John Francis Davis And Sino-Britain Relations

The first half of the 19th century was a period of fundamental change in Sino-British relations.Britain kept trying to break China’s tributary system and establish Western-style diplomatic relations based on sovereign states.In 1840,the First Opium War was launched and the Qing government was forced to sign treaties.The relationship between China and Britain also changed from the tributary system to a new unequal treaty relationship.As a witness of the first great change in Sino-British relations,he was also the executor of Britain’s policy towards China during this period.He personally participated in the major events of Sino-British exchanges before and after the First Opium War,and played a role in them to varying degrees.Politically,before the First Opium War,as the interpreter of the second British mission to China,the Amish Mission,he went to Beijing to have an audience with the Emperor Jiaqing and participated in the debate on etiquette between China and Britain.In 1834,after the abolition of the British East India Company’s trade monopoly on China,he successively served as the second commercial supervisor and the British commercial director in China.He was involved in the fierce conflict of the Napier Affair,and thereafter implemented the “policy of silence” to maintain the trade between Britain and China.After the First Opium War,from 1844 to 1848,he was appointed British Minister to China and Governor of Hong Kong.He made a lot of representations with the Qing government on the issue of entering the city and the protection of British overseas Chinese,so as to safeguard the interests of Britain and carry out powerful aggression.Economically,in order to strengthen the control of the opium trade and eliminate the adverse effects brought by opium smuggling,John Francis Davis made negotiations with the Qing government for many times and tried to seek the legalization of the opium trade with various reasons,but failed.On the issue of land lease,Germany made full use of the validity of the treaty and communicated with the Chinese government and people in a peaceful way,so it was successfully solved.In terms of culture,the German Empire attached great importance to the study,research and dissemination of Chinese language and culture.As governor of Hong Kong,he established the Hong Kong branch of the Royal Society to promote the use of English-Chinese grammars and dictionaries in colonial government and to support Chinese language education in schools.After his retirement,he continued to devote himself to teaching and disseminating Chinese.In addition,he also translated a large number of Chinese classical literature works and wrote related works covering various fields of China,which made fruitful achievements in Sinology,deepened the understanding of China in the western world,and promoted the cultural exchanges and development between China and Britain.