Barbarian ships sail freely about the seas': Qing Reactions to the British Suppression of Piracy in South China, 1841 - 1856

Abstract

With the colonisation of Hong Kong, which became the headquarters of the East Indies and China Station of the Royal Navy, the British began their efforts to suppress piracy in the China Seas in earnest. However, the colonisation of Hong Kong was achieved through an act of maritime depredation against Qing China, which sometimes considered the British intrusion an act of piracy. Furthermore, as the victims of British actions against piracy off the China coast were often Chinese subjects, the Royal Navy's anti-piracy expeditions can be seen as a violation of Qing sovereignty. Despite the intrusiveness of the British suppression of piracy, many Qing officials proved willing to cooperate in these efforts. Indeed the most effective anti-piracy expeditions were those in which British ships were guided and supported by Qing officials. Thus, while the Qing were victims of maritime depredation in the form of the Opium War and gunboat diplomacy as well as piracy of the traditional sort, they were able to use Chinese piracy as a means of co-opting British naval power to Qing control of the China seas. By focusing on the Qing reactions to British suppression of piracy, this paper discusses cooperation between Qing and British officials as a sort of modus vivendi in which the Qing were able to accommodate and indeed benefit from an encroaching colonial power.