Burlingame Treaty

The Burlingame Treaty, signed in 1868, was a significant agreement between China and the United States. Negotiated by American diplomat Anson Burlingame, it established most-favored-nation treatment for citizens of each country residing in the other and affirmed the U.S. policy of respecting China's territorial integrity.1

Later, in 1880, the treaty was revised. This revision allowed the U.S. government to suspend, but not completely prohibit, the immigration of Chinese laborers. It did, however, reaffirm the rights and privileges for Chinese laborers already residing in the United States and obligated the U.S. to protect those rights.2