Anson Burlingame

American diplomat who served as U.S. Minister to China (1861-1867) and then became China's own envoy to the Western powers — negotiating the Burlingame Treaty (1868) that established mutual immigration rights.

The Burlingame Treaty (1868): Burlingame negotiated the first treaty between the U.S. and China establishing free immigration and emigration — a landmark in American immigration history, soon undermined by the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882). His defection from the U.S. diplomatic service to represent China was extraordinary — a Western diplomat becoming the face of Chinese diplomacy to Western nations. Demonstrates the fluidity of national identity in 19th-century diplomacy.