How Britain Stole Hong Kong and Forced China to Buy Heroin

It’s now 25 years since #hongkong was returned to #china following 156 years under British rule. As you can imagine, the West are having a hard time coping with China’s celebrations, despite the fact that Hong Kong was initially taken by brute military force after Britain's illegal shipments of heroin to China were confiscated and destroyed by the Qing Dynasty. Here’s a quick history.

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By the 1800s, #britain had grown extremely fond of Chinese goods, mainly tea and china. British merchants were making a lot of money bringing Chinese goods back to Britain, but they encountered an issue: Britain didn’t have anything China wanted to buy back, so there was a huge trade imbalance.

Britain decided to play dirty, growing opium, the key ingredient of heroin, in British India for shipment to China in the hope of making enough back in the illicit trade to fund their new addiction to tea. Don’t forget, heroin was illegal in China, but Britain was desperate to even out trade so who cares, right? Before too long, China had millions of heroin addicts which, rightfully so, worried the government who decided they had to act.

In May of 1839, Britain’s Chief Superintendent of trade, a man named Charles Elliot, was forced to hand over more than 1,400 tons of the drug that was being stored in a warehouse in Canton for illegal distribution in China. It was then destroyed, which angered the British side and eventually led to the First Opium War, where the British smashed China militarily, culminating in the take over of Nanjing, which literally means Southern Capital, in late 1842. China was then forced to sign the Treaty of Nanjing, the first of the so-called “unequal treaties”, which ordered the Emperor to not only pay the British for the destroyed opium, but also to cover the cost of the war, open more ports to accept British heroin, and give up Hong Kong which would be used as a trading port to boost the drug trade. The British achieved a 99-year lease of Hong Kong in 1898.

The Treaty of Nanjing is seen as the beginning of China’s “Century of Humiliation,” a very important aspect influencing China’s foreign policy to this day.

Fast forward to 1997, and Hong Kong was to be handed back to its rightful owner after what ended up being 156 years of British rule. What’s infuriating is that the British lie to this day about how Hong Kongers were treated during that time. Many people don’t realize that in more than 150 years of British rule, the island was lorded over undemocratically by white Governors installed by London, giving Hong Kong residents no say in how they were governed.

It’s quite hilarious that Western media like CNN argue that China has waged an “idealogical war against the influence of Western values” in Hong Kong, including “democracy” and “press freedom”. Perhaps the staff should read more history.

Britain always had a suspicion of Hong Kongers and often violently suppressed their calls for democracy on the island. In 1856, Britain’s Colonial Office rejected calls for more local representation, saying Chinese were had no respect for “the main principles upon which social order rests.” Racist much!

Popular grassroots movements on the island were squashed, and the press was censored by Britain in order to stop such movements gaining momentum. So much for “press freedom”.

It was only until Britain was getting ready to hand the island back to China in the 1990s that they started to rush in democratic reform, almost certainly as a way to spite China and cause issues they didn’t want to deal with themselves in their 156 years of rule.

In what seems like a pure irony, Hong Kong rioters waved British flags as they demanded full democracy there, and many young locals seem blatantly unaware of how Britain treated the population while they were in control.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said recently that he won’t give up on Hong Kong, and argued that China had “disturbed” the foundations on which modern Hong Kong had been built. WHAT FOUNDATIONS?! YOU DIDN’T GIVE HONG KONG PEOPLE A SAY IN GOVERNANCE FOR 156 YEARS!!!

Hong Kong people now have more say in their government that they have in nearly 200 years, and that is thanks to China.

#opiumwar #history

[jessicaw]

Hong Kong never had real democracy under the British colonial rule, so isn't it absurd that the UK claims its democracy is under threat when it was never there in the first place?

[deepone]

Hongkong & Taiwan are Chinese land and Chinese people. Fullstop. Support from Asean Chinese Diaspora!
Long live China, the revered symbol of the enduring Chinese Civilization.

[zeissiez]

The British East India Company seized Bengal in 1757 by force. Then the British forced the peasantry to handover their produce and engineered a famine in 1770 that killed a third of the population. Following that, there were 24 famines between 1850-1899 in different parts of the country, where tens of millions of people killed. From 1765 to 1938, Britain extracted 45 trillion pound sterling from India, which was effectively the down payment for the Industrial Revolution. In 1700, India had 25% of the world’s GDP. By 1950, they had only 4%. In 1943, during the WW II, Winston Churchill diverted food from Bengal to Britain, resulted in 3 million Indians deaths. When India got independent from the British, the literacy rate was just 14%.

In the late 17th century and 18th century, Britain smuggled opium into China to dope the population, a strategy to turn around a huge trade deficit, after the British could not find enough silver to pay the Qing government in their tea and porcelain trades. After opium was destroyed in salt water and ports were closed by the Chinese in ordered to curb opium, the British started the Opium War I, which China lost. Hong Kong was forced to be surrendered to the British.

After 12 years, the British got really greedy. They demanded the Qing government: 1) To open the borders of China to allow goods coming in and out freely and tax free. 2) Make opium legal in China. After being rejected, the British and French, with support by the USA, started Opium War II with China, which again, China lost. The Anglo-French military raided the Summer Palace, an estimated 150, 000 pieces of historic treasures with a 1900-year span from the first Qin Dynasty up to the Qing Dynasty were raided and some ended up in the British Museum in London.

After the Summer Palace was burned down in 3 days, the Anglo-French military then threatened to burn the Imperial Palace. The Qing government was forced to pay with free trade ports, 300, 000 kilograms of silver and the Kowloon district north of Hong Kong Island was taken. Since then, China’s resources flew out freely from the free trade ports. In the subsequent amendment to the treaties, Chinese people were sold overseas to serve as labor, famously known as “piglet labor”.

Britain, a tiny country, had turned the two biggest economies in the world into poverty stricken slumps. China and India co-existed for 4000 years without problems. Buddhism originated in India and widely adopted in China. China sent Buddhist monks to India to learn Buddhism from India. When the British were preparing for India’s independence, an ambiguity was left behind at the border between China and India, and since then, it became the point of conflicts between China and India, including a war at the border in 1962. Divide and rule, is their tactic used over and over again.

The British colonized my country Malaysia in 1786. During WW II, when the Japanese came to Malaya, the British fled the country, and the Malayan Communists were left behind to fight a gorilla warfare with the Japanese in the jungles. After the Japanese surrendered, the Malayan Communist fighters went back to towns. Then the British came back, surrounded the towns and mass murdered them.

Before handed back to China, Hong Kong was ruled under an iron fist, but when Hong Kong was returned to China, the UK pushed for democracy in Hong Kong.

The British empire was succeeded by the American empire, in a continent taken from the natives by mass murdering them. With just 4% of world’s population, America has dominated the world. There are many reasons for the two empires successes. But one thing stands out: hypocrisy. Just look at how America loot the world under the liberalism flag. How they raided the Middle East countries for oil and control, under the name of peace keeping. How they murdered millions of Muslim in Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Syria and now making fake stories of China treating the Uyghurs badly. How they got 1 million Iraqi killed with just a sample of washing powder so that Exxon could make a fortune. How they put sanctions on countries to starve the people so that they turn against their governments. How they print money out of nothing and exports inflation to the world. How they sideline the UN with their own “Rule based order” with itself the sole rules maker and the only judge, overthrowing democratically elected governments, acting like a dictator while preaching democracy around the world. How they supported terrorist groups Al Qaeda in Syria, the ETIM in Xinjiang and Nazis militia Azov Battalion in Ukraine, and pretending like the world police. How they turn our world upside down with the armada of mainstream media, while suppressing truths by independent journalists and jailing war crime critics like Julian Assange and Daniel Hale.

Who rule the world today? The transatlantic globalists from Wall Street and the City of London. They consist of capitalists with enormous wealth from financial institutions like Goldman Sach, the IMF, George Soros’ Open Society Foundation and his neoliberal apparatus, and big corporations like Pfizer, Exxon and Monsanto, and the Military Industrial Complex with its affiliates like Raytheon Technologies. And they fund think tanks like the Atlantic Council and the Royal United Services Institute, and are supported by intelligence services from the CIA and the Mi6. These people use platforms like the World Economic Forum to push their agendas and apply the rules to the whole world. The politicians are just their preselected representatives.

They are the new British East India Company.

Capital-Imperialism has never disappeared, it has just gone underground

[Brick-Life]

Its crazy that people think Hong Kong had democracy and freedom under British colonial rule!

[gloriagloria]

It was a sad truth. And yet the people of Hong Kong think that the British is a better master and reject their own.

[linemily]

Ultimately, truth will prevail over lies, good will prevail over evil.

[mariokery]

Until this day Britain behaves towards Press freedom with the same contempt. Julian Assange is being held in the maximum security prison without conviction and is awaiting extradition to America for reporting on war crimes and war criminals. This was an excellent narrative of the history the people of China and what they have had to contend with.

[trevornorman]

As an Englishman i agree with with everything Andy said. but unlike most in the UK i already knew the truth about Hong Kong and China. hoping to retire to China just across the boarder with Hong Kong, which i hope will be gone soon as it is all one country

[conniemcno]

I was born and raised in Hong Kong and married to an expatriate who worked for the Hong Kong government from the early 70’s to 1994. No Chinese could become a government department head until towards the end of the British rule. The expatriate civil servants were treated unbelievably well. Not only were they provided with housing in large apartments in posh areas, the whole family were entitled to a fully paid (airfares, accommodation & living expenses) holiday back to their country of origin once a year. They could send their children to private boarding schools in the UK, fully funded by the HK government. The chairmanship of the Hong Kong Tourism Board would rotate between the head of the Swire group (that owns Cathay Pacific Airlines) and his counterpart in Jardines, both big British trading companies.

During the riots in the 60’s, everyday newspapers were flashing photos of policemen, led by their British officers, hitting and injuring demonstrators mercilessly.

The Hong Kong government rushed to introduce so-called democracy about several years before the handover. The Governor of Hong Kong was always some guy from England appointed by the British Government until the very end of their rule.

Sadly, the younger generations are not educated and ignorant about this part of the Hong Kong history.

Thanks Andy, for a truthful account of the history of Hong Kong.

[jjc]

I was born in Hong Kong in the 1980s as a subject to the queen in her colony. I was freed in 1997 when Hong Kong was finally returned to China. I am Chinese and I am proud

[dougspray]

This talk should be a compulsory part of British history in all schools in the UK and Commonwealth. Perhaps a copy could be forwarded to Professor Starkie who has some romantic conception of British history. The British Empire was based on GREED, . EXPLOITATION, THE GUN, RACISM AND HYPOCRACY. It is time that the UK looked at its history realistically and felt shame about it and behaved in a more modest and compassionate way on the world stage.

[weiskl]

In the west History is written by the winner. In China it's written to learn from the mistakes of the last dynasty so that the present government do not commit the same mistakes

[stevencher]

B BC spare no time and effort to criticize Pres Xi recent presence in HK. All my comments concerning the historical context were all deleted in that channel while all other comments that are beyond preposterous were glaringly allowed. So much for their freedom of speech.

[edmurks]

Well said and thank you for this video. Finally someone is prepared to stand up and tell the facts and truth. It takes a New Zealander it seems. Thanks!

[Channaone]

Not only HK, Brits did same to other south asian countries such as Sri Lanka and India. Before the left, Brits were sure to make such a political and social mess that those counties are yet to untangle. Almost all countries which were under western ruling are still developing.

[jessicaw]

Hong Kong never had real democracy under the British colonial rule, so how is its democracy under threat when it was never there in the first place?

[akoh]

Dear Andy, I've been arguing & trying to explain and convincing in vain / for years now to my ignorant Caucasian friends/acquaintances about the so-called democracy in Hong Kong. I'll forward your video to them and hopefully this time they'll be convinced about the evil deed & hypocrisy of the British.

[penghodge]

Boris's speech was amazingly laughable. HK ever had democracy under UK rule.

[dabestt]

As a "Gwei low" who has lived in Hong Kong pre-1997 for a few months and a few weeks in 2005, I could NEVER understand why most of these Hong Kongers wanted to leave badly. They left for Canada, US, Australia and UK, and soon found out they are facing a new sets of problems (racism, inequality) and were treated like 2nd and 3rd class citizens. One of my uncle who has stayed after 1997 and now is the owner of a electronic factory in Shenzhen, making $$$ unlike the Brits who said he's going to perish under the "evil communist" rules, and the Brits were the one who tried to sell opium to his grandfather! :O

[Funkydesu]

Well said, Andy. As a Briton, I'm always saddened and ashamed to hear of the UK's past relationship with HK and it surprises me when young Hong Kongers appear to see it in any positive light. Thankfully, the territory was rightly handed back and Boris Johnson and Liz Truss would be far better employed dealing with the sorry mess their own government is creating at home.