Kwang-Chou-Wan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kwang-Chou-Wan (廣州灣 pinyin Guăng zhōu wān), or Kwangchowan, was a small enclave on the south coast of China conceded by China to France as a leased territory.
Situated in Guangdong Province in a bay on the east side of the Leizhou Peninsula, north of Hainan, Kwang-Chou-Wan consisted of a 780 km² (300 sq. miles) area surrounding the estuary of the Ma-Tse River, including the town of Lei Chow or Fort Bayard, which acted as the territory's capital, as well as a number of offshore islands. By 1935 its population was 250,000.
[edit] History
Kwang-Chou-Wan was annexed by the French on 27 May 1898 as territoire de Kouang-Tchéou-Wan, to counter the growing commercial power of British Hong Kong and Portuguese Macau.
Following the annexation, a 99 year lease to France was conceded by imperial China, and so Kwang-Chou-Wan was effectively placed under the authority of the French Resident superior in Tonkin (itself under the Governor general of French Indochina, also in Hanoi), who was represented locally by Administrators since 1898 till 1946 (except under Japanese occupation).
Industries included shipping and coal mining.
After the fall of Paris to Nazi Germany in 1940, the Republic of China recognised the London exiled Free France as Kwang-Chou-Wan's sovereign rulers and established diplomatic relations with them, but June 1940 - February 1943 the colonial administration remained loyal to Free France.
In collaboration with German-controlled Vichy France, which relinquished the concession to the Japanese sponsored Chinese National Government (another claimant to the succession of the former Chinese empire), the Imperial Japanese Army occupied the area only from February 1943 until their surrender in August-September 1945, when the French administration was again recognized.
General Charles de Gaulle's France formally returned the bay to the Republic of China, 28 February 1946. Zhanjiang City Government was established in 1946.
