Ch 18 - The Penetration of China

The First Opium War

A British Expeditionary Force arrived at Hong Kong in the summer of 1840 and proceeded to blockade Chinese ports between Canton and Shanghai. By year's end, Commissioner Qishan and Charles Elliot signed the Convention of Chuanbi, an agreement repudiated by both China and England.

The Battle of Chuanbi presented Commissioner Lin Zexu with a serious problem. The complete destruction of his fleet pulled the rug out from under his forward-thinking policy and an honest report to the emperor would likely bring on disgrace and punishment. Lin kept his report on the fighting very brief and vague and wrote nothing to the Imperial Court in Beijing even hinting of a defeat. Instead, he represented the battle as a matter that arose from the Royal Saxon's attempt to enter the Bogue, the British frigates trying to stop the ship, and Admiral Guan trying valiantly to assist the vessel in, "standing erect before the mast, sword in hand and watching the action." Convinced that a great victory had been won, Emperor Xuanzong thanked Lin for the warm report, commended the conduct of Admiral Guan and awarded the officer a high decoration for his gallantry.

Emperor Xuanzong, still a strong supporter of Commissioner Lin Zexu had not yet heard the growing concern among his own advisers that Lin's actions would eventually lead to the very thing the Chinese feared most, a greater intrusion by foreigners. The emperor had independent reports that small British ships were still delivering opium chests to remote villages along the China coast northeast of Canton and reminded Lin that his job was to "clear away the opium evil throughout all of China," not just at Canton.

Still living in a world of his own making, Commissioner Lin assured the emperor that the foreign drug trade was rapidly drawing to an end. Lin Zexu spent the last months of 1839 busily ordering the fortification of Canton and blocking its harbor by sinking stone-filled barges at its entrances. He also purchased an American vessel and had the ship outfitted with cannon supplied by a few enterprising Portuguese merchants. The situation at Canton remained deadlocked throughout the winter and spring of 1839-40, while the Emperor continued to support Lin's tactics of admonishing the British. The Chinese could not get to the British, and Captain Elliot and his small force could do nothing until they were reinforced.

On January 31, 1840, the Indian government issued a formal declaration of war against China on behalf of the British government. Even though China had taken the brunt of a first strike by the British, the Chinese did not declare war against Britain. There was no such thing as a declaration of war in Chinese political thought at the time. The Battle of Chuanbi was viewed as nothing more than a civil breach of the peace. For centuries, China used the diplomatic policy of soothing and admonishing, always in the right proportions, to settle issues. Things were rapidly changing however, and Commissioner Lin's tactics were not proving as successful as they had been in the past;  he believed that having already gotten the opium, he could continue to admonish the British in relative safety.

The opium trade was not confined to the British. Many American firms, with no naval force of their own for protection, signed the opium bond just to maintain a position in the China market. The leading American opium firm was Russell and Company, led by an old sea captain named Warren Delano II, the former American vice-consul in Canton and grandfather of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the United States. Working in close cooperation with a Chinese merchant in Canton, Delano's company handled much of the tea exports during the 1839-1840 trading season under the American flag on behalf of England. Robert Forbes of Russell and Company declared, "...I shall remain at my post as long as I could sell a yard of goods or buy a pound of tea ...We Yankees [have] no Queen to guarantee our losses." Diehard American traders continued to operate out of Canton until June 1840, when hostilities finally became too much to tolerate.

In June 1840, a British expeditionary force under Rear Admiral Sir George Elliot, Commander­in-Chief and Plenipotentiary to Britain, arrived at Hong Kong Roads with a fleet of forty-eight ships. Admiral Elliot's flagship, H.M.S. Melville, was one of three seventy-four gun capital warships. In Admiral Elliot's fleet were two first-class forty-four gun frigates, three second-class twenty-eight gun frigates, eight sloops, each mounting from ten to eighteen guns, four armed steamers of the East India Company, twenty-seven transport ships, one troop ship, and 4,000 Irish, Scottish and Indian troops.

Imperial Commissioner Lin Zexu was not the least bit intimidated, not even by the armed Company steamers, which he described as "cartwheel ships, that can put the axles in motion by means of fire, and can move rather fast." In anticipation of a British attack on Canton, Lin assembled a small fleet of some sixty warjunks, fortified the batteries at the Bogue with more than two hundred newly purchased foreign guns and blocked the river entrance with huge iron chains. In addition, he formed a kind of Home Guard composed of fishermen, boatmen and local villagers, enjoining them to heed their duty to attack any foreign troops that landed and if possible, to burn their ships. He even created a special reward system to encourage the local Chinese:  $20,000 Mexican for the destruction of any seventy-four gun warship, with a $100 discount for each gun less;  $5,000 Mexican for the capture of a naval commander alive, $1,650 if dead;  $100 for each white rank and file soldier, $20 for each colored soldier. Lin even guaranteed the Home Guard that the issuing official would not deduct his usual ten percent commission from the reward.

In a report to Emperor Xuanzong, Lin wrote, "English warships are now arriving at Canton. Although it is certain that they will not venture to create a disturbance here, I am certain that they will, like great rats, attempt to shelter the vile sellers of opium." Still confident the Chinese coastal guard could prevail in the event of trouble, Lin concluded, "People say that our junks and guns are no match for the British. ... But they do not know!" The aging mandarin just did not understand what was happening around him.

It seems almost absurd to westerners that Lin Zexu made such preparations to sink the British fleet and capture its men, but to the Chinese it was entirely plausible. Even though this was a far greater fleet than the Chinese had ever seen, it did not frighten Commissioner Lin. Based on recent events it should have, but Lin Zexu was not a man easily swayed from his deeply-held traditional beliefs. For Britain, the impending crusade was to be a combination of reprisal and chastisement, engaged to uphold England's national honor, to defend Britain's right to trade, to redress past injustices done to her subjects, and to secure an open future in China. In the minds of Lin Zexu and the Chinese however, the British were only there to protect and support opium smuggling. For the Chinese, this was simply an extension of their own crusade against opium. Consequently, Lin misinterpreted the motive behind the British expedition facing him from the south and simply tried to protect the Canton trade system the only way he knew how.

The arrival of Admiral Elliot's expeditionary force in the summer of 1840 forever changed the tone and scope of Chinese-British relations. The admiral's lengthy instructions called for satisfaction for the general affront and indignity suffered by the British Superintendent of Trade and British subjects. They called for assurances for the future security of British subjects, the return of either the confiscated opium or suitable compensation, the cession of one or more islands off the China coast, the abolition of the monopolistic Canton trade system, and repayment of the Chinese merchant's debts. To impress the Chinese with England's military power, Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston ordered Admiral Elliot to blockade all the principal ports in China. The admiral was to demand compensation for military expenses and occupy the Zhousan Islands south of Shanghai until China paid the indemnity in full. Finally, even though negotiations may be held elsewhere, the admiral was to demand the reply of the Chinese government to be delivered at the Hai River near Tianjin.

Admiral Elliot was also ordered to deliver a letter of ultimatum from Lord Palmerston to the Chinese at either Xiamen, Ningbo, or the Hai River for delivery to the Chinese imperial court in Beijing. Lord Palmerston's letter stated for the first time that the twenty thousand chests of opium were surrendered to Commissioner Lin only as a ransom for the lives of the British at Canton. Though Palmerston allowed China's right to prohibit opium imports, he explained that the Queen of England could not allow her subjects to be treated with violence, and when wrong was done to them, she would see they obtained redress. The letter also contained a demand that the opium be either restored or paid for in cash.

The British never attacked Canton, placed a blockading force at the mouth of the Pearl River on June 9 and sailed northeastward along the China coast. The British fleet, with its mobile naval force of a few thousand men and the latest in Western naval technology - flat-bottomed, shallow-draft, iron-hulled steamships - had little difficulty in subduing every Chinese stronghold along the coast from Canton to Shanghai. Except for their commercial base at Hong Kong, the British held no territorial ambitions in China and did not aim their attacks directly against the Chinese people. With the exception of those living in Canton, the Chinese remained passive observers of the war and even supplied a corps of coolie labor to work for British wages.

On July 2, 1840, Captain Charles Elliot attempted to deliver Lord Palmerston's letter under a white flag to Chinese authorities at Xiamen, some three hundred miles northeast of Canton. The Chinese, who had no idea what a white flag meant, opened fire on Elliot's party. Even after being informed of the flag's significance, they still refused to allow any British sailors to land. Leaving a blockade force at Xiamen, the British expeditionary force sailed four hundred miles further north to the Zhousan Islands, south of the Yangtze River estuary. On July 5, British landing parties took Dinghai, the chief city on the island, without opposition after it refused an offer to surrender. Unsuccessful in their attempts to deliver Palmerston's letter at Ningbo on July 10, the British blockaded that port as well and sailed eight hundred miles further north toward Tianjin.

The Provincial Military Commander of Zhousan sent an urgent dispatch by horse relay to Beijing to report the fall of Dinghai and to warn the British were sailing north. Upon hearing the news, Emperor Xuanzong went into a rage and demanded to know why High Imperial Commissioner Lin Zexu had not defeated the foreigners at Canton. Faced with port blockades that stretched from Canton to the mouth of the Yangtze River, Chinese court officials began looking for a scapegoat. Shortly after the British reached the mouth of the Hai River in mid-August, they finally delivered Lord Palmerston's dispatch at Tianjin. Grand Secretary Qishan, Viceroy of the metropolitan Zhili Province, took the document and quickly delivered the sobering message to Emperor Xuanzong in Beijing along with the announcement that the foreigners were anchored near the Dagu Forts at the mouth of the Hai River.

Once the Imperial Court realized the seriousness of the situation, Imperial Commissioner Lin Zexu became the focal point for the majority of the criticism, and he received full blame for provoking the British into action. On August 21, 1840, the emperor abruptly removed Lin Zexu from his post as Imperial Commissioner and recalled him to Beijing for his failure to halt the opium trade and maintain the Canton system. "You have caused this war by your excessive zeal," the Emperor angrily wrote.

You have lied to us, disguising in your dispatches the true color of affairs. Instead of helping us, you have only caused confusion to arise. Now, one thousand unending problems are sprouting. You have behaved as if your arms are tied. You are no better than a wooden dummy. As we think about your grievous failings, we become furious, and then melancholy.

Stripped of his title, Lin Zexu was tried and exiled to Ili, in Xinjiang Province, a bitterly cold, isolated northern frontier town with no amenities, where he was given the task of supervising large scale irrigation and flood control projects. Lin's great mistake, according to one Chinese censor, was his belief that threatening to shut down legitimate British trade would be enough to end the opium traffic. It made no difference to British merchants whether they picked up their tea at Canton or let the Americans pick it up and deliver it to them at Hong Kong. It was vitally important to the merchants that their opium imports continued to flow and Lin had been unable to stop it. Unable to comprehend the implications of the European challenge, Lin's aggressive moral tone and relentless pressure on the British merchants only insulted the British Government. The aged Lin served quietly and loyally and gradually recovered from the disgrace of his failure to end to the opium trade. In 1850, the emperor again called him into service of the state with the title of Grand Guardian of the Heir Apparent and charged him to travel to the rebellious province of Jiangxi to negotiate with rebel factions. On November 22, 1850, while traveling to Jiangxi, the sixty-seven-year-old Lin Zexu collapsed and died in Chaozhou, Guangdong Province.

The Qing court was deeply frustrated by Lin Zexu's inability to solve the opium problem and angered by the new threat facing Beijing from the British presence at the mouth of the Hai River. Emperor Xuanzong appointed Qishan as a Plenipotentiary to receive the British and find out precisely what they wanted, which he did beginning August 30. Qishan, one of the wealthiest Manchu officials in the empire, was a crafty and devious politician who well understood Beijing's anxiety over the performance of the British navy. As Viceroy of the capital province of Zhili, he was personally responsible for protecting Beijing. Unfortunately, Qishan had no defense force available for use against the power of the British ships and guns, only antiquated cannon left over from the Ming dynasty. Faced with the blockade of the Yangtze River and coastal ports, he decided that it would be best to appease the British. Grasping at straws, Qishan convinced himself that the British had not come north to fight, only to plead a redress of grievances against British subjects.

In Qishan's Confucian mind, the situation seemed much like that of a litigation between Superintendent Elliot and Commissioner Lin in Canton, a matter awaiting only a decision from the emperor. Thus convinced, Qishan treated Admiral Elliot with courtesy, flattery and a calm display of etiquette. Within two weeks he managed to convince the British officer that the emperor had dispatched a high official to investigate the situation in Canton. In the meantime, Qishan told them, it would be best for the British to retire to the south where the truth of the matter could be discovered and negotiations taken up.

Encouraged by the prospects of future negotiations and a settlement, the British expeditionary force left the Hai River on September 15 and reached Macao by November 20. Without having fired a single gun or losing a single man, Qishan had "talked" the British out of North China. Emperor Xuanzong was so impressed that he appointed Qishan the new High Imperial Commissioner. In view of the fact the British fleet held the Manchu Imperial Court by the throat, the Chinese misinterpreted Admiral Elliot's withdrawal as an indication of weakness. Emperor Xuanzong believed that once his own Imperial forces were marshalled, he could retake Dinghai on Zhousan Island and, given time to concentrate his strength, drive the British out of China altogether. He thus ordered Qishan to draw out his talks with Captain Charles Elliot in Canton to give his troops time to get ready.

Commissioner Qishan met with Charles Elliot in Canton in late December 1840 to begin negotiations. Elliot, quite unaware that the talks were a fictitious ruse, began to put his case before the Chinese Commissioner. Once he presented the demand that China cede the island of Hong Kong to the British, the Commissioner realized this was no simple litigation case, but something far more serious. Qishan remained conciliatory and unyielding, fully aware the emperor would never agree to any cession of Chinese territory. By early January 1841, Elliot came to realize that Qishan was toying with him and that a show of force was needed to bring the Chinese to their senses.

Knowing how sensitive the Chinese were about the gateway to Canton, Captain Elliot acted on his own authority and threatened to take control of the Bogue by ordering an attack against Chuanbi and Tycocktow, the two forts guarding the entrance. A line of British men-of-war, frigates, steamers, and transports moved in to attack at 9:30 a.m. on the morning of January 7, 1841. The British took both forts, killing five hundred Chinese and wounding another three hundred in the hour long battle. Now in position to enter the Bogue and capture the two inner forts at Wandong and Anonghoy, as well as the fortress on Tiger Island, Elliot felt that Qishan had been sufficiently impressed to agree to his demands. Indeed, he had. On January 20, under the threat of continued force, Commissioner Qishan and Charles Elliot signed the Convention of Chuanbi as plenipotentiaries of their respective countries. Commissioner Qishan never affixed his seal to the convention however, but agreed to present it to the imperial throne in Beijing for final approval.

Charles Elliot believed that he had secured everything that was necessary from the Chinese. The preliminary document provided the cession of Hong Kong to England, though customs would still be collected by China. The island was a strong, secure location with a world class natural harbor from which the China trade could be continued without regulations, without interference and without the hong merchants. On the morning of January 26, six days after Elliot signed the Convention of Chuanbi, troops of the British Expeditionary Force under the command of Commodore Gordon Bremmer landed on the northwest coast of the island, hoisted the Union Jack atop a small hill and took possession of the barren, rocky landscape in the name of Queen Victoria. Just six weeks after the small ceremony at "Possession Point," on Hong Kong Island, the Canton Register accurately predicted that Hong Kong would become a rendezvous for Chinese smugglers. "Opium dens and gambling houses will soon spread. To those haunts will flock the discontented and bad spirits of the Empire."

The Convention also called for an indemnity of $6 million to be paid in annual installments of $1 million. The amount barely covered the market price of the opium at the time it was surrendered, but Elliot knew that the trading firms had benefitted from the seizure and that the compensation would be clear profit. Since the general trade would rapidly expand at Hong Kong, Elliot felt a stiff, punitive indemnity was not an urgent requirement. The document also provided for direct intercourse between diplomatic officials of China and Britain - diplomatic equality. Finally, the port of Canton was to be reopened to trade before February 1, 1841, and trade would continue there until Hong Kong was made ready for British occupation.

Qishan also felt a degree of satisfaction with the agreement. The British agreement to evacuate Dinghai, return control of the forts near the Bogue to China and limit British trade activity to Canton in exchange for the barren, rocky island of Hong Kong seemed like a good exchange. Qishan felt the emperor would be pleased with the exchange since Dinghai was a large town halfway to the capitol city and the foreigners could easily threaten Nanjing and the vast trade of the Yangtze River with a blockade from there. He believed he had extricated China from a threatening situation. As for the $6 million indemnity, the hong merchants could be be squeezed for that. Grand Secretary Qishan felt he had done his job. His face had been saved, or so he thought.

Shortly after he signed the Convention of Chuanbi, Qishan received a letter from Emperor Xuanzong, written before he knew of the agreement, which contained sentiments totally irreconcilable with the terms of the convention. Still intent on driving the British out of China, the emperor had ordered the best provincial troops to Canton and directed Qishan to encourage his troops to fight bravely, to arrest Charles Elliot and bring him to Beijing for punishment. Having just signed away Imperial Territory, Qishan sent a reply to Beijing that reflected a sense of panic. Pleading that he had acted in the interest of the general welfare and to recover territory held by the British, the hapless mandarin attached a copy of the convention for the emperor's consideration. When Emperor Xuanzong read the documents, he became so enraged by the terms of the convention that he ordered Qishan removed from his post and imprisoned. Qishan had been sent to Canton only to investigate the conditions left in the wake of Lin Zexu's mismanagement. He had no authority to sign any kind of agreement with foreigners. On March 12, the hapless former Grand Secretary was seen leaving Canton in chains, enroute to Beijing to stand trial for the unauthorized cession of territory and for agreeing to pay an indemnity. Qishan was sentenced to death for his behavior and compelled to forfeit all his family's property, a nearly £10 million windfall for the Imperial Treasury. His sentence was later commuted however, and in May 1842 he was sent into exile in the frozen region along the Amur River where he quietly passed from history.