English Atrocities in China

An editorial essay by Marx exposing the brutal crimes committed by the British invaders against China during the Second Opium War. Written around April 10, 1857. Published in the New-York Daily Tribune, No. 4984, April 10, 1857.

In October 1856, British colonists launched the Second Opium War with the pretext of the “Arrow” incident. Marx, who was in London, wrote a series of editorials on the Chinese question for the American newspaper, the New-York Daily Tribune, of which this article is one. In English Atrocities in China, Marx criticized the British Prime Minister’s defense of the provocative acts of the British colonists against the Chinese, and exposed the fact that the British government deliberately plotted the “Arrow Incident” under the pretext that “English life and property are endangered by the aggressive acts of the Chinese!”, the article exposed and criticized the false reports of the British newspapers and some American newspapers which wantonly attacked the Chinese people. The “Arrow” was in fact a Chinese ship, the Chinese authorities from Guangdong port had arrested several pirates and smugglers after checking the ship, this was China’s internal affairs and had nothing to do with Britain. The British consulate in Guangzhou fabricated that the Arrow was a British ship and Chinese authorities had insulted the British government by checking the British-flagged ship, thus Britain had started the Second Opium War on the pretext of that incident. Marx denounced this war as “the most unrighteous war” and pointed out that the war had led to the massacre of innocent Chinese residents and businessmen, caused heavy destruction of their houses by artillery fire and severely violated the most fundamental human rights. However, the British media concealed the British colonialists’ criminal acts in China, such as illicit opium trade, tax evasion and bribery, he said: We “hear nothing of the wrongs” inflicted “even unto death” upon misguided and bonded emigrants sold to worse than Slavery on the coast of Peru, and into Cuban bondage. We “hear nothing of the bullying spirit” often exercised against the timid nature of the Chinese. Marx praised China’s fighting spirit against foreign aggression, pointing out that “in China, the smothered fires of hatred kindled against the English during the Opium War have burst into a flame of animosity which no tenders of peace and friendship will be very likely to quench.”

English Atrocities in China analyzed the real causes of the outbreak of the Opium War on the basis of the facts, while unmasking the colonial policy of the British ruling group, it also exposed the essence of the British bourgeois press distorting the facts to defend the aggressive behavior and stimulate the bloodthirsty instinct of the compatriots. This article also shows Marx’s distinct attitude of defending justice and truth from the standpoint of the oppressed nation, his support the Chinese people’s just struggle against the British aggression.