THE first part of China to be colonised by a European country was an island in the south called ‘Aomen’, in Chinese and ‘Macao’, in English.
Macao was colonised by the Portuguese in 1553 CE.
In 1624 CE the Dutch colonised the island of Taiwan by cheating the indigenous people.
After a protracted conflict and fierce resistance by the locals, the Chinese re-established control of Taiwan under a commander from mainland China by the name Zheng Chenggong.
Zheng became a hero because he refused to accept a bribe of 100 000 tael to retreat from the battle that soon after led to his victory over the Dutch.
Other than the two islands, mainland China had not been in regular contact with the white man.
It was more like the situation in Africa before colonisation.
At the beginning of the 1800s, Britain, Germany, Netherlands, France and many other white nations increased contact and trade with China and Japan.
Among the many goods that were traded to China was opium.
Opium is a dopamine-inducing plant which is the mother of several hard drugs including morphine, methadone, cocaine, codeine and heroine, among many others.
The drugs produced from the opium plant are called opiates and have serious side-effects such as chronic addiction, illness and death when taken in overdose.
China had never before seen opium which they then named ‘yapian’ in the Chinese language.
The British had encountered opium in Central Asia while fighting Napoleon and the French forces.
Napoleon’s men had discovered that the inhabitants of Central Asia had a plant that they chewed as an analgesic or pain killer.
Napoleon’s men then started using it and, eventually, the rest of the European nations also adopted the use of this pain killer in their armies and homes.
Before the introduction of opium to China by the Europeans, the Chinese had been smoking tobacco and cannabis for thousands of years and the technique of ingesting plant matter by way of smoking was invented in China.
When opium reached the lands of China, it quickly earned the name ‘dayan’, which literally means ‘big tobacco’, implying that opium had a harder effect on the body than tobacco.
When eaten, opium is said to have significantly less effect than when smoked.
When eaten, opium takes longer to be felt, addiction is lower and overdose is less likely to happen.
But when smoked, the innovation that the Chinese came up with, the opium goes straight into the bloodstream by way of the respiratory system.
This led to an outbreak of opium addiction in China.
The populous Chinese society, particularly the youth, who are the backbone of the economy, became lazy and inactive, spending their time and savings smoking opium.
In less than 40 years, China had well over two million drug addicts.
This brought British traders much profit.
China’s work base fell along with its savings as the people spent a lot of money purchasing opium from British merchants.
In the army, opium played havoc as many soldiers became addicts.
The strength and morality of China fell as Britain prospered by opium supplies to China.
The Chinese Emperor, Daoguang, urged his nobles and ministers to find a way to ban the trade in opium.
One of his ministers by the name of Lin Zexuwho was also the Viceroy of two major provinces, namely Hubei and Hunan, had successfully banned opium trade and use in his area in 1838 CE.
Emperor Daoguang sent him to the southern ports of China through which the opium traders were smuggling their product.
Lin Zexu took his army to Guangzhou, an important trade and port city and implemented a total ban on the trade of opium.
He investigated the foreign shipments and realised that the whites were not taking his ban seriously because more and more ships were arriving and attempting to smuggle opium into China.
He began to arrest the foreign opium traders and confiscated all the opium he found in their ships.
Lin Zexu ordered the whites to handover all the opium they had and to make a vow never to return to China to attempt smuggling the drug into China again. Characteristically, the British were arrogant and thought very lowly of the Chinese and very highly of themselves.
Some even attempted to escape and this led Lin to take more bold measures.
Lin commanded the besieging of the British Chamber of Commerce where a large number of British nationals resided and worked.
He strategically removed all the Chinese workers that were working among the foreigners and cut off food and water supplies.
When starvation, desperation and fear of long term imprisonment began to haunt the British smugglers, they finally yielded to Lin and gave up the location of their opium.
Over 1 100 000 kilogrammes of opium that was packed in over 20 000 boxes was uncovered.
This is what had been ending up in the bodies of the Chinese nationals and weakening their nation.
On June 3 1839 CE, Lin ordered the burning of all this opium on the beach of Humen in Guangdong province.
Thousands of Chinese people were watching from a distance with excitement and jubilation as the foreigners mourned their loss.
The opium took 23 days to completely burn out.
Lin became an instant national hero in China.
China’s act was bold and showed their resentment against the abuse of their people.
The technique that Lin Zexu used against the British smugglers, that of targeting and sanctioning foreign entities when they become a problem to China is still being used in China today.
For instance, when China had a foreign policy disagreement with France a few years ago, the Chinese government urged the people not to shop from French stores operating in China, such as Carrefour.
The Chinese people responded positively to the call and, within days, the French had to withdraw their earlier statement which had caused the diplomatic tiff, in the first place.
The British were arrogant and saw China’s victory over the opium trade as degrading and humiliating.
What the Chinese did not know was that almost all that opium that was being smuggled from Britain to China was government property.
Thus the losses that were incurred owing to the burning of the opium were those of the British government.
The retaliation that Britain took against China was clearly unwarranted.
They declared an all out war on the Chinese.
This was despite the fact that Lin had not killed or injured a single whiteman during his operation.
The British smugglers had been set free and sent back to their land.
The British sent 48 heavily armed war ships with 540 cannons in June 1840 CE. Lin had anticipated retaliation from the whites, but not of these proportions.
The British headed north and started tearing into inland China.
Before long Dinghai, Zhejianand Tianjin provinces were taken.
This marked the beginning of what would be remembered as the First Opium War.