The Battle of Phu Lam Tao (23 March 1885) was a politically significant engagement during the Sino-French War (August 1884 April 1885), in which a French Zouave battalion was defeated by a mixed force of Chinese soldiers and Black Flags.

The Sino-French War (traditional Chinese: 中法戰爭; simplified Chinese: 中法战争; pinyin: Zhōngfǎ Zhànzhēng, French: Guerre franco-chinoise, Vietnamese: Chiến tranh Pháp-Thanh), also known as the Tonkin War and Tonquin War, was a limited conflict fought from August 1884 to April 1885. There was no declaration of war. Militarily it was a stalemate. The Chinese armies performed better than its other nineteenth-century wars, and the war ended with French retreat on land. However, one consequence was that France supplanted China's control of Tonkin (northern Vietnam). The war strengthened the dominance of Empress Dowager Cixi over the Chinese government, but brought down the government of Prime Minister Jules Ferry in Paris. Both sides ratified the Treaty of Tientsin. According to Lloyd Eastman, "neither nation reaped diplomatic gains."