![]() They steered carefully between their political and trading demands, and navigated the danger that undue stress would make China’s fragile government and empire fall apart. ![]() At the same time, the British and French also helped the empire to battle rebels and to pocket port and harbour dues. Both countries agreed that their armies, which repeatedly prevailed over Chinese ones that were numerically superior, would stay out of Beijing itself, but were infuriated by China’s imprisonment, torture and death of British, French and Indian negotiators. This book argues that it was about freedom to trade, Britain’s demands for diplomatic equality, and French demands for religious freedom in China. The ‘battle for Beijing’ is universally – and quite wrongly – believed to have been about opium.
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