Treaty of Whampoa

The Treaty of Whampoa was a commercial treaty between France and China, which was signed by Théodore de Lagrené and Qiying on October 24, 1844 aboard the warship L’Archimède. It is considered an unequal treaty by many sources.

Terms
Based on the terms of the accord, China granted the same privileges to the Kingdom of France as it had done to Britain in the Treaty of Nanking and subsequent treaties. These privileges included the opening of five harbors to French merchants, extraterritorial privileges French citizens in China, a fixed tariff on Sino-French trade and the right of France to station consuls in China.

Toleration of Christianity
Although French prime minister Guizot only had given Lagrené a mandate to negotiate a commercial treaty with France, Lagrené decided that he wanted to enhance France's international prestige by securing a rescission of Yongzheng Emperor's prohibition of Christianity in China from 1724. By so doing, France could become the protectorate of Catholics in China, just like France played the same role in the Levant. After protracted negotiations with Qiying, most of which Lagrené entrusted to his interpreter Joseph-Marie Callery, the Daoguang Emperor issued an edict in February 1846, which legalized the practice of Christianity in China.