Qing Dynasty Quotes

He was the first Chinese official to make opium illegal. However, British many merchants were involved in a complicated trade scheme whereby they brought opium to Canton. They paid not attention to the new laws against opium the same as their Chinese customers. Lin Zexu, perceiving Queen Victoria to have powers equivalent to the Chinese Emperor who could do anything in China, He assumed that the Queen could and would control the merchant’s behavior, and before punishing the British merchants, he was putting the Queen on notice. There is no record of what Victoria did, if anything. When Lin Zexu tried to enforce his ban on opium, the British Merchants resisted and the First Opium War broke out between China and Britainin which the Chinese were humiliated and resent to this day. A bronze statue of Lin Zexu was erected in his honor in Chatham Square (Kimlau Square) of New York City's Chinatown.

Cixi had issued a 10 point edict designed to end opium use in China. One of its most interesting elements was that it only applied to Chinese under the age of 60. She recognized that for those elderly people who are thoroughly addicted to opium, prohibition would be to radical a change and their life expectancy was not very long. At the time, the average lifespan of Chinese was under 50.

The “foreign tribes” were the English and other European traders who were bringing opium to China. Lin had assembled a fleet of 80 ships at the mouth of the Pearl River to persuade the European powers that they would fight if the foreign ships would not cease trading in opium. The British in particular were not intimidated, and they militarily forced the Chinese to accept their “right” to sell opium. The Emperor sent Lin to the “boondocks”—see {621320} for misjudging and provoking British military action, but Lin is remembered for his sound moral and public health perspective. A bronze statue of Lin Zexu was erected in his honor in Chatham Square (Kimlau Square) of New York City's Chinatown and many other places in the world.

British merchants and the East India Company made huge profits from the drug trade buying opium in India and selling it to China where it had become immensely popular. But when the Chinese (led by Lin Zexu) tried to ban the import of opium, the British fought two wars with China to force the reopening of the opium trade. At the end of the 20th century, some referred to England and the English Crown as the largest Drug Cartel in history.

In 1839 opium was the leading commodity internationally traded in the world. The Chinese told the foreign opium merchants to cease trade in China. When they refused the Chinese dumped the opium into the river. English opium merchants demanded that Parliament force the Chinese to make restitution even if it meant war. Parliament agreed and started the Opium War. Gladstone, then an MP was one of the few who took the Chinese side when addressing the traders.

Opium addiction was ravaging Chinese society and the British were very large opium traders with most of the Chinese market. The moral and ethical argument fell on deaf ears and the British continued to sell opium to China. While it is hard to understand the British position today, consider the export sales of American cigarettes to the third world. A few countries have tried to legislate limits and restrictions and our State Department has kept all these markets open by threatening to restrict sales to the U. S. from those countries. The “logic” is that if the U. S. stopped exporting cigarettes, then the French or other country would move into the market or the local businesses would take over the cigarette trade. And cigarettes are far more lethal than opium. The British businessmen were convinced that there would be no reduction of use—the only difference would be who profits from the opium. A few years later the Opium Wars ensued.

It is not clear that Wright actually used these words of the first title or the editors created it. The substance is his and the second line is definitely his. At the time, the average American mistakenly thought that China had a much higher consumption rate.

This attempt to restrict the opium trade led to the First Opium War between England and China. Some historians, and the Chinese at the time, characterized this as a legitimate attempt to rid China of a terribly debilitating vice. The English saw this as a protectionist measure against a trade agreement so that only Chinese businessmen could import and sell opium instead of competing with an open, free market. Some Chinese officials and advisors were motivated by one or both of these reasons, but they never considered at the time, general prohibition of opium. This was not done until the Empress Dowager prohibited the use of opium for all under 60 years of age in 1906, more than 70 years thereafter. See {641732}.

Not only were there many opium users in the Philippines, but many of our occupying soldiers were introduced to opium and some became addicted. In that sense, it was like the Vietnam War.

The Chinese authorities wanted to stop the distribution and use of opium, but the British merchants, in one of the more disgraceful episodes of British history, would not stop the trade and actually went to war when the Chinese tried to stop the opium trade. See {625957} for more on this incident and the First Opium War that followed.

A bronze statue of Lin Zexu was erected in his honor in Chatham Square (Kimlau Square) of New York City's Chinatown.