Hope became Commander-in-Chief, East Indies and China Station and, when the Chinese authorities refused to allow British and French ministers to travel to Peking, he was instructed to force the Hai River. He assembled a squadron of eleven gunboats and other vessels and, at the Second Battle of the Taku Forts, he led an assault on the forts at the mouth of the river in a resumption of the Second Opium War. However the forts had been strengthened and the squadron encountered firm resistance from the Chinese defenders: Hope was forced to retreat.
Promoted to rear admiral on 19 November 1857,[4] Hope became Commander-in-Chief, East Indies and China Station, with his flag in the frigateHMS Chesapeake in March 1859.[2] When the Chinese authorities refused to allow British and French ministers to travel to Peking, Hope was instructed to force the Hai River.[2] He assembled a squadron of eleven gunboats and other vessels and, at the Second Battle of the Taku Forts, he led an assault on the forts at the mouth of the river in June 1859 in a resumption of the Second Opium War.[5] However the forts had been strengthened and the squadron encountered firm resistance from the Chinese defenders: Hope was forced to retreat.[5] In addition to the loss of three British gunboats and some British prestige, a total of 89 British officers and men were killed and 345 were wounded.[5] During the engagement Commodore Josiah Tattnall III, commanding the steamer Toey-Wan of the United States Navy, a neutral party in the war, provided assistance with the evacuation of the dead and wounded, justifying his involvement with the comment "blood is thicker than water".[5] Hope himself was severely wounded in the engagement.[6]
The dispute with the Chinese authorities was only resolved when the British Government sent an army, under Lieutenant General Sir James Hope Grant, to take the forts by overwhelming force: the Third Battle of the Taku Forts in August 1860 was an Anglo-French victory: Hope provided the covering fire for the disembarkation of the troops and was advanced to Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath on 9 November 1860.[7] He was also awarded the French Legion of Honour, Second Class on 29 October 1861.[8]
In March 1861 the Russians attempted to establish a year-round anchorage on the coast of the island of Tsushima, a Japanese territory located between Kyushu and Korea, in what became known as in the Tsushima Incident. Hope arrived with two British warships in August 1861 and forced the Russian corvettePosadnik to withdraw.[9] In February 1862 he provided assistance to the Imperial Chinese Army in putting down the Taiping Rebellion.[10]