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Burning Down the House
Because of the long and difficult US-China Trade War, articles are being written to explain to Americans what China calls the Century of Humiliation. The stories always start with the early 19th century import-export imbalance in China’s favor that led to western merchants, mostly British, smuggling Indian opium into China.
It was branded ‘Free Trade’ and when China resisted in 1840, gunboat diplomacy took over. A series of one-sided treaties were forced on the Qin Dynasty, which eventually fell.
A Republic was established, then the War Against the Japanese and the Communist-Nationalist Civil War happened at the same time, eventually leading to the victory of Chinese Communist Party in 1947, about one hundred years after the beginning of the Opium Wars.
Most people outside of China don’t know that merchants from the west, caring only about profits, intentionally addicted millions of Chinese people to opium, aided by governments loving the new tax revenues and trade balances.
