ABSTRACT
In 1900 a member of Parliament inadvertently defined collaboration: “an official in China of high integrity and capacity, who is convinced that the safety of his country lies in furthering British interest in China." Indigenous friends in high places were very necessary to the success of Britain’s China policy. Ho-tung was such a Chinese collaborator. Born at Hong Kong in 1862, he began with the Imperial Maritime Customs Service at Canton in 1878. Already aware that fortunes were to be made elsewhere. Ho remained only two years with the customs service. Cheng Kuan-ying was molded by his comprador experience. He moved among English businessmen, worked, and shared their commercial interests. He read their newspapers and journals printed at the treaty ports. For several decades Li Hung-chang was the master of balancing one power against another, but the Sino-Japanese War altered Li’s faith in that policy. After 1895 Li became Russia’s collaborator.
