British Chinese Relations Essay

Following the transfer of Hong Kong from the British effectively ended many remnants of British imperialism in China, and in the process ended much of Britain’s involvement/power in Asia. The turnover has also given China control over one of the world’s leading financial institutions, thus improving not only its economic standing but also its ability to use soft power. The opposite could be said for the effects on the United Kingdom, where the turnover effectively halted their control over the economic powerhouse and ushered in a new era of Anglo-Chinese relations, yet this is not necessarily a bad thing. Since the turn over of Hong Kong from England, relations between China and the United Kingdom have improved and a larger bond has come about. Before I can begin to speak on the effects of â€Å"The Turnover,† I must first give a history of the events that made the turnover possible. Due to the trade imbalance between China and the United Kingdom in the 1800s, th e UK thought it might be advantageous to sell opium to the Chinese. Within a few years, the UK had gotten China addicted to opium and was starting to close the trade deficit. This in tern made the Qing dynasty officials very angry and they decided that they would disallow the importation of Opium into China. The British saw this act as an insult and in return they attacked China. This act started the first Opium War. Due to the Qing Dynasty’s limited armada, the British effectively wiped out the Qing forces and took possession of the land where Hong Kong currently is. The possession and occupation would not be â€Å"legally† binding until a treaty signed in 1898 that leased the land to the British for 99 years. Following the fall of the Qing dynasty and the rise of the Republic of China in 1912, the relationship between China and the United Kingdom still remained fairly unequal. At this time, the British Empire was still the world’s hegemonic leader and they were not afraid to show their might. This was reflected in the lending p ractices (or lack there off) that the British showed the Republic of China in those years. In these years following the foundation of the Republic, it was commonly known that the British would treat the Chinese as second class citizens in their own country while taking advantage of China’s resources. This was also evident in the effort that the British put into protecting its Chinese workers during World War 1 and World War 2. During the World Wars the UK failed to protect Hong Kong from the powers that attempted to invade it and in the process failed to prevent many preventable deaths. After World War 2, all Anglo-Chinese relations came to a complete halt. This is due to Chairman Mao deciding to close off all foreign interaction with the newly founded nation. This is due to what Mao thought was the influence of a corrupted political ideology and to help heal the wounds of British imperialism. Deng like Mao believed that a communist China was a good China, yet they disagreed as to what extent communism should have on the everyday lives of the people. While Mao’s main concern was providing the bare essentials to every Chinese citizen then China’s outlook on the world stage, Deng on the other hand wanted China to become a world power, then wanted to cater to the Chinese people, even going as far to state, â€Å"some will become rich faster than others.† It was in this mind frame that he started divvying up the collectively run state property to create competition between Chinese citizens. Deng felt this was necessary because the Chinese economy has been lagging since the start of the Great Leap Foreword and due to Mao’s policies; it looked as if it would continue on that track. During Mao’s communist campaign throughout China, many British feared that he might also have his eyes set on Hong Kong. Many British knew that their influence on the world stage was starting to weaken and that another costly war, with a country as large as a Soviet backed China, would prove disastrous to the British bottom line. Yet at the same time, many British were not fearful of China’s new communist regime because they thought it lacked the legitimacy and power to effectively resist the West’s hold on Hong Kong. During this time in history, the United Kingdom still possessed a large area of the world’s land and had a large navy that was capable of at least defending itself if it felt threatened enough. Also because the United Kingdom refused to acknowledge the PRC as a legitimate country, any provocation towards Hong Kong from Mao would have proved disastrous, as it might have set the stage for a foreign backed coup by the Nationalist forces. The British knew about these ways of thinking and at the time did not feel China, in its current state, was a legitimate threat to any of its resources or power that it had vested in Hong Kong or Macau. By the time Deng to the reigns in China, the United Kingdom was a shell of itself during the Imperialism era, and its relationship with China was no more that of a superior to inferior but more so on the level of equals. Analysts began to predict that because China had large numbers of cheap labor and a safely stable government, trade and manufacturing exports between Britain and China would prove advantageous to both nations. This is one of the reasons why the British began to see China as more of a player on the world stage. But even before Deng came to power in 1978, the UK still began to show some favor towards China by signing and even advocating UN Resolution 2758 which transfered the â€Å"China† Security Council seat from the Republic of China to the People’s Republic of China, respectfully. It was in these diplomatic agreements that China and the UK could find equal ground to later speak on the transfer of Hong Kong from British authority to Chinese authority. During the talks with the United Kingdom, China remained steadfast and strong on the issue of the UK retaining any authority over the region after the handover in the late 1990s. This is due to the fact that many of the Chinese leaders at that time thought that the treaties which gave the UK rights over the region were not done equatibly and some went as far as calling them downright illegal. Moreover, many at the time were surprised that the strong U.S. friend ally would even agree with talks with a Communist nation but at the time Britian had no choice. Hong Kong received the majority of its water and power from the PRC, let alone many of it’s exported items. These aspects combined with the fact of without the help of the United States, the United Kingdom had no way of effectively defending Hong Kong if t he the PRC decided to invade. For one of the first times since contact between the United Kingdom and China began, China had the complete upperhand against the British. Following the handover, relations between China and the U.K. have been relatively calm. Without out any vested insterest in the region, the United Kingdom does not come in contact with China very often because there isn’t much to speak about. Although many British companies do still own many factories in China, the factories are running smoothly and regulations on them have not become more or less strengent since the turnover, so there isn’t much for the British and Chinese to quarrel over. However, during these peaceful times, the United Kingdom’s economic and military might have remained reliatively stagnent while the China’s continues to grow, yet China does not recpricate the sentiment that Britian gave to it for so many years. If anything China has gone above and beyond with talks to England with China offering money to help out the European economy and agreeing to billions in trade to England. From my earlier interviews, I gathered that most people were happy that China has taken â€Å"the high road† in dealing with the United Kingdom. Most were pleased to see China becoming more active on the world stage, so they’d be upset if the Chinese government did anything to upset this activity, and causing trouble with the British would certainly upset this peace. For the majority of its history, China has prefered to use soft power to deal with its problems and one could surmise that it would do the same if it ever had any confrentations with England, but as of recently, China has not had to use its influence with the United Kingdom because talks have been cordial. One could suggust that these talks will remain the way for the forseeable future.