The Opium War in 1840 was the beginning of China's modern history, and the word "Opium" of the "Opium War" seemed out of place, and the name of the war was either named after the participating countries, such as the Sino-French War and the Eight-Power Alliance's invasion of China, or named after the year, such as the Battle of Jingnan, the Sino-Japanese War, or the name of the land, such as the Crimean War. It is rare to name a war with a drug like "opium", which already reveals the injustice of this war.
Opium had already flowed into China before the Daoguang Dynasty, and "there were very few first-time eaters in Jiaqing, and within twenty years, they had spread all over the world, and they had become pawns from scholars and doctors to peddlers, and they flocked to it in groups and did not return." Foreigners smuggled opium in China, resulting in a large outflow of silver from China, silver was expensive and cheap, and prices soared, and Lin Zexu, the governor of Liangguang, wrote to the Daoguang Emperor, bluntly saying, "After several decades, there will be almost no soldiers in the Central Plains who can resist the enemy, and there will be no silver that can be fed." It was this sentence that stung the Daoguang Emperor, and the wanton smuggling of opium by foreigners had endangered the foundation of the qing rule, and this was also necessary, and Lin Zexu was appointed as the minister of Chincha and presided over the anti-smoking work.
Lin Zexu's sales of cigarettes touched the illegal interests of British opium dealers and became the fuse for the outbreak of the Opium War. It is also very "civilized" that a country that prides itself on civilization should go to war against another country that prohibits the sale of opium.
The British Parliament also engaged in heated debate over whether war should be declared on China over the opium issue. Of course, the advocates of the war could not say in a dignified manner that in order to protect the opium smuggling trade, they emphasized that the Qing government insulted the British flag, obstructed British commerce, robbed British property, endangered British lives, and elevated to the level of national honor.
More than a hundred years have passed since the Opium War, and in the face of this unjust war, some British people have begun to reflect on the Internet, should we apologize to China for the Opium War that year?
I don't know if an apology is entirely appropriate, but I do think that as a people, we should be more aware that we have benefited from doing something rather unpleasant, and that benefit still exists.
In the spirit of today's morality, The UK, and any other country/nation/empire that has been successful at some stage in the past, is sure to have a lot to apologize for. Success is always at the expense of others, and history is determined by individual decisions. Those people, and those who didn't succeed, are now gone.
At best, the British acknowledge their past role in China (India and a dozen other places) ... What more can people expect. You can't change the past. Our minds are learned from the past and we don't know what we can learn from apologizing. If your mind is still stuck in the past, how can you get ahead in the future?
I'm afraid we're not that sensitive. In school it was taught that the Opium War failed because of our technological backwardness. We appreciate your sympathy, but we would rather examine and strengthen ourselves than blame the UK.
British netizens also have different views on this, and some people think that this is clearly defending the aggressor.