Sir Harry Parkes And Anlog-China International Relation (1841-1861)

Sir Harry Parkes was one of the most influential British diplomats in China in the middle of 19^th century. According to time, this essay focuses on the history events, describing the most important 20 years from 1841 to 1861 in Parkes's life which made him become an influential diplomat in the diplomatic conflicts between China and Britain in the early of modern times, In 1841, as an orphan, Parkes sailed for Macao in China, to take up his residence at the house of his cousin and soon applied himself to the study of Chinese in Hongkong. The second year, he went up to Nanking with British army and witnessed the signing of Nanking Treaty. After that, he received his appointment successively in Amoy, Canton, Fuchow and Shanghai as interpreter and vice-consul in the British consular service. In 1856, the "Arrow" Event occurred. Based on that, Parkes, who was at present the Canton acting-consul, asked the Canton government to let them enter the city and revise the treaty which expanded influence of the situation and finally became an incident that touched off the Second Opium War. By the end of 1857, allied forces had taken up Canton for three years. Parkes virtually governed this city and forced Lao Chongguang who was the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi to lease him Kowloon area. In 1860, Parkes was ordered up to serve as interpreter and adviser to Lord Elgin. He was carried off to prison by the Qing government because he persisted in etiquette which cause the Tungchow negotiation broke down. For this signal instance of treachery, the allied forces burned down the Summer Palace of the emperor. After war, Parkes made an investigation to Changjiang area with navy provincial commander Hope and open ports to trade. Meanwhile, they visited Taiping Heavenly Kingdom , interfered wantonly their military actions.Because witnessing the power of British gunboat diplomacy, Parkes's attitude to China was always tough. He believed that the force was the only way to solve the problems with Qing Government. It was closely related to Parkes's way to solution that made the "Arrow" event getting worse. After the war broke out, Parkes became one of the most conspicuous consuls in the diplomatic stage. The Britain Government's China policy was clear step by step through the analysis and summary of the diplomatic affairs by their diplomats like Parkes. Its China policy was actually backed up by force. The British government conditionally promoted the cooperation between the Western countries and Qing government in order to expand the size of trade with China to gain more interests in China. Parkes was the main executant of that policy.Facing the aggression of Britain and other powers, the Qing government's performance is rather passive and ignorance. Qing Dynasty emperors and officials in dealing with Parkes, who deliberately created the diplomatic dispute, were not able to take effective diplomatic means often because of lack of awareness of the overall situation and long-term perspective.. Sometimes for the preservation of their own, they even sacrificed the interests of the country and the nation, causing the Chinese sovereignty impaired. Finally the Qing government had to lose their distinguished image and turn off to the collaborator with Britain under their guns.