Compensation case of American Chinese workers

Before the Opium War, the great powers secretly plundered and sold Chinese workers for export and shipped them to Java and other places to be sold as slaves. With China's defeat in the Opium War and the signing of the unequal treaties, the activities of foreign colonists plundering and selling Chinese workers at various trading ports are increasingly rampant and expanding in scale. What the British call "coolie trade" is actually a disguised "slave trade". It is extremely despicable for the powers to plunder China's "coolies". They have a group of local ruffians and hooligans as their minions all over China. At the instigation of foreign invaders, these villains plundered their compatriots through various deception and coercion, creating an extremely horrible atmosphere at the trading ports.

British Consul Azaguo admits that in Guangzhou, "in broad daylight, as long as people leave their homes, even if they walk to Tongya Street, no one can avoid the danger of being pushed away under the pretext of debt disputes or personal differences." These people were captured by kidnappers and sold to coolies for thousands of dollars each. They were shipped out of the sea and never heard from again. Everyone in Guangzhou and its surrounding areas has already felt a sense of catastrophic collapse?

In Shanghai, the British invaders even directly plundered the working people of China. They prey on healthy adults, including underage boys and girls. These plundered and trafficked Chinese laborers were called "pigs" at that time. Before going abroad, they were detained in a "slave shelter" set up by foreign men, and they have been tortured since then.

After witnessing the looting and trafficking of China laborers in Xiamen, the Englishman Bao Ling had to admit: "Hundreds of coolies were concentrated in slave shelters, stripped naked, and their chests were marked or painted with C (Cuba) P (Peru) S (sandvik Islands)." After gathering enough people for a boat, these plundered and trafficked Chinese workers tied them together with their braids and squeezed into a "floating hell", locked in a closed bottom cabin and not allowed to move freely. Because of this inhuman life and cruel torture, the death rate of China workers on the way is very high, even as high as 45%.

During the 65,438+000 years after the Opium War, more than 654,380+000 million China people went abroad to work by signing contracts under the pressure of violence and deception, which was called "contractual Chinese laborers", also known as "piglets". Most of them are people from southeast coastal provinces such as Guangdong and Fujian. They are all over the world 130 countries, and people often say that "where there is sea water, there are overseas Chinese".

The working days of "contract Chinese laborers" are as long as 10~ 14 hours, and most of them are forced to work under the whip of the supervisor. The labor is heavy, but the salary is extremely low. At that time, the annual salary of a black slave was about 1000 US dollars, while the income of a China worker was only 200~300 US dollars.

Generally speaking, the contract period of American workers is three years, and it is as long as five to eight years in China. The mortality rate of workers in China is usually 20% ~ 30% during the contract period, while it is as high as 50% ~ 70% in Latin America, with an average working life of only five years. Farmers and mine owners also used usury and gambling to trick Chinese workers into debt, forcing them to sign new contracts again and again. Many Chinese workers can't get rid of the status of contract slaves all their lives.

China people were discriminated against in the earliest history, earlier than other oriental races. This anti-China movement can be traced back to 1850 Canada's foreign miners' note tax law. There have been many sad facts in the past 90 years. (Chen Ruzhou: Yearbook of Overseas Chinese in the United States, 35th edition, page 3 17, page 330th. Among them, the prominent Chinese exclusion regulations are the pedestrian regulations of 1870, the cubic air regulations of 187 1, the braid regulations of 1873 and the laundry regulations of 1876. By 1879, when California drafted the second constitution, the anti-China action had reached the state scale. 1882 the Chinese exclusion law ended the labor migration in 10 ([America] Lúthien Lamb Macon: A History of Chinese Americans, see the third episode of Essays on Overseas Chinese History compiled by Overseas Chinese College of Jida University. )。 With the passage of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act in the US Congress, Huang Zunxian became the Consul General in San Francisco as the diplomatic envoy of China.

Because of the instigation of the American authorities, some lawless hooligans can't be punished by law, which further encourages their arrogance and the wave of Chinese exclusion is escalating. Thus, in 1885, a major Chinese exclusion event-"Shiquan Massacre" occurred.

Shiquan mining area is the coal mine center of a town in Wyoming, USA. There are Chinese laborers in China and white miners in Britain and Ireland in this mining area. Because of the American government's long-term policy of excluding China, not only Chinese workers are not protected, but also white thugs are encouraged to exclude China, making them even more unscrupulous. On September 2nd, 1885, four or five thousand white miners and hooligans gathered in Baiqu, Shiquan to talk about the sufferings of the "Yellow Disaster". Then the mob surrounded the Chinese area with guns and weapons, and there was a riot against China. The incident caused "28 China workers to die, weighing 15, and the property loss reached 147748.74 USD." "The local government completely stood by and slaughtered", ([Taiwan Province] Li: The Early Diplomatic History of China and the United States, p. 54 1. At this time, Huang Zunxian has been allowed to leave his post and intends to return to China. Upon learning of this, he immediately telegraphed Zheng Zaoru, the ambassador to Washington, asking for an investigation, and advocated a strong protest to the US Secretary of State, demanding compensation for the tragic loss of the Chinese and punishing the murderer. Prevent Chinese exclusion from happening again in the future (Moriko Kamamachi: China's Reform Huang Zongxian and Japanese Model, colifomia1882 ~1885, 130, 139. )。 Ambassador Zheng immediately sent Colonel Bee, consul of China in San Francisco, and Huang Xiquan, consul of China in new york, to Wyoming to carry out this task. Huang Xiquan conducted an in-depth and detailed investigation, and published the results of the investigation: "... as for the property destroyed by thugs, I found that because of this cruel attack, everyone who survived in China was penniless and penniless ... When the riots broke out suddenly, it was completely impossible for them to get even a broken sheet or a piece of warm clothes, or even a little food that could be used to satisfy their hunger." These poor hundreds of people in rags are starving. ..... The total compensation for property losses of these 700-odd people is only147,000 US dollars, and the per capita income is only over 200 US dollars. (Yan: 1 1985 The Shiquan Incident of American Slaughtering Chinese Workers, see Lingnan Literature and History 1984,No.1. ) The above only emphasizes the property loss, excluding the compensation for the tragic death of 28 China people and the damage loss of 15. The relevant American authorities are not sincere and oppose compensation. In particular, the local court acquitted the rioters in Shiquan, and so far no murderer or criminal has been punished (Yan's original text: "Shiquan Incident in which China laborers were slaughtered in the United States in 1885", see Lingnan Literature and History 1984,No. 1. )。 After a long negotiation, the U.S. government had to agree to compensation, but the time dragged on for one year and five months, and declared that this was a pure international courtesy and should never be regarded as a precedent ([Taiwan Province] Li: The Early Diplomatic History of China and the United States, p. 543. )。 The Shiquan tragedy was the cruelest anti-Chinese atrocity during Huang Zunxian's tenure as Consul General in San Francisco.