Page 12 - Rethinking China Policy
P. 12
Rethinking China Policy
To truly understand what is going on, one need to divine not just the formal assertions of the Central authority
(Beijing), but the semi-illegitimate actions and aspirations of the local authorities which at most times,
overpower the diktats of Beijing: as they did before Commissioner Lin tried to stop the formal opium trade.
Today, observers rarely question the official version of the cause of the first opium war as the Ching Court
banning trade in narcotics then being humiliated by militarily stronger western powers.
Few western historians acknowledge that the pre-opium war British trade with China was widely supported
by southern Chinese merchants who made fortunes form both legal and illicit trade at the expense of domestic
inland Chinese opium producers.
From this perspective, the opium war was caused by a protectionist trade measure by inland Chinese opium
producers who gained the ear of the Ching court against coastal southern Chinese merchants (compardors)
allied with British merchants . This would make for a messy reading of history before consideration of the
longstanding role of Chinese secret societies in undermining Ching authority.
Chinese society is abound with secret societies, whose in its most illegitimate form are triads or criminal
enterprises, but also exist as innocuous but often illegitimate societies that can be based on religion, politics,
Second Line of Defense
Page 11
