‘The Expedition to China’: Corruption and Shaping of British Pacific Policy in the Early-to-Mid Nineteenth Century

Introduction. The paper examines some features inherent to the shaping of Britain’s Pacific policy throughout the early-to-mid nineteenth century in China. The issue was never approached comprehensively in the context of UK parliamentary debates that first mentioned the term ‘Pacific policy’. Additionally, the work is first to analyze the mentioned aspects in the context corruption then practiced both in China and Great Britain. The foreign-policy agenda to have included the British trade in opium, naval blockades and corruption is abundant in contradictions between the nations yet to be revealed in further research. Goals. The study seeks to analyze the evolution and features inherent to the shaping of Britain’s Pacific policy in China in the context of how the very policy was being articulated by the UK Parliament, and the problem of corruption faced by both the countries in the early-to-mid nineteenth century. To facilitate this, the work shall consider the stands of UK government and parliament members who sought to give grounds for the Pacific policy with the aid of laws, the media, colonial ideologies, and naval blockades of Chinese ports. Materials and methods. The paper focuses on materials of parliamentary debates, legislative enactments, British print media, personal documents, periodicals of Australia and India. The historical-genetic and system-analysis methods have proved most instrumental herein. Results. As is shown, the early nineteenth century was witnessing initial attempts to develop some Pacific policy in the UK Parliament, e.g., it was offered to expand trade with China through the port of Canton and use warships for national interests. The subsequent anti-corruption enactments would coordinate activities of British superintendents and prohibit them from accepting gifts or engaging in any personal trade. The latter would also be granted powers and privileges previously owned by representatives of the East India Company. The UK Parliament was seeking to control the corrupt Chinese government, but corruption was as characteristic of Britain’s public administration too. The rationale for the new foreign-policy course was that the very vector of colonial policy changed ― from India to China, and they were striving to preserve commercial profits and displace the monopoly of the East India Company. Military operations in Chinese waters diplomatically referred to as ‘the Expedition’ in the UK Parliament did consolidate the shaping of Britain’s Pacific policy characterized by the use of naval forces and sea blockades, corruption and military invasions conducted with minimal costs. The deployment of naval forces to China, their financing and military actions were cynically justified in the Parliament as ‘protection of the UK’s national interests’.

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