.

Feeling the strong demand expressed by the Zhao Gang government, Zhu Erdian replied to the note from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs the next day, asking who would be sent to negotiate to determine the time for the resumption of the negotiations as soon as possible. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed that Tang Shaoyi was still responsible for negotiating with him. On March 31, 1997, negotiations on renewal of the opium agreement were resumed. From then on 4/18, the "Smoking ban" was officially signed, and the Chinese and British sides confronted each other, bargaining on relevant issues, and each fought for the best interests of their own country. The main content and process of their negotiations were as follows:

1. Increased foreign drug tax. On February 11, 1897, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs submitted a memorandum to Juerdian, which was drafted by the Chinese government on the opium agreement. Regarding foreign drug tax, China suggested that it should be increased according to the adjudication tax. The British side opposed this approach, believing that it was not feasible and would cause endless trouble. In order to prove the feasibility of adjudication tax, Tang Shaoyi submitted Juerdian a memorandum specifically on adjudication tax on the 221st, but this did not change the British attitude towards this issue. In fact, in the telegram sent by the British and Indian government to the British and Indian Ministry in 1897, it said that the adjudication tax should be firmly opposed. If the local drug tax also increases accordingly, they do not oppose the increase of foreign drug tax. It can replace any reasonable amount of the current arbitrary collection phenomenon, but the most important thing is that the tax levied must be fixed and quantitative.

In a telegram on 3rd, he said that if a satisfactory agreement is reached, including the system: they do not oppose the tax on foreign medicine tax of 400, but this should be considered the maximum acceptable number of land. In view of this, Zhu Erdian denied the adjudication tax at the talks on February 28. He replied that the foreign medicine tax that the government of Tang Shaoyi-ying might agree was 220, which is the number proposed by China during the first negotiations on smoking ban. Later, Zhu Erdian proposed in the talks on 3rd, that is, the number that China proposed to the ban on smoking. If the Chinese government lifted the restrictions on foreign medicine trade, foreign medicine could be increased to 300 taels. In the end, both sides set the foreign medicine tax at 330. Later, China increased the foreign medicine tax by another 20 taels at the cost of agreeing that Guangzhou and Shanghai were not included in the scope of embargoing foreign medicines in provinces.

2. The ban on foreign medicines in provinces. During the talks on March 7, 1897, Tang Shaoyi further explained the proposal of China to ban foreign medicines in local provinces. The Chinese government believes that as long as a province stops importing local medicines, whether the province produces local medicines, foreign medicines should be prohibited from being transported into the province. In this regard, Zhu Erdian pointed out that the original proposal of the Chinese government was to prevent Indian medicines from replacing local medicines after the land-producing provinces stopped planting opium. It did not intend to put this measure along the coast.

The provinces implemented the implementation, and these provinces hardly produced opium. In the last fifty or sixty years, they mainly relied on foreign medicine. Later, during the negotiations, Zhuerdian insisted that the embargo of the provinces should only be applicable to provinces that produce opium, and could only be limited to the suggestions he proposed for transportation qualification. Later, in order to break the deadlock, Zhuerdian's proposal for transportation qualification could be applicable to all provinces except for seven major provinces of Indian medicine consumption, namely Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shandong, Anhui and Jiangxi.

However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was not satisfied with such concessions. In order to make progress in the negotiations on this issue, Tang Shaoyi also made concessions, suggesting that Shanghai and Guangzhou were excluded. However, the British side disagreed at the time and insisted on limiting provinces that embargoed foreign medicines by "mainly relying on local medicines". In the case of rising enthusiasm for smoking bans in various provinces, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said very strongly that not only could the provinces that embargo could not be restricted, but also "transportation orders" should be omitted. In this case, Zhu Erdian retreated and wanted to accept Tang Shaoyi's original concessions, which would be excluded from Shanghai and Guangzhou, but now the concessions of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have also been cancelled. Finally, the British side increased the tax on foreign medicines by 20 taels and cancelled the original plan to reduce the number of foreign medicine boxes from the British Indian government to reduce the number of foreign medicine boxes, so as to obtain the Chinese side's agreement to ban foreign medicines in different provinces, except for Guangzhou.

3. In stock of foreign medicines. During the talks on February 17, 1897, the British side raised the question of how to deal with stock foreign medicines after the implementation of the agreement. Zhu Erdian told Tang Shaoyi that the British government had issued instructions that stock foreign medicines and numbered foreign medicines should be treated equally. In this regard, Tang Shaoyi said that he knew nothing about the quantity of foreign medicines in stock, which was necessary to investigate. He also stated that if the quantity was large, this content would make the reduction in shipping of foreign medicines guaranteed by the agreement this year invalid unless the import of Indian medicines was also reduced accordingly.

3 On the 21st, Tang Shaoyi told Zhu Erdian that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs could not agree to increase the inventory of foreign medicines in the existing import volume. The British government itself could deal with them through a limited date or other means, but if the date was to be limited, the agreement reached should stipulate the date as early as possible. After that, Zhu Erdian went through a lot of verbal talk, and Tang Shaoyi made a little compromise and promised that if the import of Chinese foreign medicines in the next three years was reduced in addition to the amount required by the agreement, the inventory of foreign medicines could be treated the same as the numbered foreign medicines, and at the same time, he agreed to import in 1897.

On the basis of accepting this suggestion, Chinese and British officials jointly registered and stored in Hong Kong and all places with no prints, and subtracted 10,000 boxes - 5 from the total number to make up for the shortfall of imports in 1897. 5,000 is estimated to be stored at any time under normal circumstances. In the future, the 3-year imports will be reduced by 1/3 of the remaining amount in addition to the number that should be reduced by the agreement. In response, China agreed to the 3-year reduction. ~                                                                                                                                                                                            �

China expressed its desire to register the foreign medicines in stock starting on the date of signing the contract, and put forward many restrictions on the inventory and non-printed foreign medicines. For example, the inventory of non-printed foreign medicines should be paid immediately or shipped to Shanghai for storage; from the date of signing the contract, non-printed foreign medicines should only be shipped to Shanghai. There is no mention of foreign medicines in stock in Hong Kong.

In this regard, Zhu Erdian pointed out that he has no right to agree to unnecessary interference in the stock of foreign medicines that have already existed in China. In addition, at least Guangzhou and Shanghai should be used as ports for unprinted foreign medicines. Tang Shaoyi believes that it should be transported into Guangzhou within two days after registration, while Zhu Erdian recommends that it be transported into a port with an appointment within one day after registration. This problem has not been completely resolved, and Tang Shaoyi raised another problem that makes the British side a headache. Tang Shaoyi clearly stated that the registered foreign medicines only have the same "formerly one" as

Treaty rights, not treaty rights like "stickled with printed foreign medicine"

No matter how Zhu Erdian accuses and threatens, China refuses to make concessions and submits it to the British side the final solution to the problem of inventory foreign medicines in the talks on the 3/22. The main contents include: 1. The registered inventory of foreign medicines can only be "the same as before" instead of the same as printed foreign medicines attached; 2. The reduction in exports of printed drugs will start in 1897 rather than 1898; 3                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Erdian said that if this problem can be solved immediately, he can acquiesce to item 23, but cannot agree to item 1. Tang Shaoyi instead exchanged the British side’s concessions on the inventory of foreign medicines at the cost of banning Guangzhou and Shanghai in sub-province foreign medicines. However, Zhu Erdian believed that the British side’s concessions on this issue had reached the limit and no other choice was allowed. In the end, China made another concession. He agreed to the same view of the inventory of foreign medicines as well as the adhesive printed foreign medicines. The British side allowed the increase of the tax on foreign medicines to 350 and accepted 23 suggestions from China on the inventory of foreign medicines.

4. The arbitrary restrictions and taxation of foreign medicines were revoked. Some provisions in the regulations set by the provinces for smoking ban were not conducive to foreign medicine trade. This aroused strong opposition from British merchants, British consuls and ministers. In November 1896, Massage                                                                                                                                                                                                                        �

Tang Shaoyi explained that the Chinese government believes that the agreement is a continuation of the 1896 agreement, and the person did not mention any taxes and restrictions on the in-depth drugs, so the current local agreement should not include these contents. Zhuerdian believes that without this part of the content is equivalent to abolishing the existing treaty. In the talks on the 3/17, Zhuerdian even stated that he could not sign any treaty that would not restrict the repeated breach of contract by Guangzhou officials. However, Tang Shaoyi insisted on opposing any clauses that oppose taxes and restrictions in the treaty. He complained that the word "restriction" was vague about this content in Mamull's draft proposal. What exactly does the word "restriction" mean, and said that the word "tax" includes all the measures taken by officials from various provinces and the Chinese and British protests, and these measures are just the natural result of the ban on smoking.

In response, Juerdian explained that the real background of the British protest was that officials of various provinces believed that they had the right to take independent actions, and these actions were far away from or deviated from the spirit of the agreement reached by the Chinese and British governments. The British government had never protested the measures taken by the central government of Northern China to ban smoking; from the perspective of what happened in Guangzhou, it was clear that "tax" did not include all forms of restrictions that the British side felt that they should protest, such as the time limit for boiling paste and the number of foreign medicines allowed to be transported to a specific province. For this reason, Juerdian suggested adding words like "for example, implemented in Guangzhou" to explain the meaning of "restrictions".

3 On the 21st, Zhu Erdian handed over the opposition restrictions revised by the British side to Tang Shaoyi. "After this condition is implemented, China should immediately eliminate all restrictions and other taxes that have been imposed on the bulk trade of printing and drug products in Guangdong and other provinces. Yantai's continued increase in special provisions will still be implemented, and no such restrictions and other taxes should be established." [71] Tang Shaoyi proposed that if the British side agrees to increase foreign drug tax based on ad valor tax,

The party may consider accepting the revised opposition restriction clause. Juerdian disagreed with this. On March 5, Juerdian received a telegram from the British Indian government, agreeing to increase the maximum tax on foreign medicines by 400. On March 7, Juerdian turned to propose to agree to increase the tax on foreign medicines per box to 300 in exchange for China to fully accept the revised opposition restriction clause. In the end, China accepted this suggestion, but the increase in foreign medicines tax took effect at the same time.

5 Others. In the memorandum submitted to the UK on February 11, 1897, paragraph 1 of the proposal stipulates that local medicines should be treated equally by printing drugs. Paragraph 4 stipulates that the ban on smoking proposed by the Chinese government and officials should apply both to local medicines and to printed drugs. Paragraph 7 stipulates that the Chinese and British governments have the right to benefit from the local opium policies adopted by each country in the future.

In this regard, the British side strongly opposed it. Juerdian believed that if he agreed to paragraph 1, there would be no need to negotiate any further on the issue of smoking ban; 4 is similar to paragraph 1, and it is directly required to guarantee the Indian medicine. In fact, it is equivalent to abolishing the British power in opium trade; Paragraph 7 was clearly proposed by seeing the upcoming International Smoking ban on The Hague, and he pointed out that the British government has never allowed other countries to interfere with the agreement between the British and China, and these agreements have been clearly not included in the consideration of the International Smoking ban on The Hague.

In response, Tang Shaoyi replied that the four models were added after careful consideration and thought that the victory of the ban on smoking was very necessary before the ban on smoking was added. Article 7 can be changed. On March 21, Tang Yi handed over the two revised 4 7 models to Juerdian. The 4 became "the established ban on smoking regulations will also be applicable to foreign medicines after the first approval of the British government."

Paragraph 7 becomes "if the environment changes, or a better agreement occurs, modifications to the existing agreement can be proposed and considered." Juerdian is still not satisfied with this modification. He suggested that the removal of these two articles be replaced by "within three limits, if it is found that it is necessary to modify this agreement, it can be handled by the two governments on a mutual basis."

He even decided to continue discussing other issues after removing the 4 7 two items. [In the case, Tang Shaoyi firmly disagrees with Zhu Erdian's above suggestions instead of Article 7. Because Tang Shaoyi's tough attitude on this issue, the British government had to give in again, saying that the ban on smoking in 4 was limited to the retail opium trade. Given that the British side had actually recognized that China had the right to take its own measures to restrict opium smoking and retail, Zhu Erdian agreed to the change. 4 18. After several months of negotiations, China and Britain officially signed the "Smoking ban conditions".

The moment I stepped out of being the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, something happened. After the incident, the newly published Yanjing Daily published this picture. This picture describes a static picture, but it leads people to a series of dynamic reverie, making it almost a movie; and this movie is full of such a huge historical meaning, which can be considered to be able to reflect the history of Sino-Western relations for more than half a century.

In this picture

Erdian lowered his head and "stand" on the steps in a strange forward-turning and knee-bent position, and two assistants held him tightly. Obviously, the serious forward-turning center of gravity made it impossible for him to continue to maintain balance. If the assistant who was accompanying him like a shadow, she would present a series of violent "provoking" ceremony to the world. Next was a series of forward flips or side-turning. Finally, he would lie bloodied under the huge array of steps in the Great Hall of the People, thus ending this major historical event that was fortunately not happening.

Before Juerdian walked out of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he had just ended his talks with Zhao Gang on China's future. This meeting is said to set the tone for the negotiations on China-UK status. This is: China will surely rise, and all the people or countries that block this action will inevitably be broken by the wheels of history.

The above terrible statement full of Zhao Gang's style does not explain the reason for Zhu Erdian's mistakes. You should know that he has climbed more steps in his life than the streets that we mortals have walked; and, if he walked down from the high Ministry of Foreign Affairs in full view, if he had not been lost due to his soul, he would pay great attention to every step of his step, making each step full of confidence and demeanor, thus fully demonstrating the extraordinary spirit of a world power.

But the fact is: he actually made a mistake and fell so embarrassedly in front of the whole world. This explosive incident made people with extremely sensitive political sense realize that something must have happened in the talks that ended a few minutes ago. His head was filled with so many strange thoughts that he could not free up a little attention to take care of the road beneath his feet.

Then the famous standard answer was circulated: what tripped Zhuerdian to the ground was a sentence that Zhao Gang seemed to have inadvertently said during the talks. "The Chinese are poor, but they are not afraid of death when fighting."

On the day of signing the "Smoking Notice" by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs asked the British envoy to report that the Du branch had planned to "tax 230 taels of silver per 100 kilograms of local medicines, which would be taxed at the same rate as the new tax on the printing of cigarettes, and would be levied at the same time as the new tax on the printing of cigarettes." [76]. The British envoy also immediately replied to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stating: "After all such conditions are signed, the printed medicines that are temporarily posted at each port or at the port should be paid in full tax per 100 kilogram boxes according to the new tax and 350 taels." In this way, the newly added foreign local medicine tax will begin to be levied from the date of signing the "Smoking Notice".

2. The ban on foreign medicines in each province. Article 3 of the ban on smoking stipulates: "No matter what province the local medicine has been extinct, the local medicines in other provinces are also banned from being transported. If there is evidence, the printed medicines are not allowed to enter the province." On July 18, 9th, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a note to Zhu Erdian and asked the ban on seal medicines to enter Fengtian, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Shandong and Shanxi.

Zhu Erdian said that only after China has implemented Article 7 of the "Smoking ban Conditions" and revoked all provincial restrictions. 4 25, the Northern China government issued an edict requiring that "the restrictions on large-scale trade of merchants shall not be restricted. All provinces such as Guangdong shall not be restricted before renewing the conditions and collecting donations shall be ordered to be stopped immediately. If another name is established and it is only harsh, it will be inconsistent with the original proposal of increasing taxes and will be hindered by the provincial ban. This ban on smoking has been deeply supported by friendly countries. Local officials of all provinces must follow the conditions and effectively follow the conditions, in order to ban them in a sequence and overcome previous achievements."

Based on this, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs asked Zhu Erdian to agree to take effect in Jiangsu and Zhejiang into consideration. On August 7, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a note to Zhu Erdian, saying that the Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi had ordered the cessation drug plan to give up the plan for smoking cessation, so that the request for foreign medicine to enter Fengtian and other provinces was put forward again. 4 28. The British Consul General in Guangzhou called Zhu Erdian, saying that he had received the official document of the Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, and the entire text of the decree on the 4 25 was cited by the Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, and declared that he would definitely obey the decree.

In view of this, Juerdian replied to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the 29th, saying that according to Article 3 of the "Smoking ban Conditions", if China provides evidence to prove that China has effectively banned opium cultivation and effectively banned local medicines from entering the 8th, he will agree to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' request. On May 2, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had approved the embargo of Indian Ocean Medicine in various provinces and agreed to handle the deposit with the British envoy", and reported that the situation of embargoing the provinces was banned.

On the 5th, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs gave a note to Zhu Erdian, reiterating the embargo of foreign medicines into Fengtian, etc., and said that the embargo should start from 8th 11th. This note was accompanied by a memorandum and an edict. This memorandum provided evidence that opium cultivation and embargo of embargo of local medicines in Jilin and other eight people had banned opium cultivation and embargo of local medicines, and the edict provided affirmation and guarantee for the memorandum.

In addition, Zhu Erdian knew that due to the recent strict smoking ban, local medicines in the three eastern provinces have been completely banned. Xie Lishan's report shows that poppy cultivation in Shanxi and Sichuan has indeed been effectively eradicated. Based on this, Zhu Erdian agreed to China's request. In this way, eight provinces including Fengtian, Heilongjiang, Jilin, and Shanxi officially banned foreign medicines on May 11, 1897. In fact, when Zhao Gang unified the country three years later, China finally completely got rid of the infringement of big smoke.

In this Sino-British negotiation, China's main goal was to completely ban the import of opium through negotiations. Because the North China government itself stipulated that the ban on foreign local medicines was three years, there was no hope of achieving the result of immediately banning the import of opium from the beginning. In this sense, the North China government achieved the expected goal in the Sino-British smoking ban negotiations. This is unique in the future Chinese diplomatic history.

The first part of the negotiation was relatively smooth, but the second part was tortuous and changeable. It is true that China, which is in a weak position, continues to fight, but under the pressure of the international ban on smoking, the British side also made great compromises. It reflects China's progress in diplomacy. During this negotiation, it is really not easy for Chinese diplomats to fight according to reason, dare to put forward their opinions, and always insist on their stance with a tough attitude.

On the day the treaty was concluded, the northern land was already full of spring and flowers blooming, and there was a scene full of vitality everywhere. At this time, both north and south China had implemented a series of measures to promote production, and the land of China, which had been stagnant for hundreds of years, began to exude vitality. The Chinese nation began a new journey.
Chapter completed!