In the 1870s and 1880s, a series of extradition cases between Hong Kong and Canton concerning the conflict between treaty obligations and colonial law threatened the very foundation of fugitive rendition laid out in the Treaty of Tianjin. A variety of solutions were attempted, such as demanding that the Qing change its laws on conviction and punishment, the suspension of the extradition clause of Article 21, or negotiating an empire-wide extradition treaty to replace the article. But none of these proposals were seriously entertained. In the meantime, to the local populations, the jurisdictional boundary between Canton and Hong Kong opened up an alternative arena of law and empowerment.

This chapter focuses on the legal ramifications of the rendition of Taiping Lieutenant Hou Yutian (mistakenly identified as Mo Wang) by the Hong Kong government to the Canton administration in 1865. This case was the first to reveal the tension between the Treaty of Tianjin (1858) and colonial law regarding fugitive rendition. The strong reaction of the British public to the execution of Hou by “lingering death” led to Britain’s amendment of its fugitive rendition procedure under the Treaty of Tianjin. The British government henceforth no longer considered “political offenses” as an extraditable crime to China and stipulated that no prisoner could be surrendered without a guarantee by the Chinese government of a “fair trial” and a pledge not to use any torture. While the Qing government accepted the amendment as an act of expediency, the British Foreign Office interpreted it as an acquiescence to British rules of extradition and the Political Offense Exception (POE).

This chapter introduces the key research questions of the book and outlines a theoretical framework for studying political crimes as a comparative concept. It highlights the significance of understanding political crimes as a transborder phenomenon and argues that the Qing state confronted serious challenges from the mid nineteenth century onward in handing fugitive renditions, as they became regulated by treaties whose implementation was often subject to the discretion of foreign diplomats, colonial officials, and municipal councils.