CH'I-YING

died June 29, 1858, Peking Pinyin Qiying Chinese official who negotiated the Treaty of Nanking, which ended the first Opium War (1839-42), fought by the British in China to gain trade concessions there. A member of the Imperial family of the Ch'ing dynasty (1644-1912), Ch'i-ying served in various high governmental positions before being sent to the east-central Chinese city of Nanking in 1842 to negotiate a treaty with the advancing British forces. The document finally signed by Ch'i-ying granted the British the island of Hong Kong, opened five other ports to British trade and residence of British citizens, and agreed to the payment of a large indemnity. The following year, on Oct. 8, 1843, Ch'i-ying signed the British Supplementary Treaty of the Bogue, which governed the execution of the Nanking Treaty and granted the British the right of extraterritoriality; i.e., the right to try British subjects by British courts set up on Chinese soil. The Bogue Treaty also granted the British a "most favoured nation" clause, which promised that any concession granted later to other foreign powers would also then be granted to the British. In 1844 Ch'i-ying signed similar treaties with the United States and France and, in 1847, with Sweden and Norway. In his ignorance of the West, Ch'i-ying felt he was ridding the Chinese Empire of an immediate nuisance by agreeing to the foreigners' demands. This practice was, however, the beginning of a series of treaties that humiliated the Chinese for more than a century. Ch'i-ying pursued his policy of appeasement until 1848, when he was recalled after the British, in an attempt to pressure the Chinese, conducted a short raid on Canton and the forts along the coast. In 1858 Ch'i-ying returned to government service to aid in the negotiation of a treaty to end the "Arrow" War (1856-60). The British negotiators, however, took a hostile attitude toward him, confronting him with a letter he had written to the emperor in 1845, in which he discussed the proper methods for dealing with "barbarians." Ch'i-ying, by then old and half-blind, panicked and gave up his assigned duty. For his disobedience, the emperor had him imprisoned and then ordered him to commit suicide.