Burlingame Treaty
BURLINGAME TREATY
BURLINGAME TREATY, signed on 28 July 1868 in Washington, D.C., negotiated by Anson Burlingame, a former U.S. minister to China. China's government hoped that through personal persuasion and winning popular sympathy, Burlingame could preempt new demands for more rights in China. The treaty contained eight articles. It reaffirmed prior U.S. commercial rights, but left decisions on future trade privileges to the discretion of the Chinese government. The United States disavowed any desire to interfere in China's internal affairs, and the Chinese granted unlimited immunity and privileges of travel, visit, residence, and immigration to U.S. citizens. A provision for reciprocal most-favored-nation status brought criticism because it seemed to guarantee Chinese immigration to the United States, requiring negotiation of the 1880 Angell Treaty, in which China agreed that the U.S. government could suspend but not prohibit immigration. The treaty helped create the myth that the United States was China's preeminent friend and defender.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Anderson, David L. Imperialism and Idealism: American Diplomats in China, 1861–1898. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985.
Hunt, Michael H. The Making of a Special Relationship: The United States and China to 1914. New York: Columbia University Press, 1983.
Williams, Frederick Wells. Anson Burlingame and the First Chinese Mission to Foreign Powers. New York: Russell and Russell, 1972.
James I.Matray
See alsoChina, Relations with .