Ep. 365 | Anson Burlingame, the 1868 Treaty, and the Open Door Policy

The China History Podcast

Laszlo Montgomery

Places & Travel, Society & Culture, History

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 28 May 2025

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode, we look at the life of Anson Burlingame, a well-known name in California. During Lincoln's term as president, he was appointed Chief Minister to China, arriving in Beijing in the summer of 1862. Already well-known in the US as a fiery abolitionist and a man who believed everyone should be treated fairly and with all due respect, he sympathized with the Chinese government. When he arrived in post-Opium Wars, post-Treaty of Tianjin/Convention of Beijing China, he used his respected position among the diplomatic community of the treaty powers to fight for a fair deal for China. In a controversial move, he was appointed by the Qing government to lead a mission to the US and the great capitals of Europe to advocate on China's behalf.

While in the US, Burlingame championed the signing of a treaty, the first of its kind, that recognized China as an equal sovereign nation. It opened the door to legal Chinese immigration and travel to the US. That ended up becoming the treaty's undoing.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everyone, Lassel Montgomery here with another China history podcast episode.
0:05.4	This one's special for Jerry and Danville.
0:07.7	Nine years ago, he suggested this topic to me.
0:11.0	And I promised Jerry I'd get to it one day.
0:13.6	And when I began work on this one, the U.S. and China were locked in this cage match of a trade war.
0:20.1	And in all my China yak shows that I prescribed to,
0:23.6	and in so many discussions with my friends in Asia,
0:27.5	the word on the street is that,
0:29.7	there's never been anything like this before.
0:32.5	How did we get here?
0:35.2	In many of these past CHP episodes,
0:37.3	we've looked at all kinds of Chinese
0:40.7	American history and topics concerning the history of U.S.-China relations. Because of recent events,
0:47.6	I was inspired to present that episode on William McKinley, his 1890 tariffs, and the
0:54.0	open-door policy.
0:56.4	And this time, I'd like to further wind the clock back to the 1860s and focus on Anson
1:03.6	Burlingame and all the history that he was right in the middle of.
1:09.2	Californians, all heard of Anson Burlingame before, there's a city
1:13.0	located just south of San Francisco Airport named for the subject of today's episode. Maybe
1:21.2	there's a chance, Anson Burlingame's name came up in social studies class for anyone who went
1:26.9	through the American education system.
1:29.1	So I thought, let's look at Burlingame and what he tried to do back in the late 1860s.
	...

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