ABSTRACT
This chapter presents certain attitudes toward European states, but concentrates on the attitudes of Chinese officials toward one Western state, namely the United States, over a limited period, 1841-1861. It provides some two hundred examples of Chinese official expressions of attitudes toward Western states and individuals. The harassed Chinese official on the frontier also saw an element of weakness in the Western temperament: "Barbarians are most resentful of annoyances and if the accumulate perhaps eventually they will be discouraged." The French were identified in the Chinese mind with mercenary soldiers and Catholicism. The United States presented a confusing and conflicting problem to the Chinese officials. The problem of dealing with the United States was made more difficult by her lack of sinologists. The Chinese officials gradually became convinced that they could expect nothing but good intentions from the United States and that no assistance, either against the British or against the Taipings, was forthcoming.
