You’re not wrong. They purposefully funneled opium into China to get their silver bullion to open up trade, whilst also destroying an entire generation.
Destruction of people was basically the EIC’s MO.
Destruction of people was basically the EIC’s MO.
As Chinese workers immigrated into America, they opened opium dens here too.
https://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=Chinatown%27s_Opium_...
Then, the opium poppy, a plant not endemic to the Americas, started being cultivated in Mexico. Why Mexico? because the US banned Chinese immigration.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Exclusion_Act
We cannot ever blame the drug crisis on the British because it breaks the rules of history where history is written by the victors. We have to let people get away with stuff. We cannot describe the EIC as narcos, and if someone does, we have to downvote them.
Why does moral responsibility always stop with Europeans? Does Europe posses some Adult Moral capability the Mexicans lack?
Whatever story of woe you want to tell about why "china did X", can be told likewise about europe. The buck, stops where then? The Romans? The Celts?
Probably because they were the ones violently subjugating everyone else.
The only thing I can say here is that people like Lord Palmerston were aware of what they were doing.
Plus ça change.