuary. This omission was allegedly caused by the director of the [[Ministry of Revenue (imperial China)|Ministry of Revenue]] Cheng Qi, who was serving as the special Chinese envoy for Sino-Russian border survey in 1861. Cheng Qi was addicted to opium and went to nearby [[Jilin City]] to replenish his drug stash, and entrusted the establishment of the [[Boundary marker|border markers]] entirely to the Russian survey representatives. The Russian side took the opportunity to unilaterally draw a boundary map, thereby connecting Russia and the [[Korean Peninsula]] across the Tumen River, gaining a foothold for invading Korea, and blocking China's passage to the Sea of Japan through the Tumen River. Cheng Qi was shortly fired from all official posts after the incident.<ref name="Institute" />

==Aftermath==
[[File:Pamětní deska podpisu Pekingské smlouvy 28. října 1860, Čcheng-te.jpg|thumb|Plaque in [[Chengde Mountain Resort]] marking the 1860 treaty as a "national humiliation" for China.]]
===Kowloon===
The governments of the [[United Kingdom]] and the [[People's Republic of China]] (PRC) concluded the [[Sino-British Joint Declaration|Sino-British Joint Declaration on the Question of Hong Kong]] in 1984, under which the sovereignty of the leased territories, together with [[Hong Kong Island]], ceded under the [[Treaty of Nanking]] (1842), and [[Kowloon Peninsula]] (south of [[Boundary Street]]), was to be transferred to the PRC on 1 July 1997.
===Noktundo===
The status of [[Noktundo]], which had been under Korean jurisdiction from the turn of the 17th century but was (unbeknownst to the Koreans until the 1880s) ceded to Russia in the treaty, remains formally unresolved, as only one of two Korean jurisdictions/governments have accepted a border agreement with Russia.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Kang |first1=Hyungwon |title=[Visual History of Korea] Do or die naval battles defined Adm. Yi Sun-sin as hero |url=https://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20220623000747 |website=Korean Herald |date=23 June 2022 |access-date=24 November 2023}}</ref> North Korea and the USSR signed a border treaty in 1985 officially certifying the Russian-North Korean border as running through the center of the [[Tumen River]]<ref>[http://www.rosgranitsa.ru/ru/activity/international/countries/kndr/legalbase Информация о международных соглашениях] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150708031439/http://www.rosgranitsa.ru/ru/activity/international/countries/kndr/legalbase |date=July 8, 2015 }} (Information on international agreements)</ref> which left the now-peninsula of Noktundo on the Russian side of the border. This agreement is not recognized by South Korea, which has since demanded Noktundo's return to Korean jurisdiction (ostensibly this would be North Korean jurisdiction, with the expectation of unified Korean control after an eventual Korean reunification).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ru.apircenter.org/publications/the-problem-of-the-noktundo-island-in-the-media-in-south-korea/ |trans-title=The problem of the Noktundo island in the media in South Korea |script-title=ru:Проблема острова Ноктундо в средствах массовой информации Южной Кореи |language=Russian |publisher=ru.apircenter.org |accessdate=2015-06-30 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130910052035/http://ru.apircenter.org/publications/the-problem-of-the-noktundo-island-in-the-media-in-south-korea/ |archivedate=10 September 2013|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Original copies==
An original copy of the convention is located in the [[National Palace Museum]] in [[Taiwan]].<ref>http://www.npm.gov.tw/exh100/diplomatic/page_en02.html Republic of China's Diplomatic Archives (English)</ref>

==See also==
* [[Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory|Second Convention of Peking]]
* [[History of Hong Kong]]
* [[Western imperialism in Asia]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Cole, Herbert M. "Origins of the French Protectorate over Catholic Missions in China." ''American Journal of International Law'' 34.3 (1940): 473–491.

==External links==
{{wikisource|Convention of Friendship between Great Britain and China}}
{{wikisourcelang|ru|Пекинский договор (1860)}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20051127104800/http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~amduckwo/janice/Timeline1.html A timeline of the history of Hong Kong from 1840 to 1999]
* {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20140303023631/http://www.chinaforeignrelations.net/treaty_beijing Full text of the Convention of Peking between China and the United Kingdom]}}
* {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20160305201331/http://chinaforeignrelations.net/node/163 Full text of the Convention of Peking between China and France]}}
* {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20171201030731/http://www.chinaforeignrelations.net/node/234 Full text of the Convention of Peking between China and Russia]}}

{{Sino-Russian treaties}}
{{Qing dynasty topics}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Convention of Peking}}
[[Category:19th century in the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:History of Manchuria]]
[[Category:Treaties of the United Kingdom (1801–1922)|Peking]]
[[Category:Unequal treaties|Peking]]
[[Category:Kowloon]]
[[Category:Treaties involving territorial changes|Peking]]
[[Category:1860 in France]]
[[Category:1860 in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:1860 in China]]
[[Category:China–Russian Empire relations]]
[[Category:Opium Wars]]
[[Category:Boundary treaties]]
[[Category:1860 treaties]]
[[Category:Treaties of the Russian Empire|Peking]]
[[Category:Treaties of the Second French Empire|Peking]]
[[Category:Treaties of the Qing dynasty|Peking]]
[[Category:China–France relations]]
[[Category:China–United Kingdom relations]]
[[Category:October 1860]]
[[Category:History of Zhangjiakou]]