Lin Zexu's Letter to Queen Victoria (1839)

The Chinese did indeed start a crackdown on opium trade after this, including sending troops to seize warehouses full of it. This action sparked off the first Opium War with Britian, and kicking off the so-called Chinese “Century of Humiliation”.

Re: Lin Zexu's Letter to Queen Victoria (1839)

#7

Post by closedloop129 » Fri, Jul 15, 2022, 5:42 AM UTC

beebmam wrote: post #5

For sure, the UK was deeply responsible for so much death and suffering from the Opium trade in China in this era. Just like modern China (and Mexico) should be considered deeply responsible for the current massive opioid crisis in the United States: 1. https://www.dea.gov/sites/default/files/2020-03/DEA_GOV_DIR-... 2. https://www.science.org/content/article/underground-labs-chi... 3. https://www.npr.org/2020/11/17/9…

If the drugs are produced in China and thus are available there, why doesn't China (nor Mexico) have the same level of problems?

And the other way round: For sure, Opium was imported to England. Why didn't it become a problem?

Re: Lin Zexu's Letter to Queen Victoria (1839)

#8

Post by bshepard » Fri, Jul 15, 2022, 5:56 AM UTC

One thing to keep in mind is that the Ching government had already launched an opium war before the British began their narcopolitics. This is from P.E Caquet's "Opium's Orphans"

“n the leafy town of Taiyu, Shanxi, an inland Chinese province southwest of Beijing, the district magistrate Chen Lihe had a stele put up for public display. The date was 1817 and, four years earlier, the emperor had issued a raft of regulations against opium, including severe punishments for handling, selling or consuming it. The stele read: Opium is produced beyond the seas, but its poison flows into China. Those who buy it and consume it break their families, harm their own lives, and violate the law. Treachery, licentiousness, robbery, and brigandage all arise from it. Both the young and vigorous and the old and weak die from it. Wealthy and luxurious houses are impoverished by it. Brave and bright sons and younger brothers are made stupid and unfilial by it. People who dwell in peace in their houses well stocked with delicacies feel the heavy blows of the bamboo and the weight of the cangue because of it; they also suffer strangulation, exile, and banishment at the hands of the law because of it. As for its injurious effect on custom, opium destroys the five natural relationships, and its harmful effect on individual character is even more unspeakable."

Re: Lin Zexu's Letter to Queen Victoria (1839)

#9

Post by bigcat12345678 » Fri, Jul 15, 2022, 5:56 AM UTC

closedloop129 wrote: post #7

beebmam wrote: post #5

For sure, the UK was deeply responsible for so much death and suffering from the Opium trade in China in this era. Just like modern China (and Mexico) should be considered deeply responsible for the current massive opioid crisis in the United States: 1. https://www.dea.gov/sites/default/files/2020-03/DEA_GOV_DIR-... 2. https://www.science.org/content/article/underground-labs-chi... 3. https://www.npr.org/2020/11/17/9…

If the drugs are produced in China and thus are available there, why doesn't China (nor Mexico) have the same level of problems? And the other way round: For sure, Opium was imported to England. Why didn't it become a problem?

UK had a better government and more cohesive society, also much smaller.

10X the population, you'll see anything worked before becomes useless.

So one problem in UK is nusaise, in China would be catastrophe.

Just because Opium is not a problem in UK, doesn't mean that it would be a problem in China.

Also, liberal voting politics works in the West, could be a disaster in the majority of the world today outside of the West.

Re: Lin Zexu's Letter to Queen Victoria (1839)

#10

Post by bshepard » Fri, Jul 15, 2022, 5:57 AM UTC

Hayvok wrote: post #6

And queue the first Opium War. The Chinese did indeed start a crackdown on opium trade after this, including sending troops to seize warehouses full of it. This action sparked off the first Opium War with Britian, and kicking off the so-called Chinese “Century of Humiliation”.

It is important to stress that China was ruled, at the time, by a government that was widely seen as "Nonchinese" -- this sense of external rule surely had a great deal to do with the emergence of mass addiction, as the Ching state that imposed the laws had serious legitimacy issues (and would collapse less than a century later.)