China as a British informal empire?

Question

How true is such characterization of the realtionship between China and Britain int he 19th and 20th centuries?

Answer 1

China was never part of the British Empire. The British wanted to trade with the Chinese and the Chinese didnt return the feelings, so the British started selling the people Opium and got them high and the government didnt like it so they started banning trade with the Europeans. But then the Chinese developed their own black market, so they were still able to get Opium! Sucky, huh?

Answer 2

After the Opium wars, Britain forced China to grant Britain the right to trade and to establish diplomatic presence in China - the legations. Britain also forced China to allow it to lend Hong Kong as a British base.

But Britain opened up the flood gates for other European powers to take advantage of China's weakenesses such as the Taiping Rebellions in the South. Portugal had already established its own enclave at Macau. The latter involvement of the United States, Russia, Germany and Japan made China a battleground for the competing economic influence of the major powers. Japan helped herself to Korea and later in Manchuria.

The rebellions of the Boxers (The Boxer Rebellions) who despised the weakness of the Ching monarchy against the foreigners, was used by the Chinese Dowager Empress to turn against the foreigners. The rebellion was easily crushed and China forced to pay reparations for the damages.

I would not say that China was an informal part of the British Empire. Britain certainly had interests there, but it was in the British interests to protect China against other European powers. But the same had happened in Japan with the U.S, Germany and Japan all vying to expand their influence their.

Answer 3

I would say the relations were not good - behaviour on both sides was not good. The Brits wanted to trade with china , especially as they were importing a lot of tea from them, payable only in silver. This led to mass supplies of opium being sent / smuggled into china. Two wars - involving other nations - resulted. The french and british burned down the summer palace and the chinese were forced into signing some unbalanced agreements. Hong Kong ended up in british hands. There was also an 8-nation assault on china in 1900 where more was gained by the europeans in the form of tribute, trade access,ect....deja vu - nowadays the u.s. and e.u. are concerned about trade imbalance with china.