The Foreign Policies Of Qing Government In The Period Of Daoguang And Xianfeng: Concentrating On The Incident Of The Lorcha "Arrow"

The First Opium War ended with Qing Empire's fiasco, which filled theQing Emperor and his ministers with panis. But after all, the war merely madethe Emperor and ministers feel threatened of the advanced warships andartilleries of the enemy. The comflicts between China and western countriesstill existed on the substance level. Therefore, the temporary anxieties aboutthe dangers and the humiliation from the defeat in war vanished with theconclusion of the peace treaties. However ,the peace didn't last last. Onlytwelve years later the western powerful countries invaded the Qing Empire foranother time, asking for more interests. As a result, the diplomacy of QingGovernment changed accordingly. This thesis discusses the changes andfailure of Qing Government's diplomacy in this period, which was centred onthe incident of lorcha "Arrow".The first Chapter:the foreign policies of Qing government before theincident of lorcha"Arrow". This chapter elaborates in 3 aspects. The firstaspect is about the foreign policies established by Qing government after theFirst Opium War. The foreign policies of Qing government experienced aprocess of gradual changes,that is,the peaceful and flexible policies in theearly phase of the Fifst Opium War were changed into a tough and inflexiblediplomatic style. Each Commissioner was appointed by the Qing governmentas the imperial envoy specialized in dealing with foreign trade affairs. Theforeign policies they carried out reflected the Emperor's will. At times ofEmperor Dao Guang, the foreign policies were rather flexible ,which wasreflected in QiYing's foreign policy. After XuGuangJin's term,at the period ofYeh's MingChen, the flexibility of foreign polcies finally disappeared andwere displaced by the tough policies ,which was shown clearly in thediplomatic activities he handled ,such as the strive against foreign powers'entering the Guangzhou city, the negotiations about "amending the treaties"and the incident of the lorcha "Arrow". In the early period of the incident oflorcha "Arrow"Qing Government's foreign policy was aimed on seeking forthe gain the stable and peaceful environment at the expense of loss on politics,to stablize the relationships between China and foreign countries ,and to startthe trade normalization with western countries. This aspect is a introduction tothe historic background, generalizing the China's internal environment beforethe incident.The second aspect is mainly about Yeh's Ming Chen 's negotiations withforeign powers before and after the incident of the lorcha "Arrow". Thisaspect can be divided into two points, the first is the strive against the foreignpowers'entering the Guangzhou city between 1847-1849. while contendingwith the English consul John·Bowring. Yeh gained victories on diplomacy andhonor for himself, which made him believe firmly the correctness of his toughpolicies. The second point is Yeh's two negotiations about "amending thetreaties". In order to expand trade and market in China ,Britain,France andAmerica demanded to enter the Guangzhou city and to amend the treatiesconcluded before. Under Yeh's persistence ,those foreign powers didn't reachtheir goals and Yeh's policy seemed to have gained victory. Meanwhile, Yehwas concentrated on the issue of "entering Guangzhou city",which wasconsidered most essential by him, but he didn't realize the real intentionbehind the demands for "amending the treaties "from those foreign powers.This part mainly talks about Yeh's negotiations as a foreshadowing of thefollowing incident of the lorcha "Arrow".The end of the chapter talks about the various factors which urged theQing government to establish foreign policies in accordance to that period . Itexpounds mainly in the aspects of Qing govervment's system and Yeh'spersonal factors. The Qing government handled the negotiations about"amending the treaties"according to the traditional diplomatic system. Thetraditional Chinese diplomatic system was the relationships between thesurbordinate vassal states and China, which was a particular pattern ofinternational relationships based on the confician culture in East Asia and hada completely different intention from the capitalistic diplomatic system inmordern times . Therefore ,during the negotiations about amending thetreaties ,first, for the Qing government ,conforming to the Empeir's systemwas the most basic aim of dealing with the incident. Second, the traditionalChinese foreign polices, such as "to make people obey by reasoning", "topacify foreigners by promoting virties"real intention when facing the westerncolonialists'aggression. Third, for the Qing government , the conclusion ofeach treaty was a favor bestowed on foreigners as well as an important meansof Qing govervment conciliatory, pacific policy. In the relationships betweensurbordinate vassal states and China, "solidarity"and "peace"was the theme ofbasic principles to deal with relationships between countries. So in thenegotiations the Qing govervment failed to realize the real intentions of theforeign powers. It always tried to handle the affairs according to the Empire'ssystem, to cope with the foreigners's demands by means of pacifying. In fact,negotiations about amending the treaties were brought up , becauseBritain ,France and America was eager to expand their trerests in China . Itsbasic aim was to expand trade in China ,cut down tariffs, legalize the Opiumtrade and establish a diplomacy system in a modern capitalistic pattern.When Yeh's MingChen was in his term as the commissioner ofGuangdong and Guangxi, his tough foreign policies made the westerncountries be at a loss. This was not only because Yeh handled cases accordingonly to the Empire's will ,but also concerned with his own background andexperience. Yeh's official career was most smooth. It only took him 13 yearsfrom the start of his official career to becoming a high official, from which wecan conclude the Qing government expected high of him. By the year 1852 hewas appointed the Commissioner,he had been skyrocketing all his way.This caused his gratefulness to the Qing Emperor and the abosolute loyalty. Sowhen he was dealing with the politic affairs,he would totally conform to theEmperor's will and dared not change a little.The second chapter: lorcha "Arrow"and the incident lorcha "Arrow".This chapter develops its elaborations centering on the incident of lorcha"Arrow". First of all , it observes the lorcha "Arrow"in order to clarify thewhole incident . This chapte is discussed on 4 aspects. First, it observes thehistory of the lorcha "Arrow",which was a Chinese ship registered inHongkong and had its register overdued . So it was not entitled to Britain'sprotection. It was not like what Harry·Parkes said ,nor did it hang Britain'snational flag at that time. So there was no possibility of violating the truth ofthat incident, then took advantage of it to make the Britain government agreeto send troops to China and how John·Bowring was led by the nose byHarry·Parkes. The third aspect observes the efforts Yeh had done when facedwith Bowing's and Parkes aggressive provocations . At that time Yeh wasdoing all the best he could: on one hand , he cut off the trade; on the otherhand ,he depended on the force of people in order to prevent Britain frominvading Guangzhou. His tough policies was reflected on these measures,but finally he was captured. The fourth aspect analyses the reasons forBritain's making big of the incident of the lorcha "Arrow". First is because theeconomic factor. The incident lorcha "Arrow"was an inevitable result of theforeign powers'external expansion and invasion, they were asking for moreinterests as well as trade markets. Second is the development of technology atthat time enabled people to communicate with each other at will, which madeit possible that a lower official could circumvent his upper officials to handlethe affair at his own will.The third chapter: the chapter elaborates in two aspects. First is about thecounter-measures taken by the Qing government after the incident of lorcha"Arrow". Second gives the analysis about the failure of Qing government'sforeign policies in that period. The counter-measures include: First of all,HuangZongHan was appointed in replacement of Yeh, continuing to contendwith foreign powers.Then the government put emphasis on developing thelocal armed forces ,expecting to contend with Britain-French coalition forceby the force of landlords and local armed forces in order to make Britain andFrance concede. From the counter-measures taken after the Second OpiumWar ,the Qing government 's general aim was trying to subsume the foreignpowers'actions towards China into former and the counter-measures didn'thave essential changes.