Convention of Peking

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The Convention of Peking (Traditional Chinese: 北京條約; pinyin: Běijīng Tiáoyūe) (October 18, 1860), also known as the First Convention of Peking, was a treaty between the Government of the Qing-Dynasty of China and each of the three European powers, namely the United Kingdom, France, and Russia.

Article 6 of the Convention between China and the United Kingdom stipulated that China was to cede a part of the Kowloon Peninsula, south of the present day Boundary Street, Kowloon, Hong Kong, including the Stonecutter's Island, in perpetuity to Britain.

The treaty also ceded parts of Outer Manchuria to the Russian Empire. It granted Russia the right to the Ussuri krai, a part of the modern day Primorye, the territory that corresponded with the ancient Manchu province of East Tartary.

The Convention was signed as a result of the Second Opium War under military and diplomatic pressure of British and French troops (who were burning the Old Summer Palace at the time). It was considered one of the unequal treaties by the Chinese.

The governments of the United Kingdom and the People's Republic of China (PRC) concluded the Sino-British Joint Declaration on the Question of Hong Kong in 1984, under which the sovereignty of the leased territories, together with Hong Kong Island, ceded under the Treaty of Nanking (1842), and Kowloon (south of Boundary Street), was scheduled to be transferred to the PRC on July 1, 1997.