Question: What is a Foreign Concession in China?
Answer: Concessions were the lands given over (conceded) to individual governments, e.g. France and Great Britain, and controlled by those governments. In China, most concessions were located in ports, such as Canton (today's Guangdong), Shanghai and Amoy (today's Xiamen), and obtained by the force of the occupying powers as a result of the treaties ratified after the Opium Wars.
The Qing Dynasty had to concede not only territory but also had to open their ports to foreign merchants wanting to trade. The demand in the West for tea, porcelain and silk was high and it was paid for by opium for the most part.
Foreign occupation in China was interrupted with the onset of World War II and the Japanese invasion of China. Many foreigners who did not manage to escape China on Allied transport ended up interned in Japanese prison camps. After the war there was a resurgence of expatriate immigration to China to reclaim lost property and revive business. But this period ended abruptly in 1949 when China became a communist state and most foreigners fled.
