Vise RESPONSE TICE CU ee eywy Columbia University Press Publishers Since 1893, New York Chichester, West Sussex First Edition Copyright © 1971 John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Second Edition Copyright © 1980 John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Third Edition Copyright © 1990 Columbia University Press Fourth Edition Copyright © 2000 Columbia University Press Fifth Edition Copyright © 2010 Columbia University Press All rights reserved Library of Congress Cataloging in-Publication Data Cohen, Warren 1. ‘America’s response to China : a history of Sino-American relations / Warten I. Cohen. — sth Ed, p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-231-15076-7 (cloth : acid-free paper) — ISBN 978-0-231-5077-4 (pbk. : acid-free paper) — ISBN 978-0-251-52172-7 (ebook) 1. United States—Foreign relations—China, 2. China—Foreign relations—United States. 1. Title, E183.8.C5C62_ 2010 3a773051—dez2_—— 2009030760 Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid-free paper. Printed in the United States of America 60987654321 pw9 87654321Prologue The Barbarians and the Tribute System Boarding the hydrofoil at Hong Kong in 1965, I crossed the mouth of the Pearl River, which leads to Canton and, an hour and a quarter later, disembarked at Macao where the hills of mainland China (as stylized in reality as they appear in traditional Chinese landscapes) press toward you. Here, despite the imposing Basilica of Sao Paulo and an occasional Portuguese policeman, the awareness of China looming around me was inescapable. The fact that my presence on that dot of land was possible only at the pleasure of the People’s Republic intruded on my consciousness far more than it had in Hong Kong, even in the New Territories. There in Macao, an important source of exchange for the government at Peking, there where red flags and pictures of Mao abounded, | took a leisurely ride to the eastern side of the peninsula, to the Temple of Kun ‘Yam, the Cantonese name for the Buddhist goddess of mercy. A beggar demanding “cumshaw” raced along the carved gate. Within, there was nothing to distinguish the temple from myriads of others. Stepping out into the courtyard, I was afforded one of the least impressive views avail- able in the colony: rows of nondescript, apparently middle-class housing stretching to the horizon. But before me, in the courtyard, stood a stone table, near a small pavilion, bereft of the customary orange peelings— and a nearby plaque declared that at this table, on July 3, 1844, Ch’i-ying,