CHINA AND THE WESTERN POWERS
In order to understand the international position of China, some facts
concerning its nineteenth-century history are indispensable. China was
for many ages the supreme empire of the Far East, embracing a vast and
fertile area, inhabited by an industrious and civilized people.
Aristocracy, in our sense of the word, came to an end before the
beginning of the Christian era, and government was in the hands of
officials chosen for their proficiency in writing in a dead language, as
in England. Intercourse with the West was spasmodic and chiefly
religious. In the early centuries of the Christian era, Buddhism was
imported from India, and some Chinese scholars penetrated to that
country to master the theology of the new religion in its native home,
but in later times the intervening barbarians made the journey
practically impossible. Nestorian Christianity reached China in the
seventh century, and had a good deal of influence, but died out again.
(What is known on this subject is chiefly from the Nestorian monument
discovered in Hsianfu in 1625.) In the seventeenth and early eighteenth
centuries Roman Catholic missionaries acquired considerable favour at
Court, because of their astronomical knowledge and their help in
rectifying the irregularities and confusions of the Chinese
calendar.[24] Their globes and astrolabes are still to be seen on the
walls of Peking. But in the long run they could not resist quarrels
between different orders, and were almost completely excluded from both
China and Japan.
In the year 1793, a British ambassador, Lord Macartney, arrived in
China, to request further trade facilities and the establishment of a
permanent British diplomatic representative. The Emperor at this time
was Chien Lung, the best of the Manchu dynasty, a cultivated man, a
patron of the arts, and an exquisite calligraphist. (One finds specimens
of his writing in all sorts of places in China.) His reply to King
George III is given by Backhouse and Bland.[25] I wish I could quote it
all, but some extracts must suffice. It begins:
You, O King, live beyond the confines of many seas, nevertheless,
impelled by your humble desire to partake of the benefits of our
civilization, you have despatched a mission respectfully bearing
your memorial.... To show your devotion, you have also sent
offerings of your country's produce. I have read your memorial:
the earnest terms in which it is cast reveal a respectful
humility on your part, which is highly praiseworthy.
He goes on to explain, with the patient manner appropriate in dealing
with an importunate child, why George III's desires cannot possibly be
gratified. An ambassador, he assures him, would be useless, for:
If you assert that your reverence for our Celestial Dynasty fills
you with a desire to acquire our civilization, our ceremonies and
code of laws differ so completely from your own that, even if
your Envoy were able to acquire the rudiments of our
civilization, you could not possibly transplant our manners and
customs to your alien soil. Therefore, however adept the Envoy
might become, nothing would be gained thereby.
Swaying the wide world, I have but one aim in view, namely, to
maintain a perfect governance and to fulfil the duties of the
State; strange and costly objects do not interest me. I ... have
no use for your country's manufactures. ...It behoves you, O
King, to respect my sentiments and to display even greater
devotion and loyalty in future, so that, by perpetual submission
to our Throne, you may secure peace and prosperity for your
country hereafter.
He can understand the English desiring the produce of China, but feels
that they have nothing worth having to offer in exchange:
"Our Celestial Empire possesses all things in prolific abundance and
lacks no product within its own borders. There was therefore no need to
import the manufactures of outside barbarians in exchange for our own
produce. But as the tea, silk and porcelain which the Celestial Empire
produces are absolute necessities to European nations and to
yourselves," the limited trade hitherto permitted at Canton is to
continue.
He would have shown less favour to Lord Macartney, but "I do not forget
the lonely remoteness of your island, cut off from the world by
intervening wastes of sea, nor do I overlook your excusable ignorance of
the usages of our Celestial Empire." He concludes with the injunction:
"Tremblingly obey and show no negligence!"
What I want to suggest is that no one understands China until this
document has ceased to seem absurd. The Romans claimed to rule the
world, and what lay outside their Empire was to them of no account. The
Empire of Chien Lung was more extensive, with probably a larger
population; it had risen to greatness at the same time as Rome, and had
not fallen, but invariably defeated all its enemies, either by war or by
absorption. Its neighbours were comparatively barbarous, except the
Japanese, who acquired their civilization by slavish imitation of China.
The view of Chien Lung was no more absurd than that of Alexander the
Great, sighing for new worlds to conquer when he had never even heard of
China, where Confucius had been dead already for a hundred and fifty
years. Nor was he mistaken as regards trade: China produces everything
needed for the happiness of its inhabitants, and we have forced trade
upon them solely for our benefit, giving them in exchange only things
which they would do better without.
Unfortunately for China, its culture was deficient in one respect,
namely science. In art and literature, in manners and customs, it was at
least the equal of Europe; at the time of the Renaissance, Europe would
not have been in any way the superior of the Celestial Empire. There is
a museum in Peking where, side by side with good Chinese art, may be
seen the presents which Louis XIV made to the Emperor when he wished to
impress him with the splendour of _Le Roi Soleil_. Compared to the
Chinese things surrounding them, they were tawdry and barbaric. The fact
that Britain has produced Shakespeare and Milton, Locke and Hume, and
all the other men who have adorned literature and the arts, does not
make us superior to the Chinese. What makes us superior is Newton and
Robert Boyle and their scientific successors. They make us superior by
giving us greater proficiency in the art of killing. It is easier for an
Englishman to kill a Chinaman than for a Chinaman to kill an Englishman.
Therefore our civilization is superior to that of China, and Chien Lung
is absurd. When we had finished with Napoleon, we soon set to work to
demonstrate this proposition.
Our first war with China was in 1840, and was fought because the Chinese
Government endeavoured to stop the importation of opium. It ended with
the cession of Hong-Kong and the opening of five ports to British trade,
as well as (soon afterwards) to the trade of France, America and
Scandinavia. In 1856-60, the English and French jointly made war on
China, and destroyed the Summer Palace near Peking,[26] a building whose
artistic value, on account of the treasures it contained, must have been
about equal to that of Saint Mark's in Venice and much greater than that
of Rheims Cathedral. This act did much to persuade the Chinese of the
superiority of our civilization so they opened seven more ports and the
river Yangtze, paid an indemnity and granted us more territory at
Hong-Kong. In 1870, the Chinese were rash enough to murder a British
diplomat, so the remaining British diplomats demanded and obtained an
indemnity, five more ports, and a fixed tariff for opium. Next, the
French took Annam and the British took Burma, both formerly under
Chinese suzerainty. Then came the war with Japan in 1894-5, leading to
Japan's complete victory and conquest of Korea. Japan's acquisitions
would have been much greater but for the intervention of France, Germany
and Russia, England holding aloof. This was the beginning of our support
of Japan, inspired by fear of Russia. It also led to an alliance between
China and Russia, as a reward for which Russia acquired all the
important rights in Manchuria, which passed to Japan, partly after the
Russo-Japanese war, and partly after the Bolshevik revolution.
The next incident begins with the murder of two German missionaries in
Shantung in 1897. Nothing in their life became them like the leaving of
it; for if they had lived they would probably have made very few
converts, whereas by dying they afforded the world an object-lesson in
Christian ethics. The Germans seized Kiaochow Bay and created a naval
base there; they also acquired railway and mining rights in Shantung,
which, by the Treaty of Versailles, passed to Japan in accordance with
the Fourteen Points. Shantung therefore became virtually a Japanese
possession, though America at Washington has insisted upon its
restitution. The services of the two missionaries to civilization did
not, however, end in China, for their death was constantly used in the
German Reichstag during the first debates on the German Big Navy Bills,
since it was held that warships would make Germany respected in China.
Thus they helped to exacerbate the relations of England and Germany and
to hasten the advent of the Great War. They also helped to bring on the
Boxer rising, which is said to have begun as a movement against the
Germans in Shantung, though the other Powers emulated the Germans in
every respect, the Russians by creating a naval base at Port Arthur,
the British by acquiring Wei-hai-wei and a sphere of influence in the
Yangtze, and so on. The Americans alone held aloof, proclaiming the
policy of Chinese integrity and the Open Door.
The Boxer rising is one of the few Chinese events that all Europeans
know about. After we had demonstrated our superior virtue by the sack of
Peking, we exacted a huge indemnity, and turned the Legation Quarter of
Peking into a fortified city. To this day, it is enclosed by a wall,
filled with European, American, and Japanese troops, and surrounded by a
bare space on which the Chinese are not allowed to build. It is
administered by the diplomatic body, and the Chinese authorities have no
powers over anyone within its gates. When some unusually corrupt and
traitorous Government is overthrown, its members take refuge in the
Japanese (or other) Legation and so escape the punishment of their
crimes, while within the sacred precincts of the Legation Quarter the
Americans erect a vast wireless station said to be capable of
communicating directly with the United States. And so the refutation of
Chien Lung is completed.
Out of the Boxer indemnity, however, one good thing has come. The
Americans found that, after paying all just claims for damages, they
still had a large surplus. This they returned to China to be spent on
higher education, partly in colleges in China under American control,
partly by sending advanced Chinese students to American universities.
The gain to China has been enormous, and the benefit to America from the
friendship of the Chinese (especially the most educated of them) is
incalculable. This is obvious to everyone, yet England shows hardly any
signs of following suit.
To understand the difficulties with which the Chinese Government is
faced, it is necessary to realize the loss of fiscal independence which,
China has suffered as the result of the various wars and treaties which
have been forced upon her. In the early days, the Chinese had no
experience of European diplomacy, and did not know what to avoid; in
later days, they have not been allowed to treat old treaties as scraps
of paper, since that is the prerogative of the Great Powers--a
prerogative which every single one of them exercises.
The best example of this state of affairs is the Customs tariff.[27] At
the end of our first war with China, in 1842, we concluded a treaty
which provided for a duty at treaty ports of 5 per cent. on all imports
and not more than 5 per cent on exports. This treaty is the basis of the
whole Customs system. At the end of our next war, in 1858, we drew up a
schedule of conventional prices on which the 5 per cent. was to be
calculated. This was to be revised every ten years, but has in fact only
been revised twice, once in 1902 and once in 1918.[28] Revision of the
schedule is merely a change in the conventional prices, not a change in
the tariff, which remains fixed at 5 per cent. Change in the tariff is
practically impossible, since China has concluded commercial treaties
involving a most-favoured-nation clause, and the same tariff, with
twelve States besides Great Britain, and therefore any change in the
tariff requires the unanimous consent of thirteen Powers.
When foreign Powers speak of the Open Door as a panacea for China, it
must be remembered that the Open Door does nothing to give the Chinese
the usual autonomy as regards Customs that is enjoyed by other sovereign
States.[29] The treaty of 1842 on which the system rests, has no
time-limit of provision for denunciation by either party, such as other
commercial treaties contain. A low tariff suits the Powers that wish to
find a market for their goods in China, and they have therefore no
motive for consenting to any alteration. In the past, when we practised
free trade, we could defend ourselves by saying that the policy we
forced upon China was the same as that which we adopted ourselves. But
no other nation could make this excuse, nor can we now that we have
abandoned free trade by the Safeguarding of Industries Act.
The import tariff being so low, the Chinese Government is compelled, for
the sake of revenue, to charge the maximum of 5 per cent, on all
exports. This, of course, hinders the development of Chinese commerce,
and is probably a mistake. But the need of sources of revenue is
desperate, and it is not surprising that the Chinese authorities should
consider the tax indispensable.
There is also another system in China, chiefly inherited from the time
of the Taiping rebellion, namely the erection of internal customs
barriers at various important points. This plan is still adopted with
the internal trade. But merchants dealing with the interior and sending
goods to or from a Treaty Port can escape internal customs by the
payment of half the duty charged under the external tariff. As this is
generally less than the internal tariff charges, this provision favours
foreign produce at the expense of that of China. Of course the system of
internal customs is bad, but it is traditional, and is defended on the
ground that revenue is indispensable. China offered to abolish internal
customs in return for certain uniform increases in the import and export
tariff, and Great Britain, Japan, and the United States consented. But
there were ten other Powers whose consent was necessary, and not all
could be induced to agree. So the old system remains in force, not
chiefly through the fault of the Chinese central government. It should
be added that internal customs are collected by the provincial
authorities, who usually intercept them and use them for private armies
and civil war. At the present time, the Central Government is not strong
enough to stop these abuses.
The administration of the Customs is only partially in the hands of the
Chinese. By treaty, the Inspector-General, who is at the head of the
service, must be British so long as our trade with China exceeds that of
any other treaty State; and the appointment of all subordinate officials
is in his hands. In 1918 (the latest year for which I have the figures)
there were 7,500 persons employed in the Customs, and of these 2,000
were non-Chinese. The first Inspector-General was Sir Robert Hart, who,
by the unanimous testimony of all parties, fulfilled his duties
exceedingly well. For the time being, there is much to be said for the
present system. The Chinese have the appointment of the
Inspector-General, and can therefore choose a man who is sympathetic to
their country. Chinese officials are, as a rule, corrupt and indolent,
so that control by foreigners is necessary in creating a modern
bureaucracy. So long as the foreign officials are responsible to the
Chinese Government, not to foreign States, they fulfil a useful
educative function, and help to prepare the way for the creation of an
efficient Chinese State. The problem for China is to secure practical
and intellectual training from the white nations without becoming their
slaves. In dealing with this problem, the system adopted in the Customs
has much to recommend it during the early stages.[30]
At the same time, there are grave infringements of Chinese independence
in the present position of the Customs, apart altogether from the fact
that the tariff is fixed by treaty for ever. Much of the revenue
derivable from customs is mortgaged for various loans and indemnities,
so that the Customs cannot be dealt with from the point of view of
Chinese interests alone. Moreover, in the present state of anarchy, the
Customs administration can exercise considerable control over Chinese
politics by recognizing or not recognizing a given _de facto_
Government. (There is no Government _de jure_, at any rate in the
North.) At present, the Customs Revenue is withheld in the South, and an
artificial bankruptcy is being engineered. In view of the reactionary
instincts of diplomats, this constitutes a terrible obstacle to internal
reform. It means that no Government which is in earnest in attempting
to introduce radical improvements can hope to enjoy the Customs revenue,
which interposes a formidable fiscal barrier in the way of
reconstruction.
There is a similar situation as regards the salt tax. This also was
accepted as security for various foreign loans, and in order to make the
security acceptable the foreign Powers concerned insisted upon the
employment of foreigners in the principal posts. As in the case of the
Customs, the foreign inspectors are appointed by the Chinese Government,
and the situation is in all respects similar to that existing as regards
the Customs.
The Customs and the salt tax form the security for various loans to
China. This, together with foreign administration, gives opportunities
of interference by the Powers which they show no inclination to neglect.
The way in which the situation is utilized may be illustrated by three
telegrams in _The Times_ which appeared during January of this year.
On January 14, 1922, _The Times_ published the following in a telegram
from its Peking correspondent:
It is curious to reflect that this country (China) could be
rendered completely solvent and the Government provided with a
substantial income almost by a stroke of the foreigner's pen,
while without that stroke there must be bankruptcy, pure and
simple. Despite constant civil war and political chaos, the
Customs revenue consistently grows, and last year exceeded all
records by £1,000,000. The increased duties sanctioned by the
Washington Conference will provide sufficient revenue to
liquidate the whole foreign and domestic floating debt in a very
few years, leaving the splendid salt surplus unencumbered for the
Government. The difficulty is not to provide money, but to find a
Government to which to entrust it. Nor is there any visible
prospect of the removal of this difficulty.
I venture to think _The Times_ would regard the difficulty as removed
if the Manchu Empire were restored.
As to the "splendid salt surplus," there are two telegrams from the
Peking correspondent to _The Times_ (of January 12th and 23rd,
respectively) showing what we gain by making the Peking Government
artificially bankrupt. The first telegram (sent on January 10th) is as
follows:--
Present conditions in China are aptly illustrated by what is
happening in one of the great salt revenue stations on the
Yangtsze, near Chinkiang. That portion of the Chinese fleet
faithful to the Central Government--the better half went over to
the Canton Government long ago--has dispatched a squadron of
gunboats to the salt station and notified Peking that if
$3,000,000 (about £400,000) arrears of pay were not immediately
forthcoming the amount would be forcibly recovered from the
revenue. Meanwhile the immense salt traffic on the Yangtsze has
been suspended. The Legations concerned have now sent an Identic
Note to the Government warning it of the necessity for
immediately securing the removal of the obstruction to the
traffic and to the operations of the foreign collectorate.
The second telegram is equally interesting. It is as follows:--
The question of interference with the Salt Gabelle is assuming a
serious aspect. The Chinese squadron of gunboats referred to in
my message of the 10th is still blocking the salt traffic near
Chingkiang, while a new intruder in the shape of an agent of
Wu-Pei-Fu [the Liberal military leader] has installed himself in
the collectorate at Hankow, and is endeavouring to appropriate
the receipts for his powerful master. The British, French, and
Japanese Ministers accordingly have again addressed the
Government, giving notice that if these irregular proceedings do
not cease they will be compelled to take independent action. The
Reorganization Loan of £25,000,000 is secured on the salt
revenues, and interference with the foreign control of the
department constitutes an infringement of the loan agreement. In
various parts of China, some independent of Peking, others not,
the local _Tuchuns_ (military governors) impound the collections
and materially diminish the total coming under the control of the
foreign inspectorate, but the balance remaining has been so
large, and protest so useless, that hitherto all concerned have
considered it expedient to acquiesce. But interference at points
on the Yangtsze, where naval force can be brought to bear, is
another matter. The situation is interesting in view of the
amiable resolutions adopted at Washington, by which the Powers
would seem to have debarred themselves, in the future, from any
active form of intervention in this country. In view of the
extensive opposition to the Liang Shih-yi Cabinet and the present
interference with the salt negotiations, the $90,000,000
(£11,000,000) loan to be secured on the salt surplus has been
dropped. The problem of how to weather the new year settlement on
January 28th remains unsolved.
It is a pretty game: creating artificial bankruptcy, and then inflicting
punishment for the resulting anarchy. How regrettable that the
Washington Conference should attempt to interfere!
It is useless to deny that the Chinese have brought these troubles upon
themselves, by their inability to produce capable and honest officials.
This inability has its roots in Chinese ethics, which lay stress upon a
man's duty to his family rather than to the public. An official is
expected to keep all his relations supplied with funds, and therefore
can only be honest at the expense of filial piety. The decay of the
family system is a vital condition of progress in China. All Young China
realizes this, and one may hope that twenty years hence the level of
honesty among officials may be not lower in China than in Europe--no
very extravagant hope. But for this purpose friendly contact with
Western nations is essential. If we insist upon rousing Chinese
nationalism as we have roused that of India and Japan, the Chinese will
begin to think that wherever they differ from Europe, they differ for
the better. There is more truth in this than Europeans like to think,
but it is not wholly true, and if it comes to be believed our power for
good in China will be at an end.
I have described briefly in this chapter what the Christian Powers did
to China while they were able to act independently of Japan. But in
modern China it is Japanese aggression that is the most urgent problem.
Before considering this, however, we must deal briefly with the rise of
modern Japan--a quite peculiar blend of East and West, which I hope is
not prophetic of the blend to be ultimately achieved in China. But
before passing to Japan, I will give a brief description of the social
and political condition of modern China, without which Japan's action in
China would be unintelligible.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 24: In 1691 the Emperor Kang Hsi issued an edict explaining
his attitude towards various religions. Of Roman Catholicism he says:
"As to the western doctrine which glorifies _Tien Chu_, the Lord of the
Sky, that, too, is heterodox; but because its priests are thoroughly
conversant with mathematics, the Government makes use of them--a point
which you soldiers and people should understand." (Giles, op. cit. p.
252.)]
[Footnote 25: _Annals and Memoirs of the Court of Peking_, pp. 322 ff.]
[Footnote 26: The Summer Palace now shown to tourists is modern, chiefly
built by the Empress Dowager.]
[Footnote 27: There is an admirable account of this question in Chap.
vii. of Sih-Gung Cheng's _Modern China_, Clarendon Press, 1919.]
[Footnote 28: A new revision has been decided upon by the Washington
Conference.]
[Footnote 29: If you lived in a town where the burglars had obtained
possession of the Town Council, they would very likely insist upon the
policy of the Open Door, but you might not consider it wholly
satisfactory. Such is China's situation among the Great Powers.]
[Footnote 30: _The Times_ of November 26, 1921, had a leading article on
Mr. Wellington Koo's suggestion, at Washington, that China ought to be
allowed to recover fiscal autonomy as regards the tariff. Mr. Koo did
not deal with the Customs _administration_, nevertheless _The Times_
assumed that his purpose was to get the administration into the hands of
the Chinese on account of the opportunities of lucrative corruption
which it would afford. I wrote to _The Times_ pointing out that they had
confused the administration with the tariff, and that Mr. Koo was
dealing only with the tariff. In view of the fact that they did not
print either my letter or any other to the same effect, are we to
conclude that their misrepresentation was deliberate and intentional?]