Hey everybody!
Ephraim ben Raphael is back, and he will update this thread again. In the meanwhile, he's given me permission to make some entries for the monarchy chapter, before he starts a brand new chapter. Enjoy!
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Qing Dynasty (Kowloon)
I walk through the crowds of Kowloon, sipping a cup of green tea in a Styrofoam cup. While most of the chatter I hear around me is in Cantonese or English, I can pick up the occasional conversation in Russian, Arabic or Japanese. Occasionally, the scream of a jet engine drowns out everything, as another plane lands or takes off from the nearby airport. The freewheeling, cosmopolitan nature of one of the British Empire’s richest cities is famous throughout this world.
I am with my contact, Professor Harry Lau of the University of Hong Kong’s political science department. We spent much of the morning touring the Kowloon district, discussing everything from the street vendors to our personal lives. Dr. Lau was born in Hong Kong, but raised in England; his accent would have given that away, even if he hadn’t told me. He tells me that he returned to his place of birth, not for personal reasons, but to study what is perhaps both the oldest and smallest country in the world.
We reach the intersection of Junction and Carpenter, and I am immediately taken aback by what I see. It is a medieval Chinese fort, surrounded by barbed wire, sandbags, and several mesh fences. Inside, I can see well-dressed figures moving about. We walk along Junction, my eyes glued to this relic of history. I see occasional checkpoints, manned by British troops on one side, and Chinese on the other. I knew this was the place.
“This is the last remaining piece of the Chinese Empire,” Dr. Lau tells me. We continue down the road, avoiding the occasional motorcycle or street cart. I follow Dr. Lau as we twist and turn on the roads surrounding the “Chinese Empire.” Before I knew it, we were back where we were: on Junction and Carpenter.
“Congratulations, Mr. Chaná, you have just circumnavigated the Middle Kingdom,” Dr. Lau says with a laugh. “It’s great morning exercise.”
It was almost heartbreaking to think about. The Qing Dynasty, which once ruled an empire of over five million square miles, now ruled only six and a half acres.
I ask Dr. Lau who the people behind the fences are. He tells me they are businessmen, politicians, generals, spies and crime lords.
“They are there to do business, away from the prying eyes of their nation’s law. Some are permanent residents, the Emperor’s ‘honored guests,’ if they can pay the rent.”
I ask him what fueled his interest in such a small, seemingly insignificant locale, filled with unsavory characters.
“The Chinese monarchy is one of the oldest surviving institutions in human history. Our word for ‘China’ comes from the first dynasty, the Qin, founded in the 220s BCE. Dynasties have risen and fallen, but today mainland China is a republic.” He points to the fortress. “That keeps the flame of old China burning.”
We take a seat at one of the cafés opposite the Qing Empire. I keep my eye on the characters chatting without a care behind the mesh fences. I bring up the topic of how much danger we are in. Dr. Lau laughs and tells me not to worry.
“This district is full of spies. There are probably half a dozen in this café. But they won’t do anything rash. The tensions are too great.” He points at the men I’ve been staring at for the past five minutes. “They have much more to worry about, and they are relaxed. You should relax, too.”
After our orders come in, Dr. Lau tells me the history of modern China.
The Qing Dynasty was founded by Manchu invaders in 1644, being one of the many foreign dynasties to rule China. For much of its rule, the Qing Dynasty was the most powerful state on Earth, but a lack of reform and technological stagnation allowed the European powers to overtake China by the 19th century. The Qing lost a series of wars to the European powers, notably the Opium Wars, which gave Hong Kong to the British. During the extension of the Hong Kong Treaty in 1898, the New Territories were ceded to Britain, but the Qing Dynasty was allowed to maintain certain military outposts, so long as they did not interfere with British rule.
The military outposts were largely ignored by the British, until the Xinhai Revolution, which saw the Chinese people rise up and overthrow the Xuantong Emperor, the 12th Qing emperor. The Xuantong Emperor was only a child, and he was secreted away by his loyalists to Hong Kong, where they planned to escape to Britain and launch a counterrevolution later. The British refused to intervene at all in the ongoing crisis, and once discovered, the British demanded that the Emperor and his loyalists leave British territory immediately. In response, the loyalists fled to the Kowloon fortress, and refused to leave. The new government of the Republic of China demanded that the British arrest the Xuantong Emperor, but the British refused, arguing that the Xinhai Revolution was an internal Chinese matter, and the Xuantong Emperor was now in Chinese territory. The British refused to allow Republican troops to enter Hong Kong, giving the Republic no choice but to accept the awkward state of affairs.
As early as 1916, the Kowloon fortress had become a curiosity. Desperate for funds, the Chinese Empire welcomed foreign tourists. The fortress was rebuilt as a palace, a miniature of the Forbidden City that had been destroyed by the ongoing Chinese Civil War. Some Chinese loyalists managed to escape the mainland and make it to the Empire; if they were sufficiently rich, they were admitted entry, and even given citizenship.
As nation-states around the world accepted the sovereignty of the Republic of China, the Qing Dynasty became isolated from the world political system. The Empire was given no opportunity to join the League of Nations, and that seat was given to the Republic governing from Nanking. It was not long before nefarious characters used the Chinese Empire’s diplomatic status. Throughout the 1930s, a number of Hong Kong crime bosses fled to the Kowloon fortress, and were permitted entry after paying exorbitant “travel fees.” British authorities demanded that the Qing turn them over, but the Qing answered that the British had no extradition treaty with the Emperor’s government. The Republic of China opposed any British attempt to attack or invade the fortress, which it considered a military installation of the Chinese republic. The Chinese, on the other hand, could not retake the fortress without crossing over British Hong Kong, and the British were unwilling to allow the Chinese republic to establish military forces in the middle of their colony. Neither side could do anything about the criminals.
News about the Kowloon fortress and its immunity spread throughout the world. Wanted but wealthy criminals from around the world flocked to the Qing Empire. Most stayed only for a short while, as a more permanent settlement was arranged elsewhere. A handful of desperate and extremely wealthy criminals stayed. The Qing took advantage of illicit activities by expanding their “services.” The Qing established banks for secreting away illegal money, and even established a vault for storing whatever a paying customer wished to hide from the law. Soon, nation-states began to take advantage. For a short while, even documents relating to the American Manhattan Project were stored by Soviet spies within the Kowloon fortress’ vault. The loyal advisers to the Xuantong Emperor became involved in crime themselves, keeping the Emperor in the dark about the extent of his country’s illicit activities. The Emperor was a mere figurehead, a tourist attraction.
In 1967, the Xuantong Emperor died, succeeded by his son, who rules today. The new emperor was aware of the criminal activities used to maintain his empire, but was an active participant. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the Qing actively invited deposed dictators to flee to their fortress, so long as they brought enough of their riches with them. A few African and Middle Eastern generals took the offer, opening another chapter in the Empire’s activities: housing aging war criminals. This led to protests by the international community, but the British could not come to a settlement with the Chinese and their Soviet allies. In response, the British constructed a blockade around the Kowloon fortress, and forbade trade between the Qing Dynasty and the rest of Hong Kong. Facing starvation, the worst war criminals were turned over to British hands in exchange for a lifting of the blockade, but the fortifications and the tense relationship continue.
The Qing Empire is managed more like a household than a proper state. The Emperor is theoretically the head, but the actual positions of “governance” fall to his advisers and caretakers. These are some of the richest men in the world, managing not only the affairs of the Emperor and the Kowloon fortress, but also the massive underground financial empire the Qing manage for their clients. Only a few hundred people are born as subjects of the Qing Emperor; the guards and the advisers are descendants of the original loyalists and those who lived in the fortress prior to 1911. Concubines are brought in, both for pleasure and to mitigate incest. A considerable number of the Qing Dynasty’s subjects are foreigners who have purchased “citizenship.” Entry is barred for all non-citizens, unless they can pay the tremendous fee to visit.
The Qing Dynasty remains diplomatically isolated. The British considered recognizing it in lieu of the People's Republic of China, but finally recognized the communist government along with the rest of the Western world in 1968. Less scrupulous regimes have recognized the Qing Dynasty, in order to take advantage of its illicit activities. In exchange, the Qing's "subjects" are granted immunity from extradition when traveling in these nations. Most of these regimes are unpopular, authoritarian states in Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia. Most were aligned with the West, with the communist world preferring the People's Republic. The countries that recognize the Qing Dynasty are Chile, Honduras, Nicaragua, South Vietnam, Somalia, Sudan, Mauritania, Togo, Sierra Leone and Rhodesia.
Before I leave, I ask Dr. Lau one last question: despite its criminal reputation, would he want to visit the last Chinese empire?
He tells me without hesitation. “Of course I would! It is my dream to be in the presence of this living history and traditional culture, especially after the Japanese and the communists.... But I will never have enough money to enter.”