Page 455 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

441.

On June 24 Cushing personally conferred with Ch'i-ying

at Macao to discuss "the principles of the treaty and sundry

incidental questions." The American envoy hoped they would

settle the matter of security, which he deemed most important

and urgent. Ch'i-ying, however, first wished to conclude another

matter, namely Cushing's desire for an audience at Peking. Ac­

cording to the Chinese system of relations with "barbarians"
or foreigners, an appearance at the Imperial Court by a "barbarian"

who did not bear tribute was utterly intolerable. Such an

action would violate the harmony that governed the world familiar

to centuries of Chinese. Although China had admitted defeat

to the English and had conceded to open more ports to English

trade, the Imperial Court had not changed its basic attitude

toward "barbarians." Westerners remained inferior peoples who

must not be allowed to encroach upon Chinese traditions. The

Chinese might agree to phrase their communications in terms of

equality with We[-rcern officials, but they refused to admit that

Western states were actually equal to the Celestial Empire. Only

"barbarians" who wished to pay tribute to the Emperor could
85
enter into that Empire. Ch'i-ying hoped to impress this fact

on Cushing. But the Imp�rial Commissioner, also aware of

Western military capability, did not want to incur Cushing's

hostility.

At their conference on June 24, Ch'i-ying once again

explained to Cushing that Chinese regulations did not provide

85
Foreigners only obtained the right for their diplomatic
representatives to reside at Peking in the Treaty of Tientsin
(1858). The Imperial government's attitude toward foreigners
was still a crucial one in 1900 and was partially responsible
for the Boxer Rebellion in 1902.