Foreign relations of Imperial China

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Imperial China has had a long tradition of foreign relations.

1 Before European contact
2 After European contact
3 See also
4 Further reading
5 External links

[edit] Before European contact

In pre-modern times, the theory of foreign relations of China held that the Chinese Empire was the Middle Kingdom, the center of world civilization, with the Emperor of China being the leader of the civilized world. This view saw China as equivalent to All under heaven. All other states were considered to be tributaries, under the suzerain rule of China.

This political theory was largely accepted in East Asia, often even in periods of Chinese weakness, as in the Song Dynasty, when it did not accord with much actual power relationships.

Unsurprisingly, there were a few periods when Chinese foreign relations could sometimes take on isolationist tones, because of the view that the rest of the world was poor and backwards and had little to offer.

Nevertheless, China was, from very early history, a center of trade. Many of China's interactions with the outside world came via the Silk Road. This included, during the first or second century AD, contact with representatives of the Roman Empire, and during the thirteenth century, contact with Marco Polo.

Chinese foreign policy was often aimed at containing the threat of so-called "barbarian" invaders (such as the Xiongnu, Mongols, and Jurchen) from the north. This could be done by military means, such as an active offense (campaigns into the north) or a more passive defense (as exemplified by the Great Wall of China). China also practiced heqin, "peace marriage".

Chinese officers distinguished between "cooked barbarians" (foreigners influenced by Chinese culture) and "raw barbarians".

In many periods, Chinese foreign policy was especially assertive. One such case was during the voyages of Zheng He during the Ming Dynasty.

[edit] After European contact

One issue of the Western embassies to China was the kowtow. Western diplomats understood that kowtowing meant accepting the superiority of the Emperor of China over their kings, something unacceptable.

The first diplomatic contact between China and the West occurred with the expansion of the Roman Empire in the Middle-East during the 2nd century, the Romans gained the capability to develop shipping and trade in the Indian Ocean. The first group of people claiming to be an embassy of Romans to China is recorded in 166, sixty years after the expeditions to the west of the Chinese general Ban Chao. It came to Emperor Huan of Han China, "from Antun (Emperor Antoninus Pius), king of Daqin (Rome)". Although, as Antoninus Pius died in 161, leaving the empire to his adoptive son Marcus Aurelius (Antoninus), the convoy arrived in 166, and the both Emperor being "Antonius" the confusion arises about who sent the ambassy.

Later on, in 1665, when Russian explorers met the Manchus in what is today northeastern China. Using the common language of Latin, which the Chinese knew from Jesuit missionaries, the Chinese emperor and Russian tsar negotiated the Treaty of Nerchinsk in 1689, which delineated the border between Russia and China, some of which exists to this day. In some ways, this treaty was a turning point. Russia was not dealt with through the Ministry of Tributary Affairs, but rather through the same ministry as the problematic Mongols, which served to acknowledge Russia's status as a nontributary nation. From then on, the Chinese worldview of all other nations as tributaries began to unravel. This occurred at the beginning of the Qing dynasty.

The Chinese worldview of the world changed radically during the Qing dynasty when China had to face the realities of its weakness and European strength at that particular time. In 1793, the Qianlong emperor rejected an offer of expanded trade and foreign relations by the British diplomat George Macartney. In 1839, the Chinese Emperor had banned opium in China due to its harmful effects on Chinese citizens and its denigratory impact on the Chinese culture; the British Empire, however, saw opium as a profitable good for commercial trade, as its import would help balance Britain's huge trade deficit with China. This led to the Opium War.