China trade remained firmly in the hands of Chinese merchants,
whose extensive trading networks and busy fleets supplied all the
imports China needed, in return for what seemed to be an insatiable
regional demand for Chinese silk, porcelain and tea. And given the
availability of these products, the Dutch did not feel the need to press
the issue of direct trade with China.
The Qing were unclear as to the whereabouts of Holland, but
they knew that though the Dutch ruled Java, they ‘governed at a dis-
tance.’^9 These ‘red-haired barbarians’ were nonetheless treated as a
Southeast Asian power, whose relations with the Middle Kingdom
fitted into the existing tributary pattern for Nanyang countries. This
was never understood by European envoys, who saw only the bureau-
cratic restrictions that stood in the way of profitable trade. Thus while
the relations between China and Southeast Asia that had developed
in the course of a millennium came to constitute a set of bilateral rela-
tions regimes compatible with the worldviews of both parties, no such
regimes evolved between European powers and China.
The preparedness of early European envoys to the Qing court to
perform all the ceremonial required of them only reinforced Chinese
belief that they had accepted the same tributary relationship as other
countries of the Nanyang. Embassies that for the Europeans had been
manifest failures were highly satisfactory for the Chinese, for they
confirmed that even the most distant peoples were prepared to
acknowledge the overlordship of the Son of Heaven. Thus were the
universal pretensions of Chinese worldview reinforced. In particular,
the proper hierarchy constituting the Chinese world order was main-
tained, and harmony preserved, for no conflict resulted. The envoys
were cared for, laden with presents, and left. It did not matter what
they really wanted or thought. The ritual they performed signified
submission, and that was the only reality that mattered for the
Chinese.
By the end of the eighteenth century, however, Qing power
had already begun to wane. Two attempts to ‘punish’ obstreperous
A Short History of China and Southeast Asia