Foreign concessions in China
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.
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.
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.
Including the 2,525 acres of French Concession, the total area was eventually to reach 12.66 square miles.
[14] 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.
Over time, and without formal permission, Britain, France, Japan and the United States established their own postal systems within their concession and trade areas.
[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.
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.
[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.
The Asia and Pacific theatre of the First World War would be another major incident changing the ownership of concessions in China with Japanese expansion.
[23] Some efforts were made by the foreign powers to have the different police forces cooperate and work together, but not with significant success.
[note 1][citation needed] However the inland concession of Chongqing was abandoned by the Japanese as they began the invasion.
[32][17] In 1943 Italy surrendered its treaty rights in cooperation with the Japanese controlled puppet Nanjing government.
