The Italian concession of Tianjin (Chinese: 天津意租界; pinyin: Tiānjīn Yì Zūjiè, Italian: Concessione italiana di Tientsin) was a small territory (concession) in central Tianjin (formerly romanized as Tientsin), China, controlled by the Kingdom of Italy between 1901 and 1943, officially ceded to China in 1947.
The Italian Regia Marina ("Royal Navy") stationed vessels at Tientsin such as the river gunboats Ermanno Carlotto and Sebastiano Caboto.
After the siege had been broken by the Eight-Nation Alliance (that included Italy) at the end of the Battle of Peking, the foreign powers obtained the right to station troops to protect their legations under the terms of the Boxer Protocol.
In 1925, Benito Mussolini created the Battaglione italiano in Cina and quartered it with soldiers of the San Marco Regiment in the new Caserma Ermanno Carlotto.
[8] In July 1944, the Italian Social Republic formally relinquished the concession to Wang Jingwei's Japanese-sponsored Reorganized National Government of China which, like the RSI in Axis-held northern Italy, was not recognized by the Kingdom of Italy, the Republic of China, or most other nations.
At the same time, the Italian commercial concessions in the Shanghai International Settlement, Hankou, and Beijing were ceded to the Republic of China.