Word: opium
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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This ethic of blind loyalty was the fatal flaw in the Confucian tradition. A young official served at the grace of the emperor, not China, because, for him, the emperor was the very essence of China. During the Opium War--China's disastrous contact with the naked force of Western imperialism--complete alteration of battle results was common. The deceptions protected individual officers in the eyes of the emperor at the expense of the entire people--but then "the people" was only a vague concept in the Confucian tradition. The ruling hierarchy could not handle conflicts greater than relations between...
England's reponse was the introduction of a successful modern war against China, a crushing humiliation that decisively established opium as a way of life in China for the next century. It also instilled a deep hatred for the English that, in some quarters, has not yet died. The English rationale for ignoring Lin's plea was that it was China's responsibility to curb addiction. More importantly, the British realized that curtailment of the trade would cause economic chaos in their India investments...
...exchange for all they took from China, the English gave the Chinese people opium. British ships would anchor off Kowloon or slip up the forbidden coast and run the drug ashore with small launches. In the late 1830s, the famous Commissioner Lin Tse-hsu launched an effective campaign to end this illegal trade. A death penalty for opium dealing was extended to foreigners and Lin sent an urgent plea to England...
...already confiscated a massive shipment of the illegal drug. He warned of the wrath of Heaven, referring to incidents of Britishers who had died after entering China illegally and smugglers who had slit their own throats. He expressed his optimism that once the English leadership knew of the opium trade, they would...
After 25 years, the opium addicts of the colonial era serve as an example of imperialism's brutal effects and the Chinese people remain mindful of the exploitation that once made it humiliating to be Chinese, if only to guard against future "barbarian" attacks. China has become a proud nation and it will never again offer itself to the West to be carved...