China economic policy

“Peering Toward the Future While Tilting Back into the Past”:
The Struggle to Open China’s Markets

Dating back to the Qing Dynasty, the popular assumption among the Chinese was “that China was the “central” kingdom and that other countries were, by definition, peripheral, removed from the cultural center of the universe. The Chinese, therefore, showed little interest in precise information or detailed study of foreign countries” (Spence, 119). The Qing seemed uninterested in any foreign gains to be made due to this superior view of themselves. The Emperor Qianlong’s approach as mentioned in The First Edict of September 1793 seemed to be, “We possess all things. I set no value on objects strange or ingenious, and have no use for [other] countries manufacturers” (Cheng, 104-106). Emperor Qianlong believed that both China and foreign governments had little to gain though trade. China has long had a policy of isolation from western powers, to the extent that a force...