An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:
Use kill oneself to save others ... one fo SunTze 36 strategies
Fighting Fire With Fire
China reluctantly decided to destroy the Western opium trade by flooding the market with domestic opium.
It was a painful decision, for Chinese rulers held that production of opium, for any reason, would “provoke the judgment of Heaven and the condemnation of men.”
It certainly provoked Britain’s condemnation, which resented China’s infringement upon her private opium monopoly. By 1876, China was earning over 1.5 million annually from opium, but Sir R. Alcock told the House of Commons that China would gladly abandon the trade if Britain stopped her own trafficking.
http://www.amoymagic.com/OpiumWar.htm
Click here to view the whole thread at www.sammyboy.com.