1842年〈南京條約〉簽訂前，昔日清廷視為「天朝棄民」的海外華人，因英國建立海峽殖民地(Straits Settlements)，而成為英國直接統治下的「英國臣民」(British Subjects)。1843年，當廈門開放為條約口岸，大部分原鄉為閩南的英籍華民(Anglo-Chinese)，遂選擇以新身分脫離清廷管轄，合法返回廈門。然而由於這些華民語言、服飾和生活習慣與內地民人無異，便造成中英地方官管理上的問題，衍生一連串之外交交涉。當中國尚未能理解近代國籍法之屬民觀，英國也未理解清廷傳統海禁政策之意義，交涉過程充分凸顯相異法律秩序之衝突與矛盾。1851年廈門小刀會陳慶真事件將問題癥結推向高峰，但最後爭議仍無法徹底解決，埋下日後衝突之根源。

As soon as China was forced to open the trading ports after the Opium War, lots of overseas Chinese who had been migrated to abroad for a long time, took the opportunity to go back to their native lands under the protection from western countries, especially the Great Britain. Most of these Anglo-Chinese were from the Strait Settlements, and they registered at the consulate to enter the opening ports. In the early returning period, the Chinese and the British government insisted on their jurisdiction over these people respectively. In the case of China, the confirmed thought of banning on maritime trade affected the administrator to deem those people as their subject. On the contrary, British consul thought that the jurisdiction over the returning Anglo-Chinese should belong to them. Thus the contradictory between two counties caused a lot of diplomatic negotiations in coastal province of China. Yet the negotiations could not solve these disputes thoroughly at this period, it lays down the origins which will cause conflict in the future.