page 18.2

Opium used to grow in China. But in 1729 the last of China's dynasties, the Manchus, prohibited the selling and smoking of opium. Now the British re-introduced it, by way of India, to China. The first cargo arrived in 1781. Soon so many people became addicted, by some estimates 10% of the population, that China's exports weren't enough to pay for the imported opium. The British, and then the Americans, began to amass huge fortunes. By 1838 China was importing 40,000 chests of opium a year. A chest contains 133 pounds of opium. This was 57% of China's total imports! It wasn't until the late 1830's that the Imperial government decided to act against the opium trade. An indignant letter was even written to Queen Victoria - which never arrived. "The great profits made by barbarians are all taken from the rightful share of China. By what right do you then use the poisonous drug to injure the Chinese people? Let us ask, where is your conscience?" Over 20,000 chests of opium were seized and burned. To defend her 'interests', Britain declared war on China, defeated her, and enforced a humiliating treaty.
Treaty of 1842:

1. Indemnification (pay) of 21,000,000 silver dollars for the opium
   destroyed, and British war expenses.
2. Surrender of Hong Kong to Britain.
3. Opening of five 'Treaty Ports'.
4. British subjects exempt from obeying Chinese law.
5. Tax exemption and only 5% custom duty on imported goods.

The 1844 Treaty with the U.S. was worse, because all rights given to one power had to be given to others - the Most favoured nation clause - including the right freely to navigate the major Chinese rivers. Let's not forget the saintly Christian missionaries who came to preach the doctrine of 'Love thy neighbour as thyself'. Did the missionaries stop the opium traffic? No, it increased. Did they oppose the Western gunboats? No, they travelled inland on them. Did they respect the traditional culture? No, they rode roughshod over it. With the best of motives, of course! In the Second Opium War (1858-60), Peking was taken by Anglo-French troops who looted and destroyed the Summer Palace, some of the treasures of which still haven't been returned.

In the end, of course, the Manchus had to make more concessions to the foreigners. Even though it was never really conquered, China had become a semi-colony of the great powers by the end of the 19th Century. Foreigners controlled the treaty ports, the customs service, postal system, shipping, railroads and telegraph. Foreigners escaped the jurisdiction of Chinese courts. Inland rivers were patrolled by foreign gunboats. Chinese products were carried by foreign shipping in Chinese waterways. Foreign powers dominated China through their banks, war indemnities and loans. After 1895, as foreigners began to build modern industries in China by taking advantage of cheap Chinese labour and raw materials, they also began to divide China into "Spheres of Influence". Things got so bad that Chinese labourers began to go abroad in large numbers. More like slave labour! Coolies were shipped off to the mines and plantations of Malaysia, New Caledonia and the Western United States.

eds. - for a fact, the emperor was not guiltless. though he originally fought the opium trade, after his first crushing defeat by the europeans he allied with the invaders to crush what had been a very successful peasant revolt that had resulted in a more just local society.

Edited from a condensed version of 'Mao for Beginners' by 'Rius and Friends'. English translation, 1980.