31 スエズ運河完成 １８６９ ロゼッタストーンと大英博物館 侍とスフィンクス オスマン帝国を狙え 東方問題南下政策 インドへの道の確保 走れリンちゃん南京条約：これぞまさにRape of Nan
The Nemesis
We may have forgotten the Opium Wars, but China hasn’t…
The story of Birkenhead’s Nemesis, the ship that once ruled the China Seas
In 2013 there were two much publicised British trade delegations to China, led by a heavyweight political trio comprising David Cameron, George Osborne and Boris Johnson. The purpose of the visits was to bang the drum for British exports and encourage investment in the UK, in the hope of reducing our annual trade deficit with China. This is now a whopping £20 billion a year, our hunger for Chinese-made phones, toys and clothes far outweighing their desire for our own goods and services. In 2015 Osborne went to China again, agreeing a deal for China to build a nuclear reactor in Britain, and soon afterwards the Chinese President himself came to the UK.
The recent trade missions have interesting historical parallels with a British delegation to China in 1793, led by Lord George Macartney. Britain then as now was a tea-loving nation, and China was our main supplier. It demanded payment in silver, and Macartney tried in vain to persuade Emperor Qianlong to purchase British goods instead. The Emperor was unimpressed by Macartney’s wares – which included telescopes, clocks and airguns – and the Englishman’s refusal to bow (or ‘kowtow’) to him in the expected manner didn’t help. The Emperor wrote to George III, ‘As your ambassador can see for himself, we possess all things. I set no value on objects strange or ingenious, and have no use for your country’s manufactures.’
