Home › History › January 11, 1943 – The Republic of China agrees to the Sino-British New Equal Treaty and the Sino-American New Equal Treaty

January 11, 1943 – The Republic of China agrees to the Sino-British New Equal Treaty and the Sino-American New Equal Treaty

By China News on January 11, 2021 • ( 0 )

The Sino-British Treaty for the Relinquishment of Extra-Territorial Rights in China, or the Sino-British New Equal Treaty, was a bilateral treaty concluded between the British and the Chinese governments in Chongqing on 11 January 1943. The formal name of the treaty was Treaty Between His Majesty in Respect of the United Kingdom and India and His Excellency the President of the National Government of the Republic of China for the Relinquishment of Extra-Territorial Rights in China and the Regulation of Related Matters.

Under that treaty, the British government relinquished any special rights it had in China. This was done as a conciliatory step towards the Chinese government in order to boost up its cooperation with the Allied Powers in the Second World War. The United States and China concluded a similar treaty on the same day.

Ratifications were exchanged in Chongqing on 20 May 1943, and the treaty became effective on the same day. It was registered in the League of Nations Treaty Series on 30 September 1944.

The Sino-American Treaty for the Relinquishment of Extraterritorial Rights in China or Sino-American New Equal Treaty was a bilateral treaty signed by the United States and the Republic of China on January 11, 1943. The formal name of the treaty was Treaty Between the United States of America and the Republic of China for the Relinquishment of Extraterritorial Rights in China and the Regulation of Related Matters. It became effective on May 20, 1943 following the mutual exchange of ratifications pursuant to Article VIII.

After the United States declared war upon Japan on Dec. 8, 1941, the governments of the United States and United Kingdom mutually decided that it would be advantageous to end extraterritoriality and the unilateral privileges in China that had been granted by the “unequal treaties.” Extraterritoriality was thus ended, making citizens of the United States and United Kingdom in China subject to Chinese law, as well as the existence of treaty ports and their autonomous foreign settlements, legation quarters, and the right to station foreign warships in Chinese waters and foreign troops on Chinese territory.

In close coordination with the United States, the United Kingdom and China also established a corresponding treaty which served essentially the same purpose and was concluded on the same day.