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Global China Humanities Series 全球中國人文講座 - SMUGGLING AND STATE POWER IN MODERN CHINA
Online
About Global China Humanities Series 全球中國人文講座
The Center launches its inaugural Global China Humanities Lecture Series in February 2021. We invite internationally renowned scholars and young, first-book authors to discuss their latest works on topics ranging from Cold War history, diaspora studies, global medicine to literature.
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Smuggling and State Power in Modern China
Zoom
Smuggling along the Chinese coast has long been a thorn in the side of many regimes. From opium concealed aboard steamships in the Qing dynasty to wristwatches trafficked in the People’s Republic, contests between state and smuggler have exerted a surprising but crucial influence on the political economy of modern China. Seeking to enforce trade regulations and protect critical revenues, successive governments from the late Qing through the early People’s Republic have violently cracked down on smuggling. Tighter regulations, higher taxes, and harsher enforcement all helped to consolidate domestic authority and confront foreign challenges. But these bold interventions did much more. They also sparked widespread defiance, triggering further coercive measures. Smuggling thus animated a paradoxical dynamic in China’s history: it simultaneously threatened state power while inviting repression that strengthened state authority. This lecture chronicles the history of smuggling in modern China by looking at its practice, suppression, and significance. It argues that the fight against smuggling was not simply a law enforcement problem but an impetus to expanding state capacity, broadcasting state authority, and transforming everyday life. Indeed, while smuggling might have operated on the margins of the law, it was far from marginal in remaking China. READ MORE...