Peking Anglo-Chinese Treaty of 1860

a treaty forced upon China by Great Britain after China’s defeat in the Opium War of 1856–60; signed in Peking on Oct. 24, 1860. The treaty was one of the Peking conventions of 1860.

Under the treaty, the indemnity owed by China, set at 4 million taels by the Anglo-Chinese Treaty of Tientsin (1858), was increased to 8 million taels (art. 3); the port of Tientsin was opened to British trade (art. 4); the right of British subjects to recruit Chinese for work in British colonies and elsewhere was established (art. 5); and Britain acquired possession of the southern part of Kowloon, opposite Hong Kong, which the British had already seized (art. 6). The Peking Anglo-Chinese Treaty reaffirmed those provisions of the Treaty of Tientsin that remained unchanged. The final ratification of the Treaty of Tientsin took place at the same time as the signing of the Peking Anglo-Chinese Treaty.