A Hong Kong school has apologised after a teacher gave incorrect information to pupils during an online lesson on the first opium war, the 19th century conflict which resulted in China ceding Hong Kong Island to Britain.
The Education Bureau said the teacher’s retelling of the hostilities was “obviously untrue and unacceptable”, adding it would investigate the incident.
A video circulating on social media platforms this week (April 2020) showed a teacher, believed to be from Ho Lap Primary School in Tsz Wan Shan, telling a class that the conflict – which erupted in 1840 – was the result of Britain’s attempt to ban opium smoking in China.
In the three-minute video, the teacher said: “Britain wanted to attack China in an attempt to ban smoking … Because Britain had found back then many people in China were smoking opium and the problem was really serious.
“Therefore, they [Britain] initiated the opium war so as to destroy these items called opium.”
Condemnation for the Hong Kong teacher has been fast and furious. One particularly serious accusation I’ve come across was 认贼作父 or taking a thief/villain for a father. Coming from a Singaporean, I’m not sure if he was just echoing the views of his cronies from China, but referring to the British as thieves or villains is indeed overly simplistic in this case.
No, the British navy did not invade China in 1840 because they wanted to stop opium smoking. That teacher in Hong Kong certainly got it wrong, but she was not that far off. Surprised? Well, the first people in China to call for a ban on opium smoking were not the Chinese people themselves but the Christian missionaries, most of whom were Americans who weren’t fond of the British at all.
Let’s go back a little. Although Emperor Qianlong adopted an arrogant and unyielding attitude towards Westerners, he died in 1799. During the early 1800s, Canton reluctantly opened up and became the only port which was allowed to trade with Europe. A relatively small trading district was established and Western traders were only allowed to stay there during the trading season (sail-powered ships from Europe only arrived at certain times of the year). At other times, British traders had to reside in the Portuguese colony of Macao.
The trading district in Canton was easily the most prosperous in Canton if not in China. Factory buildings housed offices, living quarters and warehouses, all managed by local businessmen, providing jobs for hundreds of thousands of Chinese workers. Contrary to popular nationalistic beliefs, the flourishing trade in Canton enriched many Chinese people. Chinese merchant 伍秉鉴 Wu Bingjian became a leading merchant in Canton even though he was from Quanzhou, Fujian. Operating under the name of Houqua “浩官”（pronounced haoguan in Mandarin) Wu is believed to be the richest man in China and possibly even the world at that time and who knows how many more undocumented Chinese billionaires Canton produced during that time?
In Canton, foreign traders brought in textiles, cotton, furs – all of which were not in really great demand in China. In return, the British got tea and silk which were in very high demand in Europe and America. To fill this gap, British traders had to buy tea and silk with silver. Back then, China was the largest silver importer in the world. But as the demand for tea kept growing, the British began to run out of silver. They had to come up with another commodity, something that the Chinese couldn’t resist – opium.
While it was illegal to trade in opium in China, enforcement was virtually non-existent. As tons of opium were unloaded in Canton, wealthy Manchu officials quickly snapped it up for their own consumption. With ample supplies, the habit soon reached the masses. It became a favourite recreational drug. For decades before and up to a century after the Opium War, opium smoking was well tolerated in China. The legendary Ip Man, a law enforcer, was an opium smoker.
The demand for opium soon equalled the demand for tea. The trade deficit was closed in 1828. From then on, it was the Chinese who started paying for opium with silver. Things hit a snag circa 1839 when the country ran out of silver. Why was it such a concern for the Chinese government? That’s because there were two currencies in use in China back then – copper coins 铜钱 and silver taels 银两. As silver got depleted, you would need more copper coins to exchange for a silver tael. Most citizens used only copper coins in daily transactions, but land taxes had to be paid to the government in silver taels. Many landlords had to cough out a lot more copper coins to pay for their land taxes. This had immense sociopolitical implications at a time when the White Lotus Sect was causing civil unrest.
All this while, many Christian missionaries (mostly Americans) had been fighting for the ban on opium smoking without success (even though some saw opium ships as excellent vehicles for smuggling bibles). The preachers faced strong opposition from Chinese society, with many arguing that smoking opium was a Chinese tradition that foreigners had no right to question or criticise. To be clear, the opium trade was illegal in China then; just like the sex trade. In the end, it was not moral consciousness that made the Chinese act against the opium trade. It was economic and political necessity that finally drove the government crackdown.
Today, the honour for fighting the opium trade goes to 林则徐. And for good reason. Lin was a no-nonsense bureaucrat who was ruthlessly efficient. In 1839, Emperor Daoguang 道光皇帝 （爱新觉罗绵宁）commissioned Lin to wage a war against opium. Lin took his task seriously. Perhaps a little too seriously. British opium merchants received the following letter from him.
“We find that your country is sixty or seventy thousand li from China. The purpose of your ships in coming to China is to realize a large profit. Since this profit is realized in China and is in fact taken away from the Chinese people, how can foreigners return injury for the benefit they have received by sending this poison to harm their benefactors?
They may not intend to harm others on purpose, but the fact remains that they are so obsessed with material gain that they have no concern whatever for the harm they can cause to others. Have they no conscience? I have heard that you strictly prohibit opium in your own country, indicating unmistakably that you know how harmful opium is. You do not wish opium to harm your own country, but you choose to bring that harm to other countries such as China. Why?
The products that originate from China are all useful items. They are good for food and other purposes and are easy to sell. Has China produced one item that is harmful to foreign countries? For instance, tea and rhubarb are so important to foreigners’ livelihood that they have to consume them every day. Were China to concern herself only with her own advantage without showing any regard for other people’s welfare, how could foreigners continue to live?
I have heard that the areas under your direct jurisdiction such as London, Scotland, and Ireland do not produce opium; it is produced instead in your Indian possessions such as Bengal, Madras, Bombay, Patna, and Malwa. In these possessions the English people not only plant opium poppies that stretch from one mountain to another but also open factories to manufacture this terrible drug.
As months accumulate and years pass by, the poison they have produced increases in its wicked intensity, and its repugnant odor reaches as high as the sky. Heaven is furious with anger, and all the gods are moaning with pain! It is hereby suggested that you destroy and plow under all of these opium plants and grow food crops instead, while issuing an order to punish severely anyone who dares to plant opium poppies again.
A murderer of one person is subject to the death sentence; just imagine how many people opium has killed! This is the rationale behind the new law which says that any foreigner who brings opium to China will be sentenced to death by hanging or beheading. Our purpose is to eliminate this poison once and for all and to the benefit of all mankind.“
- Lin Ze Xu
Being a patient of Dr Peter Parker (Lin suffered from hernia), the letter reproduced above, was almost certainly written by the American doctor. Instead of hitting the opium dens (operated by the Chinese), Lin decided to go for the source. He arrested all Chinese opium dealers in Canton. He also confiscated opium stocks from European merchants and dumped them into the sea.
Meanwhile in London, the war drums were sounded. Parliament debated on the pros and cons of invading China. Some warned of the dangers. Others suggested a treaty. The decision was not unanimous, but in June 1840, the British navy sailed into Canton. It was an uneven battle. The British pummeled the Chinese and emerged victorious, killing about 3,000 Chinese people in the process. The Treaty of Nanking was pushed before the Chinese. More ports had to be opened up and trade restrictions had to be lifted. The British not only seized the island of Hong Kong, they even demanded for compensation for their losses in the war. China was thoroughly humiliated but its richest man “Houquan” footed the bill. The imperial treasury was empty but the Chinese drug dealers and opium den operators were rich and happy that it would be business as usual.
But by now, you shouldn’t be surprised that in the aftermath of the Opium War, Lin Zexu was made a scapegoat. All fingers (in China) pointed at him as his immoderate actions on the foreign drug dealers were blamed for starting the war. Emperor Daoguang had Lin dismissed and even exiled him to Xinjiang. Lin’s career was destroyed by his own people. While the Opium War killed about 3,000 Chinese people, civil unrest before and after the war started by various cults and gangs directly or indirectly caused the death of millions of Chinese people. It makes us wonder whether those who criticised the Hong Kong teacher for 认贼作父 understand who the real 贼 are.
In Chinese media today, the British are often portrayed as villains in this conflict. Lin Zexu who suffered from the dirty trick No. 11 of 李代桃僵 (if you’ve read my book) is regarded a hero. Statues and memorials of this courageous and principled man can be found all over China, Taiwan and even Chinatowns in America. Chinese society today also takes a very dim view of opium. Nobody will say that it’s a tradition that foreigners have no right to criticise anymore.
Of course, the opium trade continued unabated after the first opium war. There was a second one which started in 1856 and was paused in 1858 with the signing of the Treaty of Tiensin signed in 1858. However, the Xianfeng Emperor 咸丰皇帝 (爱新觉罗奕詝) refused to honour the treaty. War was restarted, surprising the Europeans with the capture, torture and execution of French and British officers. An alliance of British, French and Russian soldiers pummeled the capital, destroying the Summer Palace in Peking in the process. Once the walls came down, Chinese peasants joined the foreigners in looting the place.
China ended up having 2 more treaties to sign – the Aigun Treaty which ceded land in the NW and NE to Russia and the Convention of Peking which ceded the Kowloon peninsula to become part of HK. China was also forced to legalise opium. Import of the drug soared to 60,000 chests a year, more than double the amount before the war. By the early 1900s, opium trading was no longer as profitable. Production in India fell and the amount imported into China became insignificant by 1917. It’s not that demand had vanished. India no longer had a monopoly for opium production. Hill tribe people in Yunnan, Burma, Vietnam and Laos were cultivating the crop. Technology took a leap and opioid derivatives like morphine and heroin could be produced locally or in neighbouring countries that formed a “triangle”. Who would buy imported opium from the Europeans?
One can say that the tables were turned with the advent of synthetic drugs. In 2023, China exported 9.766 kgs of fentanyl-related medications, mainly to Asian countries including the Republic of Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia, and the Philippines, Latin American countries including Chile, Panama, Columbia, and Paraguay, and European countries including Poland, Germany, and France. Another synthetic opioid drug Oxycontin or oxycodone, came under fire for creating an opioid crisis after manufacturer Purdue Pharma marketed it as a non-addictive painkiller. The company went bankrupt after a deluge of lawsuits. Drug companies in the West are no longer allowed to make false claims about the drug.
China is now producing oxycodone tablets using the same marketing tactics that are no longer allowed in the West. Interestingly, I see supposedly civilised and educated people cheering for China and relishing “revenge” in a show of ethno nationalism. That’s how crazy this world has become.