Battle of Fuzhou (Mawei)
Also called: Battle of Mawei, Battle of the Min River
On 23 August 1884 Admiral Courbet’s French Far East squadron attacked the Qing Fujian Fleet at anchor at Mawei near Fuzhou, sinking almost all of it in under an hour, and shelled the Foochow Navy Yard.
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When talks over Vietnam broke down, Admiral Courbet’s squadron was already anchored up the Min River at Mawei, right beside the Chinese ships. On the afternoon of 23 August 1884 the French opened fire.
Under torpedo boats and naval guns, most of the Fujian Fleet — built by the Self-Strengthening Movement — was sunk or burned in less than an hour, and hundreds were killed. The French then wrecked the Foochow Navy Yard and the riverside forts and steamed out of the river.
The next year Feng Zicai’s Qing army won a great victory over the French at Zhennan Pass on land, but in the Treaty of Tianjin of 1885 China gave up its suzerainty over Vietnam.