OPIUM IN CHINA

THE CHINA TEA TRADE

CHINA TEA TRADE

• Opium has been known in China since the 7th century and for centuries it was used for medical purposes
• import of opium into China stood at 200 chests (annual) in 1729,[1] when the first anti-opium edict was promulgated
• opium trafficked into China had come from East India Company's operations in Bengal, British India, produced at its two factories in Patna and Benares
• 1820s, opium from Malwa in the non-British controlled parts of India became available, and as prices fell due to competition, production was stepped up.
• 1838, the Emperor sent Lin Zexu to Guangzhou, where he quickly arrested Chinese opium dealers and summarily demanded that foreign firms turn over their stocks

INDIA

INDIA'S RESPONSE

• The Indian emperor was mad because all of the silver was going away
• By 1817, the British decided that counter-trading in a narcotic drug, Indian opium, was a way to reduce the trade deficit and to turn the Indian colony profitable
• Qing Administration originally tolerated opium importation, because it created an indirect tax on Chinese subjects, while allowing the British to double tea exports from China to England—which profited the monopoly for tea exports of the Qing imperial treasury and its agents

CHINAS RESPONSE

CHINAS RESPONSE

• The Chinese banned opium several times, citing concern for public morals
• China's Drugs Czar Lin Tse-Hsu confiscated opium from the British traders and destroyed it
• The sale and smoking of the drug was banned by Emperor Yongzheng in 1729, but 100 years later there was still strong demand and the British were exploiting it.
• By 1836 30,000 opium chests were arriving in China each year from India. Jardine, Matheson and Company was responsible for a quarter of those.

BRITAINS RESPONSE

• Private British traders continued to smuggle opium into China from India
• It was a way of balancing a trade deficit brought about by Britain's own addiction - to Indian tea
• The British military response was severe, leading to the Nanking Treaty
• By flouting the trade ban on opium, Britain found a way to increase its earnings from China.

THE US AND CHINA

SELF STRENGTHENING MOVEMENT

SELF STRENGTH MOVEMENT

• 1861–1895, was a period of institutional reforms initiated during the late Qing Dynasty following a series of military defeats and concessions to foreign powers
• To make peace with the Western powers in China, Prince Gong was made regent, grand councilor, and head of the newly formed Zongli Yamen
• The movement can be divided into three phases. The first lasted from 1861 to 1872, emphasized the adoption of Western firearms, machines, scientific knowledge and training of technical and diplomatic personnel through the establishment of a diplomatic office and a college.
• During this phase, commerce, industry, and agriculture received increasing attention.
• By this period, the enthusiasm for reform had slowed down to a crawl. The conservative faction at court had managed to overwhelm Prince Gong and his supporters.

THE OPEN DOOR POLICY

Open Door Policy is a concept in foreign affairs, initially used to refer to the United States policy in late 19th century and early 20th century that would grant multiple international powers with equal access to China, with none of them in total control of that country.

DOLLAR DIPLOMACY

Dollar Diplomacy is the effort of the United States—particularly under President William Howard Taft—to further its aims in Latin America and East Asia through use of its economic power by guaranteeing loans made to foreign countries

A free, open-minded, and absolutely impartial adjustment of all colonial claims, based upon a strict observance of the principle that in determining all such questions of sovereignty the interests of the populations concerned must have equal weight with the equitable claims of the government whose title is to be determined.

Self determination:
Determination of one's own fate or course of action without compulsion; free will

Lansing ishii agreement:
In a secret protocol attached to the public Agreement, both parties agreed not to take advantage of the special opportunities presented by World War I to seek special rights or privileges in China at the expense of other nations allied in the war effort against Germany.

Nine power treaty
a treaty affirming the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China as per the Open Door Policy, after the Suzerainty system fell apart by the Western invasion in East Asia that outlawed Chinese capability for the "Close Door Policy" since Qing Dynasty, signed by all of the attendees to the Washington Naval Conference on 6 February 1922

CHINAS NEW OPEN DOOR POLICY

Deng Xiaoping set in train the transformation of China's economy when he announced a new "open door" policy in December 1978. Since the early 1980s it has recorded one of the fastest periods of economic growth in world history, although the figures are often disputed.