U.S. senators threaten currency bill ahead of Hu visit

[David Guyatt]

Interesting idea. What are the senators proposing... sending a strongly worded letter to China by camel saying we don't love you anymore - but please keep buying our T bills and bonds (cuz we'll go bankrupt if you don't)?

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20110117/tts...02f96.html

U.S. senators threaten currency bill ahead of Hu visit

A group of U.S. senators, on the eve of Chinese President Hu Jintao's arrival in the United States, said the time has come for U.S. congressional action on China's currency policies. Skip related content

"There's no bigger step we can take to preserve the American dream and promote job creation, particularly in the manufacturing sector ... than to confront China's manipulation of its currency," Democratic Senator Charles Schumer said.

The message to Hu is "we are fed up with your government's intransigence on currency manipulation. If you refuse to play by the same rules, we will force you to do so," Schumer said in a conference call with reporters.

Beijing's currency practices give Chinese companies an unfair price advantage in trade and have acted like "a boot on the throat" of U.S. economic recovery, Schumer said.

Hu arrives in Washington Tuesday for a state visit with President Barack Obama and also is expected to meet with senior members of Congress. Schumer and many other lawmakers have complained for years about China's currency practices.

In a rare written interview published Sunday by the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post, Hu said China had taken steps towards a more flexible exchange rate policy.

But he appeared to reject a U.S. argument that Beijing let its currency appreciate faster to help rein in domestic inflationary pressure.

China is the world's biggest foreign holder of U.S. government debt, with a third of its $2.85 trillion in foreign exchange reserves invested in U.S. Treasuries.

Schumer and said he and a group of bipartisan senators would reintroduce a bill they crafted last year, but which never came to a vote in Senate.

It would require the Treasury Department to investigate "China's manipulation of its currency and actually do something about it ... The time for talk is over. We've had enough of China's empty verbiage," he said.

[Ed Jewett]

Camel? Or ocean-going junk?

[As an aside, are you familiar with Gavin Menzies and his book/theory/web site "1434"? I'm reading the book now about the ocean-going Chinese fleet that sailed into the Mediterranean, enabled the Renaissance, provided maps of America to the Pope, and more. Perhaps it worked in that we barbarians are indeed paying tribute and have been instructed in deference and submission. Wal-Mart always seems to be crowded.]

[David Guyatt]

Ocean going junk seems more appropriate, doesn't it.

I was thinking of the silk trade route.

especially that of the silk purses and sow's ears metaphor.

PS, no Ed I haven't read that. But having studied Chinese martial arts and Chinese "this and that", I have a view about Chinese culture that is superior to European.

[Peter Lemkin]

Nuke 'em.....before they create their own reserve currency, which they just proposed to be on the road to do. That'd be the 'American Way'.....I'm sure Dr. Strangelove would concur.

[Jan Klimkowski]

US outrage at China's manipulation of its currency?

hock:

I mean, crikey, no nation state has ever manipulated its currency before in the history of the world. Whatever will that fiendish Fu Manchu think up next? A plan for world domination through creating a nation of opium addicts?

Meanwhile, there's this

[Magda Hassan]

I think it may be time to open a Chinese bank account. mallprint:

[David Guyatt]

I think it may be time to open a Chinese bank account. mallprint:

Should we start a folder where members can be freely tutored in Mandarin?

Now count after me:

一 yī (yi1) [eee]
二 èr (er4) [arr]
三 sān (san1) [sahn]
四 sì (si4) [ssuh] - like a snake with 'uh' (say the vowel in the back of your throat)
五 wǔ (wu3) [woo] (Not to be confused with wo [woaa] meaning I or me.)
六 lìu (liu4) [liou]
七 qī (qi1) [chi] (say it in the front of your mouth, with your teeth together and your lips pulled to the sides)
八 bā (ba1) [bah]
九 jiǔ (jiu3) [jeou]
十 shí (shi2) [sher (This time, say the vowel in the front of your mouth, with your teeth together)

And fear not, I have already mastered the truly important phrases like:

hùhng/baahk jáu

red or white wine.

Now sing with me.

[Peter Lemkin]

A Short History of the Opium Wars

The Central Kingdom

At the end of the 1800s China's four million square miles held 450 million people, up from 200 million a century earlier. The ruling dynasty was the Ching, established by Manchus from Manchuria, who in 1644 had superseded the Ming. These descendants of the Tatars appreciated Chinese civilization and adopted a conciliatory attitude toward their subjects. They refused, however, to allow intermarriage with the Chinese, for they realized that only their blood difference kept them from being assimilated and conquered. By and large, however, the Manchus gradually became Chinese in their attitudes and habits.

The Manchu emperors were remarkably successful. The reign of Chien-lung (1736-1795) was a time of great expansion. The Manchus gained Turkestan, Burma, and Tibet. By the end of the eighteenth century Manchu power extended even into Nepal, and the territory under the Ching control was as extensive as under any previous dynasty.

The Western Response

The foreigners were especially irritated by the high customs duties the Chinese forced them to pay and by the attempts of Chinese authorities to stop the growing import trade in opium. The drug had long been used to stop diarrhea, but in the seventeenth and eighteenth century people in all classes began to use it recreationally. Most opium came from Turkey or India, and in 1800 its import was forbidden by the imperial government. Despite this restriction, the opium trade continued to flourish. Privately owned vessels of many countries, including the United States, made huge profits from the growing number of Chinese addicts. The government in Peking noted that the foreigners seemed intent on dragging down the Chinese through the encouragement of opium addiction.

[See Opium Factory: The stacking room at an opium factory in Patna, India. Opium smuggling upset the balance of trade and destroyed China's economy.]

In the meantime, the empire faced other problems. The army became corrupt and the tax farmers defrauded the people. The central bureaucracy declined in efficiency, and the generally weak emperors were unable to meet the challenges of the time. The balance of trade turned against the Chinese in the 1830s, and the British decided to force the issue of increased trade rights. The point of conflict was the opium trade. By the late 1830s more than 30,000 chests, each of which held about 150 pounds of the extract, were being brought in annually by the various foreign powers. Some authorities assert that the trade in opium alone reversed China's formerly favorable balance of trade. In the spring of 1839 Chinese authorities at Canton confiscated and burned the opium. In response, the British occupied positions around Canton.

In the war that followed, the Chinese could not match the technological and tactical superiority of the British forces. In 1842 China agreed to the provisions of the Treaty of Nanking. Hong Kong was ceded to Great Britain, and other ports, including Canton, were opened to British residence and trade. It would be a mistake to view the conflict between the two countries simply as a matter of drug control; it was instead the acting out of deep cultural conflicts between east and west.

The French and Americans approached the Chinese after the Nanking Treaty's provisions became known, and in 1844 gained the same trading rights as the British. The advantages granted the three nations by the Chinese set a precedent that would dominate China's relations with the world for the next century. The "most favored nation" treatment came to be extended so far that China's right to rule in its own territory was limited. This began the period referred to by the Chinese as the time of unequal treaties - a time of unprecedented degradation for China. The humiliation the Central Kingdom suffered is still remembered and strongly affects important aspects of its foreign policy. Meanwhile, the opium trade continued to thrive.

The British and French again defeated China in a second opium war in 1856. By the terms of the Treaty of Tientsin (1858) the Chinese opened new ports to trading and allowed foreigners with passports to travel in the interior. Christians gained the right to spread their faith and hold property, thus opening up another means of western penetration. The United States and Russia gained the same privileges in separate treaties.

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Wiki version [ingest with care...]
The Opium Wars (simplified Chinese: 鸦片战争; traditional Chinese: 鴉片戰爭; pinyin: Yāpiàn Zhànzhēng), also known as the Anglo-Chinese Wars, were the climax of trade disputes and diplomatic difficulties between China under the Qing Dynasty and the British Empire after China sought to restrict illegal British opium trafficking. It consisted of the First Opium War from 1839 to 1842[1] and the Second Opium War from 1856 to 1860.[2]

Opium was smuggled by merchants from British India into China in defiance of Chinese prohibition laws. Open warfare between Britain and China broke out in 1839. Further disputes over the treatment of British merchants in Chinese ports resulted in the Second Opium War.

China was defeated in both wars leaving its government having to tolerate the opium trade. Britain forced the Chinese government into signing the Treaty of Nanking and the Treaty of Tianjin, also known as the Unequal Treaties, which included provisions for the opening of additional ports to unrestricted foreign trade, for fixed tariffs; for the recognition of both countries as equal in correspondence; and for the cession of Hong Kong to Britain. The British also gained extraterritorial rights. Several countries followed Britain and sought similar agreements with China. Many Chinese found these agreements humiliating and these sentiments contributed to the Taiping Rebellion (18501864), the Boxer Rebellion (18991901), and the downfall of the Qing Dynasty in 1912, putting an end to dynastic China.Contents [hide]
1 Background
1.1 European trade with Asia
1.2 Qing attitudes toward trade
1.3 British trade and the Canton System
2 Growth of opium trade
3 Napier Affair and First Opium War (18391842)
4 Second Opium War (18561860)
5 Lin Zexu and the war on opium
6 See also
7 References

[edit]
Background
[edit]
European trade with Asia

Direct maritime trade between Europe and China began with the Portuguese in the 16th century, who leased an outpost at Macau starting from 1557; other European nations soon followed. European traders, such as the Portuguese, inserted themselves into the existing Asian maritime trade network, competing with Arab, Chinese, and Japanese traders in intra-regional trade.[3] Mercantilist governments in Europe objected to the perpetual drain of silver to pay for Asian commodities, and so European traders often sought to generate profits from intra-regional Asian trade to pay for their purchases to be sent back home.[3] After the Spanish acquisition of the Philippines, the exchange of goods between China and the West accelerated dramatically. From 1565, the annual Manila Galleon brought in enormous amounts of silver to the Asian trade network, and in particular China, from Spanish silver mines in South America. As demand increased in Europe, the profits European traders generated within the Asian trade network, that were used to purchase Asian goods, were gradually replaced by the direct export of bullion from Europe in exchange for the produce of Asia.[3] The Spanish Empire began to sell opium, along with New World products such as tobacco and maize, to the Chinese in order to prevent the trade deficit which was costing it so much silver.[citation needed]
[edit]
Qing attitudes toward trade

The Qing, and its predecessor the Ming, shared an ambivalent attitude towards overseas trade, and maritime activity in general. From 1661 to 1669, in an effort to cut off Ming loyalists, the Qing issued an edict to evacuate all populations living near the coast of Southern China. Though it was later repealed, the edict seriously disrupted coastal areas and drove many Chinese overseas.[4] Qing attitudes were also further aggravated by traditional Confucian disdain (even hostility) towards merchants and traders. Qing officials believed that trade incited unrest and disorder, promoted piracy, and also was a threat to compromise information on China's defences.[5] The Qing instituted a set of rigid and incomplete regulations regarding trade at Chinese ports; setting up four maritime customs offices (in Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang, and Jiangsu) and a sweeping 20 percent tariff on all foreign goods. These policies only succeeded in establishing a system of kickbacks and purchased monopolies that enriched the officials who administered coastal regions.[5]

Although foreign merchants and traders dealt with low level Qing bureaucrats and agents at specified ports and entry points, official contact between China and foreign governments was organised around the tributary system. The tributary system affirmed the Emperor as the son of Heaven with a mandate to rule on Earth; as such, foreign rulers were required to present tribute and acknowledge the superiority of the imperial court.[6] In return, the Emperor bestowed gifts and titles upon foreign emissaries and allowed them to trade for short periods of time during their stay within China. Foreign rulers agreed to these terms for several reasons, namely that the gifts given by the Emperor were of greater value than the tribute received (as a demonstration of imperial munificence) and that the trade to be conducted while in China was extremely lucrative and exempt from customs duties.[7] The political realities of the system varied from century to century, but by the Qing period, with European traders pushing to gain more access to China, Qing authorities denied requests for trade privileges from European embassies and assigned them "tributary" status with missions limited at the will of the imperial court. This arrangement became increasingly unacceptable to European nations, in particular the British.[8]
[edit]
British trade and the Canton System

British ships began to appear infrequently around the coasts of China from 1635; without establishing formal relations through the tributary system, British merchants were allowed to trade at the ports of Zhoushan and Xiamen in addition to Guangzhou (Canton).[8] Trade further benefited after the Qing relaxed maritime trade restrictions in the 1680s, after Taiwan came under Qing control in 1683, and even rhetoric regarding the "tributary status" of Europeans was muted.[8] Guangzhou (Canton) was the port of preference for most foreign trade, ships did try to call at other ports but they did not match the benefits of Guangzhou's geographic position at the mouth of the Pearl river trade network and Guangzhou's long experience in balancing the demands of Beijing with those of Chinese and foreign merchants.[9] From 1700-1842, Guangzhou came to dominate maritime trade with China, this period became known as the "Canton System".[9]

Official British trade was conducted through the auspices of the British East India Company, which held a royal charter for trade with the Far East. The EIC gradually came to dominate Sino-European trade from its position in India.[10]

Low Chinese demand for European goods, and high European demand for Chinese goods, including tea, silk, and porcelain, forced European merchants to purchase these goods with silver, the only commodity the Chinese would accept. In modern economic terms the Chinese were demanding hard currency or specie (gold or silver coinage) as the medium of exchange for the international trade in their goods. From the mid-17th century around 28 million kilograms of silver was received by China, principally from European powers, in exchange for Chinese goods.[11] Britain's problem was further complicated by the fact that it had been using the gold standard from the mid 18th Century and therefore had to purchase silver from other European countries, incurring an additional transaction cost.[12]

In the 18th century, despite ardent protest from the Qing government, British traders began importing opium from India. Because of its strong mass appeal and addictive nature, opium was an effective solution to the trade problem. An instant consumer market for the drug was secured by the addiction of thousands of Chinese, and the flow of silver was reversed. Recognizing the growing number of addicts, the Yongzheng Emperor prohibited the sale and smoking of opium in 1729, and only allowed a small amount of opium imports for medicinal purposes.[13]
[edit]
Growth of opium trade

Following the Battle of Plassey in 1757, in which Britain annexed Bengal to its empire, the British East India Company pursued a monopoly on production and export of Indian opium. Monopoly began in earnest in 1773, as the British Governor-General of Bengal abolished the opium syndicate at Patna. For the next fifty years opium trade would be the key to the East India Company's hold on the subcontinent.

Considering that importation of opium into China had been virtually banned by Chinese law, the East India Company established an elaborate trading scheme partially relying on legal markets, and partially leveraging illicit ones. British merchants carrying no opium would buy tea in Canton on credit, and would balance their debts by selling opium at auction in Calcutta. From there, the opium would reach the Chinese coast hidden aboard British ships then smuggled into China by native merchants. In 1797 the company further tightened its grip on the opium trade by enforcing direct trade between opium farmers and the British, and ending the role of Bengali purchasing agents.

British exports of opium to China grew from an estimated 15 tons in 1730 to 75 tons in 1773. The product was shipped in over two thousand chests, each containing 140 pounds (64 kg) of opium.[14]

Meanwhile, negotiations with the Qianlong Emperor to ease the trading ban carried on, coming to a head in 1793 under Earl George Macartney. Such discussions were unsuccessful.[15]

In 1799, the Qing Empire reinstated their ban on opium imports. The Empire issued the following decree in 1810:

Opium has a harm. Opium is a poison, undermining our good customs and morality. Its use is prohibited by law. Now the commoner, Yang, dares to bring it into the Forbidden City. Indeed, he flouts the law! However, recently the purchasers, eaters, and consumers of opium have become numerous. Deceitful merchants buy and sell it to gain profit. The customs house at the Ch'ung-wen Gate was originally set up to supervise the collection of imports (it had no responsibility with regard to opium smuggling). If we confine our search for opium to the seaports, we fear the search will not be sufficiently thorough. We should also order the general commandant of the police and police- censors at the five gates to prohibit opium and to search for it at all gates. If they capture any violators, they should immediately punish them and should destroy the opium at once. As to Kwangtung and Fukien, the provinces from which opium comes, we order their viceroys, governors, and superintendents of the maritime customs to conduct a thorough search for opium, and cut off its supply. They should in no ways consider this order a dead letter and allow opium to be smuggled out![16]

The decree had little effect. The Qing government, seated in Beijing in the north of China, was unable to halt opium smuggling in the southern provinces. A porous Chinese border and rampant local demand only encouraged the all-too eager East India Company, which had its monopoly on opium trade recognised by the British government, which itself wanted silver. By the 1820s China was importing 900 tons of Bengali opium annually.[17]
[edit]
Napier Affair and First Opium War (18391842)

Lin Zexu's "memorial" (摺奏) written directly to Queen Victoria
Main article: First Opium War

In 1834 to accommodate the revocation of the East India Company's monopoly, the British sent Lord William John Napier to Macau. He tried to circumvent the restrictive Canton Trade laws which forbade direct contact with Chinese officials by attempting to send a letter directly to the Viceroy of Canton. He refused to accept it, and closed trade starting on 2 September of that year. Lord Napier had to return to Macau (where he died a few days later) and, unable to force the matter, the British agreed to resume trade under the old restrictions.

Within the Chinese mandarinate there was an ongoing debate over legalising the opium trade itself. However, this idea was repeatedly rejected and instead, in 1838 the government sentenced native drug traffickers to death. Around this time, the British were selling roughly 1,400 tons per year to China. In March 1839 the Emperor appointed a new strict Confucianist commissioner, Lin Zexu, to control the opium trade at the port of Canton.[18] His first course of action was to enforce the imperial demand that there be a permanent halt to drug shipments into China. When the British refused to end the trade, Lin blockaded the British traders in their factories and cut off supplies of food.[19] On 27 March 1839 Charles Elliot, British Superintendent of Trade- who had been locked in the factories when he arrived at Canton- finally agreed that all British subjects should turn over their opium to him, amounting to nearly a year's supply of the drug, to be confiscated by Commissioner Lin Zexu. In a departure from his brief, he promised that the crown would compensate them for the lost opium. While this amounted to a tacit acknowledgment that the British government did not disapprove of the trade, it also forced a huge liability on the exchequer. Unable to allocate funds for an illegal drug but pressed for compensation by the merchants, this liability is cited as one reason for the decision to force a war.[20] As well as seizing supplies in the factories, Chinese troops boarded British ships in international waters outside Chinese jurisdiction, where their cargo was still legal, and destroyed the opium aboard. After the opium was surrendered, trade was restarted on the strict condition that no more drugs would be smuggled into China. Lin demanded that British merchants had to sign a bond promising not to deal in opium under penalty of death.[21] The British officially opposed signing of the bond, but some British merchants that did not deal in opium were willing to sign. Lin had the opium disposed of by dissolving it in water, salt, and lime, and dumping it into the ocean.

In 1839 Lin took the step of publishing a letter addressed to Queen Victoria questioning the moral reasoning of the British government (it is not known that she ever received it). Citing what he understood to be a strict prohibition of the trade within Great Britain, Lin questioned how it could then profit from the drug in China. He wrote: "Your Majesty has not before been thus officially notified, and you may plead ignorance of the severity of our laws, but I now give my assurance that we mean to cut this harmful drug forever." [22] In fact, opium was not illegal in England at the time, however, and comparably smaller quantities were imported. The British government and merchants offered no response to Lin, accusing him instead of destroying their property. When the British learned of what was taking place in Canton, as communications between these two parts of the world took months at this time, they sent a large British Indian army, which arrived in June 1840.[23]

British military superiority drew on newly applied technology. British warships wreaked havoc on coastal towns; the steam ship Nemesis was able to move against the winds and tides and support a gun platform with very heavy guns. In addition, the British troops were the first to be armed with modern muskets and cannons which fired more rapidly and with greater accuracy than the Qing firearms and artillery, though Chinese cannons had been in use since previous dynasties. After the British took Canton, they sailed up the Yangtze and took the tax barges, a devastating blow to the Empire as it slashed the revenue of the imperial court in Beijing to just a small fraction of what it had been.

In 1842 the Qing authorities sued for peace, which concluded with the Treaty of Nanjing negotiated in August of that year and ratified in 1843. In the treaty, China was forced to pay an indemnity to Britain, open four ports to Britain, and cede Hong Kong to Queen Victoria. In the supplementary Treaty of the Bogue, the Qing empire also recognised Britain as an equal to China and gave British subjects extraterritorial privileges in treaty ports. In 1844, the United States and France concluded similar treaties with China, the Treaty of Wanghia and Treaty of Whampoa respectively.

The First Opium War was attacked in the House of Commons by a newly elected young member of Parliament, William Ewart Gladstone, who wondered if there had ever been "a war more unjust in its origin, a war more calculated to cover this country with permanent disgrace, I do not know."[24] The Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, replied by saying that nobody could "say that he honestly believed the motive of the Chinese Government to have been the promotion of moral habits" and that the war was being fought to stem China's balance of payments deficit. John Quincy Adams commented that opium was "a mere incident to the dispute... the cause of the war is the kowtow- the arrogant and insupportable pretensions of China that she will hold commercial intercourse with the rest of mankind not upon terms of equal reciprocity, but upon the insulting and degrading forms of the relations between lord and vassal."[25]
[edit]
Second Opium War (18561860) The neutrality of this section is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (January 2011)
This section is missing citations or needs footnotes. Please help add inline citations to guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies. (January 2011)

Main article: Second Opium War

The Illustrated London News print of the clipper steamship Ly-ee-moon, built for the opium trade, c. 1859

The Chinese authorities had been reluctant to keep to the terms of the 1842 Treaty of Nanking. They had tried to keep out as many foreign merchants as possible and had victimized Chinese merchants who traded with the British at the treaty ports. To protect those Chinese merchants who were friendly to them at Hong Kong, the British granted their ships British registration in the hope that the Chinese authorities would not interfere with vessels which carried the British flag.

In October 1856 the Chinese authorities in Canton seized a vessel called the "Arrow" which had been engaged in piracy. The "Arrow" had formerly been registered as a British ship and was still flying the British flag. The British consul in Canton demanded the immediate release of the crew and an apology for the insult to the British flag. The crew were released, but an apology was not given. In reprisal, the British governor in Hong Kong ordered warships to bombard Canton.

Clearly the Chinese had a good case: the "Arrow" was a pirate ship which had no right to fly the British flag as its British registration had expired. The bombardment of Canton was a breach of international law. The governor of Hong Kong had acted rashly without consulting London. However, the British Prime Minister, Palmerston, supported the actions of his officials who claimed to be upholding British prestige and avenging the insult to the flag. Moreover, Palmerston was keen to force the Chinese into accepting full-scale trade with Britain, whether they wanted to or not.

The Chinese issue figured prominently in the British general election of March 1857 which Palmerston won with an increased majority. He now felt able to press British claims more vigorously. The French were also eager to be involved after their envoy, Baron Jean-Baptiste Louis Gros, seemingly had his demands ignored (French complaints involved a murdered missionary and French rights in Canton).[26] A strong Anglo-French force under Admiral Sir Michael Seymour occupied Canton (December 1857), then cruised north to capture briefly the Taku forts near Tientsin (May 1858).

Negotiations between China, Britain, France, the USA and Russia led to the Tientsin Treaties of June 2629, 1858, which theoretically brought peace. China agreed to open more treaty ports, to legalize opium importation, to establish a maritime customs service with foreign inspection and to allow foreign legations at Peking and missionaries in the interior.

China soon abrogated the Anglo-French treaties and refused to allow foreign diplomats into Peking. On June 25, 1859 British Admiral Sir James Hope bombarded the forts guarding the mouth of the Hai River, below Tientsin. However, landing parties were repulsed and the British squadron was severely damaged by a surprisingly efficient Chinese garrison. Commodore Josiah Tattnall commanding the US Asiatic Squadron declared "blood is thicker than water" and helped the British save face by assisting them in their withdrawal.

Anglo-French forces gathered at Hong Kong in May 1860. A joint amphibious expedition moved north to the Gulf of Po Hai. It consisted of 11,000 British under General Sir James Hope Grant and 7,000 French under Lieutenant General Cousin-Montauban. Unopposed landings were made at Pei-Tang (August 1, 1860). The Taku forts were taken by assault with the assitance of the naval forces (August 21). The expedition then advanced up-river from Tientsin. As it approached Peking, the Chinese asked for talks and an armistice. An allied delegation under Sir Harry Smith Parkes was sent to parley, but they were seized and imprisoned (September 18). It was later learned that half of them died under torture. The expedition pressed ahead, defeating some 30,000 Chinese in two engagements before reaching the walls of Peking on September 26. Preparations for an assault commenced and the Old Summer Palace (Yuan Ming Yuan) was occupied and looted.

Another Chinese request for peace was accepted and China agreed to all demands. The survivors of the Parkes delegation were returned (General Grant burned and destroyed the Old Summer Palace in reprisal for the mistreatment of the Parkes party, October 24). Ten new treaty ports, including Tientsin, were opened to trade with the western powers, foreign diplomats were to be allowed at Peking and the opium trade was to be regulated by the Chinese authorities. Kowloon, on the mainland opposite Hong Kong Island, was surrendered to the British. Permission was granted for foreigners (including Protestant and Catholic missionaries) to travel throughout the country. An indemnity of three million ounces of silver was paid to Great Britain and two million to France.

This bullying of a weaker country was heralded in the British press as a triumph for Palmerston and his popularity rose to new heights. British merchants were delighted at the prospects of the expansion of trade in the Far East. Other foreign powers were pleased with the outcome too, since they hoped to take advantage of the opening-up of China. Russia soon extorted the Maritime Provinces from China and founded the port of Vladivostok (186061).
[edit]
Lin Zexu and the war on opium
Main article: Lin Zexu

Lin supervising the destruction of opium

Lin Zexu, Governor-General of Hunan and Hubei, recognising the consequences of opium abuse, embarked on an anti-opium campaign in which 1,700 opium dealers were arrested and 2.6 million pounds of opium were confiscated and destroyed.[27]

Lin Zexu's policy against the drug ultimately failed. He was made a scapegoat by the emperor, under heavy pressure from the Western powers, for having provoked British military retaliation in the First Opium War.[28] Lin Zexu is now viewed as a hero of 19th century China who stood against European imperialism and his likeness has been immortalised at various locations around the world.[29][30][31][32]
[edit]
See also China portal

David Sassoon
Gideon Nye
Imperialism in Asia
History of China
Unequal treaties
War on Drugs
[edit]
References
^ (World Civilizations: The Global Experience FOURTH EDITION AP* EDITION)
^ Hanes, William Travis; Frank Sanello (2002). Opium Wars: The Addiction of One Empire and the Corruption of Another. pp. 3. ISBN 1402201494.
^ a b c Gray, Jack (2002). Rebellions and Revolutions: China from the 1800s to 2000. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 2223. ISBN 978-0-19-870069-2.
^ Hayes, James (1974). "The Hong Kong Region: Its Place in Traditional Chinese Historiography and Principal Events Since the Establishment of Hsin-an County in 1573". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (Hong Kong) 14: 108135.
^ a b Spence, Jonathan D. (1999). The Search for Modern China (2 ed.). New York: W.W. Norton & Company. pp. 5758. ISBN 0-393-37651-4.
^ Fairbank, John K. (1969). Trade and diplomacy on the China coast: the opening of the treaty ports, 1842-1854. Stanford: Stanford University Press. pp. 2729. ISBN 978-0804706483.
^ Fairbank 1969, p.32
^ a b c Spence 1999, p.120
^ a b Van Dyke, Paul A. (2005). The Canton trade: life and enterprise on the China coast, 1700-1845. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. pp. 69. ISBN 962-2097499.
^ Bernstein, William J. (2008). A splendid exchange: how trade shaped the world. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press. pp. 286. ISBN 978-0-87113-979-5.
^ Early American Trade, BBC
^ Liu, Henry C. K. (4 September 2008). Developing China with sovereign credit. Asia Times Online.
^ Chisholm, Hugh (1911). The Encyclopædia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature and General Information. pp. 130.
^ Salucci, Lapo (2007). Depths of Debt: Debt, Trade and Choices. University of Colorado.
^ Hanes, William Travis; Sanello, Frank (2004). The Opium Wars: The Addiction of One Empire and the Corruption of Another. Sourcebooks, Inc. p. 8. ISBN 978-1-4022-0149-3.
^ Fu, Lo-shu (1966). A Documentary Chronicle of Sino-Western relations, Volume 1. pp. 380.
^ Bertelsen, Cynthia (19 October 2008). "A novel of the British opium trade in China." Roanoke Times & World News.
^ England and China: The Opium Wars, 1839-60
^ Palmerston: The People's Darling, by James Chambers, John Murray, London, 2004
^ Foreign Mud: The opium imbroglio at Canton in the 1830s and the Anglo-Chinese War, by Maurice Collis, W. W. Norton, New York, 1946
^ Coleman, Anthony (1999). Millennium. Transworld Publishers. pp. 243244. ISBN 0-593-04478-9.
^ Commissioner Lin: Letter to Queen Victoria, 1839. Modern History Sourcebook.
^ Spence, Jonathan D.. The Search for Modern China 2nd ed.. pp. 153155.
^ Vallely, Paul (25 April 2006). 1841: A window on Victorian Britain. The Independent.
^ 'China as Victim: The Opium War that wasn't', H.G. Gelber, Centre for European Studies Working Paper 136
^ David, Saul. Victoria's Wars. 2007 Penguin Books. p.360,361
^ Ebrey, Patricia Buckley; Walthall, Anne; Palais, James (2008). East Asia: A Cultural, Social, and Political History. Cengage Learning. p. 307.
^ Choy, Lee Khoon (2007). Pioneers of Modern China. East Asian Studies.
^ Monument to the People's Heroes, Beijing. Lonely Planet Travel Guide.
^ Statues of Real People in Manhattan. Forgotten NY.
^ Lin Zexu Memorial. Chinaculture.org.
^ Lin Zexu Memorial Museum. Ola Macau Travel Guide.

[Peter Lemkin]

The Chinese have a long historical memory. Payback time for the Opium Wars and more....and also, as every other nation have the right to try their new 'wings' and the Middle Kingdom to rise back to center stage.....the West had best watch out...while they present a formidable and growing military challenge, their economic warfare could do in the 'West' without firing a shot [or even any Chinese fireworks]. :kraka: