Belgium concession in China

European powers are well know for their colonial history. Even a small country as Belgium was able to enrich itself with a colony, Congo. Belgian Congo was about 76 times bigger than its home country. This colony was annexed to Belgium in 1908.

A less well know fact is that a few years before earlier Belgium gained a concession in China. A concession is an enclave inside a major city. The best know concessions, actually more territories, are probably Macau and Hong Kong, but there were some in major cities such as Shanghai and Tianjin.

Because the foreign powers (next to European countries also Japan and the United States were also involved) were military stronger than the conservative Chinese empire. Because of the military inequality and the tumultuous chaos in China, the foreign powers easily got access to mainland China. The first concessions are given to the British after signing the "unequal" Treaty of Nanjing, which marks the end of the first Opium War in 1842. Gradually other countries get their concession after consecutive Chinese defeats. During that time Belgium got its own concession in Tianjin on 6 Ferbruari 1908.
In a concession everything is administrated by the foreign country. The concessions had their own police, military and court. So the laws could differ from concession to concession. This brought a lot of misbehaviour from those foreigners residing in these areas, because they were practically protected by their home country. A famous example is the signs that were hung up near the foreign concessions in Shanghai, which said : "Forbidden to dogs and Chinese".
Tianjin is a harbour city about 150 km from Beijing. About 3 million people reside there nowadays and it's also the place where the Sail sports will be hold during the Olympic Games. It is a very important city because it gives access to Beijing by water canals. Although not too much is know about these concessions, the most famous one would be the Japanese one. In 1911 the Republic of China is established and the last emperor has to flee. He finds refuge in the Japanese concession and will later be used as puppet emperor by the Japanese for their state of Manchuoku.
The Belgium concession was allocated in 1902, but it was not before1924 that it was in use. A mutual treaty on 31 August 1929 proclaimed the transfer back to China, which was completed on 18 February 1931. Not much is left from the Belgian concession as the area is now covered by medium density housing estates.


The Belgian Bund.
Map of Tianjin 1937.