ABSTRACT
China was an unusual case in Salisbury’s diplomacy because of her being ‘semi-civilized.’ In order to bargain with China, Salisbury claimed, Western governments had to grasp the psychology of the Chinese rather than simply introduce them to the system of international law. In consideration of the values of moral authority in the Chinese mind, Salisbury paid much attention to the way in which diplomatic questions were presented to the Chinese Government. Salisbury’s policy in China was moderate and conservative, free from aggressiveness and territorial aims; it was an attempt to maintain the independence and integrity of the Chinese Empire, to prevent it from falling into ruins, to invite it into the paths of reform, and to help it to perfect its defects and increase its prosperity. Being a policy of mutual benefit, it was more effectively pursued by persuasion than by coercion. In contrast to the optimism of many British politicians and merchants, Salisbury considered it unadvisable to rule the Yangtze Valley directly, or to put the whole of China under British control. The British ‘informal empire’ developed further under Salisbury in the Far East, characterized still by a modified approach to imperial enterprise that took into account alien nationality and native rights.
