The Beijing museum likened the British to “a swarm of bees, looting our treasures and killing our people. They forced China’s ruling Qing dynasty to sign a series of unequal treaties that granted them economic, political and cultural privileges and sank China gradually into a semi-colonial, semi-feudal society.” This is the version of history that the Chinese people learn in their schools, museums, movie theaters, and newspapers and via their televisions: that the British government conspired to deliberately destabilize China through the illegal sale of opium. It is not untrue.
