In this essay, I will be summarizing James Fujitani's argument regarding the rejection of the Ming with the Portuguese effort to establish diplomatic relations in 1519. Back in 1517, the Portuguese fleet arrived off the coast of Guangzhou. This was a great moment of symbolic importance to the Portuguese, with making the first official contact between the East Asia and Europe of the early modern period. However, just a few years later, in 1521, these relations broke down by many false rumor stories and diplomatic misunderstand that resulted in the Ming rejecting the Portuguese. Consequentially, from these stories, the Ming received two letters condemning the Portuguese, by accusing Europeans as invaders, plundering the coastline, building forts, obstructing local trade, enslaving Chinese, eating children, and
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Consequentially, from a point of view, there was compelling evidence of the Europeans involvement in the illegal slave trade because they started taking people and purchase massive amounts of slaves. However, the problem was not that the Chinese were being enslaved, but rather that, in markedly ethnocentric fashion, it was illegal to sell a Chinese person to a non-Chinese, this problem was an issue with the Chinese government because it was a struggle within the domestic marketplace. It's nearly impossible to stop slaves being sold on the mainland and to the islands from the black-market and they've been causing problems with the Ming through the entire fifteenth century, however, the Europeans are not buying slaves to be servants, no they purchased slaves to replace lost crew members aboard their Ships, which was a sign of imperialism. Up to this point, we see the Portuguese behaving almost exactly like Southeast Asian merchants, and after presenting all this evidence contradicting as it is I see how the Ming Courts see the Europeans as simple
Consequentially, from a point of view, there was compelling evidence of the Europeans involvement in the illegal slave trade because they started taking people and purchase massive amounts of slaves. However, the problem was not that the Chinese were being enslaved, but rather that, in markedly ethnocentric fashion, it was illegal to sell a Chinese person to a non-Chinese, this problem was an issue with the Chinese government because it was a struggle within the domestic marketplace. It's nearly impossible to stop slaves being sold on the mainland and to the islands from the black-market and they've been causing problems with the Ming through the entire fifteenth century, however, the Europeans are not buying slaves to be servants, no they purchased slaves to replace lost crew members aboard their Ships, which was a sign of imperialism. Up to this point, we see the Portuguese behaving almost exactly like Southeast Asian merchants, and after presenting all this evidence contradicting as it is I see how the Ming Courts see the Europeans as simple