Convention of Chuenpi

The Convention of Chuenpi, also spelled Chuenpee, was a tentative agreement reached during the First Opium War between the British plenipotentiary and Superintendent of Trade in China, Charles Elliot, and the Qing Imperial Commissioner Qishan. Its terms were published on 20 January 1841, but neither government accepted them. Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston judged that Elliot had obtained too little, while the Daoguang Emperor believed that Qishan had conceded too much, and both negotiators were removed from their posts, Elliot being replaced by Major-General Henry Pottinger and Qishan by Yishan. The convention was never ratified and so never took effect as a binding treaty, yet many of its terms reappeared in the Treaty of Nanking of 1842, which made it an important draft for the settlement that ended the war.