Sino-British Relations Research Articles

Islands in the City: Negotiating the Location of British Concessions along the Yangtze River in 1861 China

In the second half of the nineteenth century, Britain signed treaties to secure the right to establish concessions along the Yangtze River in China. Despite extensive scholarly analysis of the history of British concessions, one aspect that is often overlooked is that these treaties did not specify the locations for these concessions. As a result, the British had to negotiate with local Chinese officials to acquire suitable sites. This essay aims to delve into the history of Sino-British relations and the spatial dynamics of occupation by examining the interactions between the British and Chinese in determining concession sites within Yangtze River port cities – specifically Zhenjiang, Hankou, and Jiujiang. It reveals that, following the Second Opium War, British arrivals and Chinese authorities established an implicit understanding. Despite diverse strategies employed by Chinese authorities in managing foreign affairs – ranging from appeasement to radical measures – the British consistently pursued potential advantages and preferred negotiation to maximize their respective interests. Consequently, these concessions were located in less desirable positions along the Yangtze River, surrounded by waterways. This strategic placement facilitated British cargo landings while enabling the Chinese to retain control over foreign arrivals, effectively transforming them into metaphorical islands within these cities.

Analysis of Sino-British Relations in post-Brexit Era

Brexit is the result of a combination of disillusionment with the European Union, a desire to restore the "Empire of the Sun" and a range of social issues. The impact of Brexit is also multifaceted. For the UK itself, its political and economic independence will be significantly enhanced, and "asserting sovereignty" will become a post-Brexit pursuit for the UK; for Sino-British relations, the UK's policy towards China may continue to highlight its "In addition, the UK may seek asylum in the US after Brexit, and the relationship between the UK and the US will appear more "ambiguous". As for the UK-EU relationship, the UK hopes to start negotiations with the EU as an independent sovereign state, mainly on economic aspects, while the EU hopes that the post-Brexit UK will still be under its control. All in all, whether it is the US, the EU or China, the UK should act in its own interests, respect the other side's reasonable interests and actively seek cooperation.

Britain’s China policy after Brexit: Based on pragmatism or values first?

After Brexit, Britain has vowed to build a “Global Britain”. Guided by this strategy, the Great Britain’s policy towards People’s Republic of China is undergoing a more dramatic adjustment, which has brought the relations between China and the United Kingdom from a “golden era” to a more turbulent and unpredictable period of today. Overall, Britain’s current policy toward China is based on a range of policy tools, such as investment screening, Indo-Pacific Policy, as well as bilateral mechanisms, to catch the Chinese market for economic gain, while politically following the United States and provoking China on ideological and sovereignty matters in order to maintain its alliance with the West. Given in general the increase of negative perceptions of British public opinion of China, as well as the dramatic changes in the international situation (including the occurrence of major geopolitical events such as the Russian-Ukrainian military conflict), adjustments in the UK’s policy toward China will continue for some time, which will impact the stability of Sino-British relations. In the future, based on pragmatism, Britain’s China policy will maintain a flexible balance between maintaining selective cooperation with China in economy and global governance and deepening confrontation with China in the political sphere.

John Bull in a China Shop

Punch; or The London Charivari needs little introduction to readers of this journal but, as Amy Matthewson asserts at the start of Cartooning China, the usefulness of Punch’s cartoons to historians of the Victorian period, for buttressing an argument or to illustrate a point, results in an inevitable selectivity. Not only does such scholarly selectivity have the propensity for obscuring political complexity or underestimating diversity of opinion, but the relegation of satirical cartoons to supporting material detracts from the value of these works as a resource in their own right. An acknowledgement of cartoons as being worthy of focussed historical scholarship is the impetus behind Routledge’s new series Global Perspectives in Comics Studies, of which Cartooning China is the inaugural publication. Matthewson’s focus is the role played by Punch in the creation and circulation of attitudes towards China and Chinese people. She concentrates on what were known at Punch as ‘Large Cuts’, the most important cartoon in each weekly edition. Only topics ‘hot’ enough in the daily press would merit a Large Cut, a full-page image with accompanying witty text. Who or what would ‘make the cut’ was a decision thrashed out by the magazine’s staff members at convivial Wednesday dinners over brandy and cigars. Each man, with his own, often very divergent opinions or political leanings, jostled to have his idea accepted. The illustration had then to be commissioned and completed by Friday night when it was sent to the engraver. Given that the decades of Victoria’s reign were a fairly tumultuous time for Sino-British relations, encompassing two Opium Wars and the Boxer Uprising, it is perhaps surprising, taking the Large Cuts as indicative of what most preoccupied Punch, that interest in China remained relatively minimal until the First Sino-Japanese War (1890–1895). Matthewson’s survey demonstrates a massive spike in the 1890s and she concludes that with the unexpected emergence of Japan as an imperial contender, Britain’s standing as a global power vis-à-vis China was of far greater concern than any relationship, socio-cultural or political between the two nations. This observation in itself makes an excellent case for studying cartoons as primary material.

To Trust or Not to Trust? COVID-19 Facemasks in China–Europe Relations: Lessons from France and the United Kingdom

At the crossroads of sociology and international relations, this interdisciplinary and comparative research article explores how the COVID-19 outbreak has impacted China–Europe relations. Unfolding the critical moments of the COVID-19 outbreak, this article characterizes the evolution of China–Europe relations with regard to the facemask. This simple object of self-protection against the coronavirus strikingly became a source of contention between peoples and states. In the face of this situation, we argue that the facemask is the prism through which to illustrate (1) the transnational links between China and its overseas population, (2) the changing social perceptions of China and Chinese-looking people in European societies, and (3) the advent of China’s health diplomacy and its reception in Europe. Comparing two European settings—France and the United Kingdom (UK)—the common denominator appears to be the reduced trust, if not outright distrust, between individuals and communities in the French and British contexts, and in Sino–French and Sino–British relations at the transnational level. Combining critical juncture theory and (dis)trust in international relations as our analytical framework, this article examines how the facemask became a politicized object, both between states and between Mainland China and its overseas population, as the epidemic unfolded throughout Europe. Adopting a qualitative approach, our dataset comprises the analysis of official speeches and statements; press releases; traditional and social media content (especially through hashtags such as #JeNeSuisPasUnVirus, #IAmNotAVirus, #CoronaRacism, etc.); and interviews with Chinese, French, and British community members.

Lord Macartney’s Duelling Fates: Writing, Reading and Revising the Macartney Embassy, 1792–1804

Recent scholarship on early Sino-British relations has begun challenging the longstanding projection of inevitability upon the First Anglo-Chinese War (1839–1842) by illuminating diverse opinions within each side rather than highlighting an inherent tension between “modern” Britain and “traditional” China. However, the assumption that the Macartney Embassy (1792–1794) served as the first major step toward war has gone largely unchallenged because its diplomatic drama and economic disputes appear to affirm the British and Qing Empires’ supposedly irreconcilable differences. This article examines Britons’ reactions to the Macartney Embassy through travelogues, periodicals, and diplomatic documents to reconstruct the Embassy free from the hindsight of war and the imposition of free trade upon the Qing in the Treaty of Nanjing (1842). It argues that late eighteenth-century Britons variably conceived of the Embassy as a success, dismissed it as inconsequential, or weaponized it for domestic political criticisms. They accordingly supported both optimism in the future of Sino-British relations and a deferent stance toward Britain’s Qing counterparts. The idea that the Embassy exemplified hostility between Britain and China only came about through John Barrow’s reactionary writings during the early nineteenth century that sought to defend Macartney’s conduct by foregrounding the Qing’s apparently impolite behavior. Barrow’s views took root after accounts of the Qing’s treatment of the Amherst Embassy (1816–1817) depicted this behavior as a pattern. In this way, Britons’ initial reactions to the Macartney Embassy complicate clear notions of a linear, causal relationship between the Embassy and the war. They rather suggest that these notions were invented through a misuse of hindsight by early nineteenth-century Britons and solidified by later historians.

Monsters within Hong Kong’s “cesspool of iniquity”: Kowloon Walled City and Temutma (1998)

ABSTRACT In recent decades, there has been increased critical interest in postcolonial Gothic literature, as well as in political tensions in Hong Kong. This article investigates Hong Kong as a Gothic locale, and how the anxieties surrounding Hong Kong’s 1997 turnover of sovereignty can be studied through literary-critical investigation of the Gothic genre. It argues that there is an inherent Gothicity to the now demolished Kowloon Walled City because of its situation at the interface of Sino-British relations. The article takes as its case study Rebecca Bradley and Stewart Sloan’s Temutma (1998), a Gothic novel whose representation of Kowloon Walled City explores concerns about Hong Kong’s uncertain future in the lead-up to the 1997 turnover. The eponymous monster antagonist of the novel is read as a culturally ambiguous manifestation and personification of the fears of social upheaval leading up to the turnover and Hong Kong’s contractual reunification with China.

UK-China Relations: the U.S. Factor

The article explores the evolution of the UK‟s approach to China through the lens of UK-US relations. A deeper UK-China economic partnership amid growing competition between Washington and Beijing has given rise to U.S.-UK divergences. They resulted in mounting pressure on the UK, which exacerbated under the Trump administration. The US wants to form a coalition of countries belonging to the political West (e.g., G7 and Five Eyes) to diversify supplies, decrease its dependence on Chinese goods and prevent Beijing from acquiring cutting-edge technologies. The following cases are described to explore U.S. attempts to influence Sino-British relations: the UK government‟s decision to allow Chinese investors to participate in building Hinkley Point C nuclear power station, the UK‟s accession to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, clearing Huawei technologies for use in the UK‟s 5G networks and US-UK military cooperation to exercise freedom of navigation in the South China Sea. This pressure is especially evident when U.S. national interests are directly affected, as the Huawei case shows. Moreover, the Conservative party is split when it comes to dealing with China. The UK has been trying to make the US position on China more constructive. Unlike the US, the UK‟s approach to China has been changing gradually.

Pakistan China relations in the Emerging Dynamics of Power in South Asia

This research paper highlights and review the strategic relationship amongst Pakistan and China as emerging economic states and power balanced countries in South Asia. The region has always been in the news since many decades, starting from “Khyber Pass” which was a route to conquer the “Golden Bird”, to the Union Jack, needs to trade for their economic resilience. The existence of Pakistan changes the dynamics of this region, as Pakistan is known as its strategic location which further helps the world in trade. The routes are key factual economic indicators for many countries, as sea routes for traders are enjoyed by the middle Eastern countries like United Arab Emirates, and Iran they mark accomplishments, not only in trade but in foreign relations also. Their strategic alliance and visionary leadership had made them the strongest country amongst all. Despite, they were dwelled in many tribal fights, which by the time made them learned to have their existence as United Republic of China. The main purpose of this research is to highlight and bring strategically importance geopolitical stance exercised by both the countries. We use qualitative research model to explore the reason of ties and through reviewed papers draft the conclusions to understand the value in this regard. The study found mutual benefit for both the countries and reveals the footprints of Sino-British relations amongst China and East India Company in midst of 1600 – 1640. Mao Zedong and Zhou En-Lai were the brains behind the revolution and strategic routes were devised to bring the economic stability for the Republic of China.

Chinese Illicit Immigration into Colonial Hong Kong, c. 1970–1980

ABSTRACT The post-1945 influx of Chinese immigrants from Mainland China put a strain on colonial Hong Kong’s limited housing stock and under-developed welfare and education systems. In response, the colonial government introduced a ‘Touch Base’ policy in 1974. Thereafter, all Chinese immigrants who failed to ‘touch base’, that is, reach urban areas of Hong Kong, faced repatriation. This article examines the origins and effects of the ‘Touch Base’ policy, focusing on how Sino-British relations and the anti-immigration discourse in Hong Kong affected policy-making, and vice versa. It argues that the policy change, a product of a new form of Sino-British diplomacy, was underpinned by popular hostility towards Chinese immigrants. The article further argues that this policy shift also reinforced the emergent differentiation between the Hong Kong Chinese and Mainland Chinese immigrants amongst the Hong Kong population. Hitherto, historians have explored the issue of post-1945 immigration using archival sources from the early Cold War period, but have not traced the origins of the anti-immigrant rhetoric that continues to be felt today.

Establishing the Ramgarh Training Center: The Burma Campaign, the Colonial Internment Camp, and the Wartime Sino-British Relations

AbstractThis article investigates how the Chinese Expeditionary Force joined the Burma Campaign and retreated to India in 1942, and how the Chinese, American, and British authorities negotiated to determine the destiny of Chinese forces in India. This article argues that the choice of Ramgarh, a small town in northeast India, as the site of a training centre for the Chinese Expeditionary Force sheds light on a decades-long programme of colonial internment-camp building in British India, and illuminates the difficult relationship between Chinese and British authorities during World War II. In doing so, it also argues that the historiography of China's War of Resistance requires Southeast and South Asian perspectives.

Legal Mediators: British consuls in Tengyue (western Yunnan) and the Burma-China frontier region, 1899–1931

AbstractBritish consuls were key agents for the British imperial presence in China from 1842 to 1943. Their role, which was to perform administrative duties that protected the rights of British subjects, is most prominently remembered in connection with the east coast. Here larger foreign communities and international maritime trade necessitated their presence. However, British consuls were also posted to the far southwest province of Yunnan and the Burma-China frontier region. This article sheds light on the role of consuls working in the little-known British consular station of Tengyue, situated close to the Burma-China frontier. Using the reports of locally stationed consuls and Burmese frontier officials, it argues that consuls were important mediators of legal power operating at the fringes of empire for British imperial and colonial interests in this region. They represented British and European subjects, and were mediators in legal disputes between British Burma and China, helping to smooth over Sino-British relations and promoting British Burmese sovereign interests. The article serves to shift our attention from the British presence in China on the east coast to the southwestern frontier, demonstrate the importance of consular legal duties, and emphasize the trans-imperial nature of British legal roles across this region.

Redefining Semi-Colonialism: A Historiographical Essay on British Colonial Presence in China

Redefining Semi-Colonialism:A Historiographical Essay on British Colonial Presence in China Taoyu Yang Introduction The tumultuous relationship between Britain and China in the second half of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century has attracted considerable attention and continues to pique scholarly interests. Many existing older studies pertaining to Sino-British relations advanced multi-pronged analysis into the entangled economic, political, and diplomatic relations between the two. However, despite this notable body of scholarship on the various types of Sino-British interaction, China was largely ignored for some decades in the literature on the British colonial history.1 The reasons for China's relative low profile in scholarship on British imperial history stemmed from scholars' understandings of China's minor significance within the British Empire and from practical difficulties such as limited access to primary sources and lack of linguistic skills. More importantly, the very designation of China as a "semi-colony" provided scholars of colonialism with justifiable reasons for downplaying China's relevance in colonial studies on the ground of its partial and incomplete coloniality. However, in the last two decades, scholars have made remarkable progress in incorporating China into the academic literature on British colonial history. Such a scholarly trend has taken place in a changing intellectual milieu. The conscious efforts by historians of China to move beyond the "China-centered approach," a methodological orientation popularized by Paul Cohen,2 have propelled scholars to reexamine the role of British imperialism in the modern history of China. In particular, the studies of Sino-British interaction have changed because of the significant revisionist works on the Qing Empire and the increasingly transnational focus in works on the late Qing and Republican period.3 Additionally, the rise of "New Imperial History" and the continual growth of postcolonial studies have lent scholars new analytical tools to explore Sino-British interactions.4 Another important factor that has contributed to the upsurge of studies on British colonialism in China lies in improvements in access to archival sources in China and beyond. As a result, instead of dismissing the sui generis coloniality of China, a growing number of scholars have, as James Hevia advocates, brought China into colonial studies.5 The goal of this essay is to synthesize and analyze recent scholarship on British colonialism in China through a conceptual approach. In doing so, I choose to revisit and redefine the notion of "semi-colonialism," a term favored by many American and Chinese scholars. The concept of "semi-colonialism," or "semi-colony," has its distinctive genealogy. It was originally coined by Vladimir Lenin and later adopted by Mao Zedong in the 1920s and 1930s. They both underscored semi-colonialism as a unique social formation characterized by the coexistence of colonialism and native feudal structure.6 Although semi-colonialism, as used by these two Marxist critics, helped legitimize their respective political and ideological agenda, it did reflect the need to modify the term "colonialism" in the Chinese context. The subsequent generations of scholars, most notably Jürgen Osterhammel and Shu-mei Shih, have used this term to conceptualize China's distinctive coloniality vis-à-vis other colonial settings. As Osterhammel explains, semi-colonialism can be used "to make sense of a historical process in which 'feudalism' obviously disintegrated, but no significant transition to capitalism took place."7 In a somewhat different vein, Shih uses semi-colonialism to "describe the cultural and political condition in modern China to foreground. . . [the] incomplete and fragmentary nature of China's colonial structure."8 Moreover, scholars like Tani Barlow and Bryna Goodman have suggested that the outcomes of semi-colonial rule were distinct from those of other total colonies and that "semi," as a qualifier, remains useful to explain the specific colonial conditions in China.9 Previous discussion of semi-colonialism has attached importance to the partial and incomplete penetration of imperial powers in China, and this concept has often been used to stress the qualitative differences between China and other colonized settings. Instead, this essay throws new light on and offers a more nuanced understanding of the concept of semi-colonialism by drawing on recent scholarship on British imperial history in China. This newly defined notion of semi-colonialism highlights...

From the Treaty of Nanking to the Joint Declaration: The Struggle for Equality through State Documents

This article examines two state documents that signpost the colonial history of Hong Kong: the Treaty of Nanking (1842) ushered in the era of British control while the Sino-British Joint Declaration (1984) spelled the end of British colonial rule and inaugurated the handover process that concluded in 1997. Exploring these documents beyond a textual analysis of their content, this article extends the investigation to include the materiality of the original documents the two states exchanged. Signed 142 years apart, these documents showcase not only the two governments’ agreement over Hong Kong but also, more importantly, the challenges in resolving differences in the culture of documents and the problematic arrival at a common platform as “international standards” emerged. More than just a resolution of archaic confusions in interstate relationships, the changing protocols reflect the conflicts between two great powers. Shifting the focus from the content of the text to the materiality of the documents, this article highlights the state-to-state negotiation over the culture of documents that conventional textual exegesis often overlooks, and underscores the enduring legacy of the 19th-century encounter that continues to haunt Sino-British relations and Hong Kong today.

Writing China: Essays on the Amherst Embassy (1816) and Sino-British Cultural Relations, ed. Peter J. Kitson and Robert Markley

<i>Writing China: Essays on the Amherst Embassy (1816) and Sino-British Cultural Relations</i>, ed. Peter J. Kitson and Robert Markley

After Brexit: Risks and Opportunities to EU–China Relations

AbstractAs a result of Brexit, China faces both enormous economic challenges and political uncertainties in future relations with its largest trading partner, the EU. But while the UK's vote to leave creates an unexpected dilemma for the Chinese leadership, whose EU policy focuses largely on gaining vast market access, it also presents a rare opportunity for China to harness its policy instruments and diversify its initiatives to pursue its economic goals with European partners. As a pre‐condition to achieving the desired outcome, however, Beijing will need to untangle its foreign policy decision‐making processes. Against this backdrop, the author will illuminate post‐Brexit Sino–British relations and reflect on the possible impacts of Brexit upon future relations between Beijing and Brussels. A second section will analyse the very complex foreign policy making mechanism in Beijing in terms of its economic policy goals with the EU.

John Francis Davis as governor and diplomat on the China Coast (1844–1848)

ABSTRACTThis paper explores the role of the nineteenth-century sinologist-cum-diplomat, John Francis Davis, in Sino-British relations after the ratification of the Treaty of Nanjing in 1843. It examines his time as governor of Hong Kong and as Britain's effective minister to China from 1844 until 1848, in which he attempted to have the city of Canton opened to foreign trade. Arguing that Davis's view of Sino-British relations was as cultural in character as it was political, this paper suggests that Davis fundamentally sought to establish strict equality between the two empires. He attempted to use his knowledge of Chinese civilization to build an equal international relationship between two sovereign nations rather than an imperial relationship between a conqueror and the conquered people. While this conviction laid the groundwork for Hong Kong to become a bilingual Anglo-Chinese colony, it fractured diplomacy with Qing officials. Davis's insistence on political equality would amount to an aggressive imposition of European diplomatic norms on his dealings with the Qing representative Qiying. More precisely, the paper explains how the policies of this archetypal British ‘China Hand’ bifurcated in the directions of both progressive cultural policy but also gunboat diplomacy.

The “Inner Kowtow Controversy” During the Amherst Embassy to China, 1816–1817

ABSTRACTThe Amherst embassy has a long-standing reputation as a diplomatic failure in Britain’s early relations with China. This analysis concentrates on a greatly overlooked aspect of the Amherst mission—the controversy within the embassy’s leadership about whether to perform kowtow before the Jiaqing emperor. George Thomas Staunton, basing his arguments on some “local inside knowledge,” successfully prevailed on Amherst to refuse to kowtow. This decision directly resulted in the rejection of the embassy from Beijing. To explain this unpleasant outcome, both sides of the controversy downplayed the importance of their decision and, instead, constructed a capricious image of the Chinese emperor, which helped to lay the foundations for the deterioration of Sino–British relations in the run up to the Opium War.

Cultural Difference in George Macartney’s An Embassy to China, 1792–94

Sir George Macartney’s British embassy to the court of the Qiánlóng emperor in 1792-94 was a political and commercial failure. This essay seeks to think critically about Macartney’s failure as it pertains to his journal—the posthumously published Journal of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China in the Years 1792, 1793, and 1794 (1807)—and its imaginative engagement with Chinese culture. While Macartney’s narrative partakes of formal and aesthetic qualities associated with travel writing from the Grand Tour and with scientific exploration, it cannot wholly be identified with either. Instead, Macartney adopts a skeptical, self-conscious position with regard to his diplomatic and intellectual limitations in dealing with the Qing. Critical analysis of his narrative’s literary qualities, as well as manuscripts in the Charles W. Wason Collection at Cornell University, enable an appreciation of the sophistication and deliberateness of Macartney’s narrative. Thus, I argue that Macartney’s “failure” is predicated on his understanding and exploration of cultural difference—his narrative opens a space that brings British and Chinese representatives together while also revealing differences between the two cultures. To illuminate that rich yet liminal cultural space in Macartney’s narrative, I draw on a parallel moment in Sino-British cultural relations in the years leading up to the Opium wars—George Chinnery’s painting, Rev. Morrison Translating the Bible in to Chinese (1829). Reading Macartney’s narrative through the lens of Chinnery’s painting, a work that also represents a relationship between the two cultures, brings out the distinctive tone and historiographical understanding of Macartney’s An Embassy to China, 1792-94.

The repatriation of the Chinese as a counter-insurgency policy during the Malayan Emergency

During the Malayan Emergency, British High Commissioner Henry Gurney pushed the policy of repatriating to China thousands of ‘alien’ Chinese detainees suspected of supporting the Malayan Communist Party's guerrilla war. This article traces the stages of this controversial policy, which, despite obstacles, remained a key counter-insurgency strategy until 1953. But the policy ignored the civil war in China and risked jeopardising Sino–British relations. When China closed its ports, the British administration put forth more desperate proposals to continue repatriation, often in the face of Foreign Office objections, ranging from negotiations with the PRC, to dumping deportees on the coast of China, and even approaching the Formosan government. Yet, while the Chinese were the target of both harsh early counter-insurgency techniques and communist violence, when the faltering repatriation policy was replaced by the mass resettlement of ‘squatters’ in Malaya itself, the Chinese were given a path to citizenship, changing their political future and that of the nation.