China–Portugal relations

Ming dynasty

Sino-Portuguese relations developed from the first Portuguese explorer, Jorge Álvares arrived in southern Chinese city of Guangzhou in 1513. Around this time Portugal established trading activities in southern China and gradually expanded into Macau and paid rent to the Ming Empire.

The first official visit of Fernão Pires de Andrade to Guangzhou (1517–1518) was fairly successful, and the local Chinese authorities allowed the embassy led by Tomé Pires, brought by de Andrade's flotilla, to proceed to Beijing.

However, Fernão's brother Simão de Andrade, whose fleet came to Guangzhou in 1519, managed to quickly spoil the Sino-Portuguese relations, due to his disregard for the host country's laws and customs. Under the pretext of a threat from pirates, and without a permission from the local authorities, he built a fort in Tamão Island, behaving there as if it were Portuguese territory. (Particularly offensive to the Chinese sensibilities was his building a gallows there, and executing one of his own sailors there for some offense). He attacked a Chinese official who protested to the Portuguese captain's demands that his vessels should take precedence in trade with China before those from Asian countries. The worst, however, were his kidnappings of Chinese children and taking them abroad to be enslaved; (untrue) rumors spread that the disappearing children were cannibalized after being roasted by the Portuguese.

It was more than two years, however, before Thome Pires could get permission to make the journey to Pekin. Fernao Pires left on his return with a very rich cargo in September 1518; his stay had not, owing to his discretion, been marked by any unpleasant incident. This expedition did not penetrate much further than Canton; one of the ships sailed to explore the Lew Chews, but failing to make good her passage, returned to the mainland at Fuhkien, where her traffic was as successful as that of her sister ships in Canton.

In August 1519 Simao d'Andrade, brother of Fernao Pires, made another voyage to Canton. He found Thome Pires still awaiting permission to travel to Pekin,—a permission which arrived finally in January 1520. Simao d'Andrade was a pompous braggart, he built a small fort and erected a gallows, and used the latter to hang one of his sailors—all acts which scandalized the Chinese feelings of sovereignty. He tried to prevent any ships of other nations getting cargo before his own, and he and his officers outraged the Chinese by freely buying boys and girls who, as it turned out, had been kidnapped. To crown all, on the death of the Emperor of China, Simao refused to leave the port when ordered. Several Portuguese were killed in the streets of Canton, and although at the end of June 1521 they were successful in a naval skirmish, they had to leave on 8 September 1521, fighting their way out to sea. Matters were left hopelessly embroiled, and every vessel reaching Chinese shores with a Portuguese on board was confiscated.

These events reacted on the unfortunate Thome Pires. He reached Pekin, after a year's journey, in January 1521, but his reception was not encouraging. The news of the capture of Malacca, over which, through Siam, the Chinese claimed some shadowy influence, and of the earlier proceedings of Simao d'Andrade at Canton, had preceded him. 1 He was treated as a spy and refused even the privilege granted to other envoys, who were allowed to kneel and bow five times to the wall of the palace behind which the Emperor was said to be living. He was sent back to Canton with orders that he was to be imprisoned until Malacca was restored, and there after a few years he died.

"The rise of Portuguese power in India, 1497-1550" by Richard Stephen Whiteway (1899)

'According to a Chinese account '-foreigners from the West called Fa-lan-ki. who said they had tribute, abruptly entered the Bogue and by their tremendously loud guns shook the place far and near. This was reported at court, and an order returned to drive them away immediately and stop the trade."

"Historic Macao" by Carlos Augusto Montalto Jesus (1902)

The annexation of Tamou, apparently projected when Jorge Alvares erected the padrao there, was boldly attempted by Simao de Andrade, another hero of Malacca, who in 1518 reached Tamou with a ship and three junks. For the purpose of defending the place against piratical attacks, he constructed a fort; and as a deterrent, he raised gallows on an adjacent islet, where a delinquent was eventually put to death with all the impressive formalities of an execution in Portugal—assumptions of sovereignty which gave great umbrage to the Chinese government. While several towns were sacked by native marauders in the name of foreigners, the Portuguese were rendered still more hated through sensational outcries to the effect that many Cantonese boys and girls of good families had been kidnapped and sold to Simao de Andrade for the purpose of being eaten roasted. The anti-foreign prejudices thus maliciously stirred were accentuated by further high-handed measures: Simao de Andrade controlled the trade and shipping of Tamou, refused to pay duties, and ill-used a customs official severely.4 It was obviously this Andrade who thrashed a mandarin and thereby roused such animosity that, according to Gaspar da Cruz,5 it ended in his desperate retreat with the loss of some vessels; whilst as related by Couto,6 an imperial edict in big gilt characters was posted over the gate of Canton forbidding admittance to "long-bearded and large-eyed men." In almost every account of early Portuguese intercourse with China, Simlio de Andrade is held up to execration as an inhuman, wanton marplot. For his assumption of authority at Tamou, no justification is found in the exasperating intolerance of raandarindom, the rife piracy, and the necessity of founding a Portuguese stronghold on such perilous aud inhospitable shores; and while credence is readily given to every aspersion, the alleged iniquities are not even confronted with noteworthy antecedents: that Simao de Andrade, like Ferniio Peres de Andrade, was one of those distinguished officers whose sense of justice and humanity prompted them to protest against the outrageous execution of Kuy Dias; that for this reason they were put in chains

"Historic Macao", by Carlos Augusto Montalto Jesus (1902)

Young Chinese boys and girls were kidnapped by Simao to be sold as slaves.

The king of Portugal, desirous of the trade of China, sent an ambassador and one of his captains to propose a commercial alliance. The ambassador was gladly received, and sent by land to Nankin, and the honourable behaviour of Pedro de Andrade gained the important traffic of the harbour of Canton. On this officer's return to India, Sequeyra the governor sent Simon de Andrade, brother to Pedro, with five ships to China; and whatever were his instructions, the absurdity of bis actions was only equalled by his gross insolence. As if he had arrived among beings of an inferior order, he assumed an authority like that which is claimed by man over the brute creation. He seized the island of Tamou, opposite to Canton. Here he erected a fort and a gallows ; and while he plundered the merchants, the wives and daughters of the principal inhabitants were dragged from their friends to his garrison, and the gibbet punished resistance. Nor did he stop even here. The Portuguese in India wanted slaves, and Andrade thought he had found the proper nursery. He published his design to buy the youth of both sexes, and in this inhuman traffic ha was supplied by the most profligate of the natives. These proceedings, however, were soon known to tha emperor of China, and the Portuguese ambassador and his retinue died the death of spies. Andrade was attacked by the Chinese itao, or admiral, and escaped with much loss, by the favour of a tempest, after being forty days harassed by a fleet greatly superior to his own. Next year Alonzo de Melo, ignorant of these transactions, entered the harbour of Canton with four vessels. But his ships were instantly seized, and the crews massacred, as spies and robbers by the enraged Chinese. And though the Portuguese afterwards were permitted to some trade with China, it was upon very restricted and disgraceful conditions1*, conditions which treated them as a nation of pirates, as men who were not to bs trusted unless fettered and watched.

"The works of the English poets, from Chaucer to Cowper: including the series edited with prefaces, biographical and critical" by Samuel Johnson (1810) and "The Percy anecdotes: Original and select" by Sholto Percy, Reuben Percy (1826)

"Even the very lascars and scullions of the Portuguese purchase and carry slaves away. Hence it happens that many of them die on the voyage, because they are heaped up upon each other, and if their masters fall sick (these masters are sometimes Kaffirs and negroes of the Portuguese), the slaves are not cared for; it even often happens that the Kaffirs cannot procure the necessary food for them. These scullions give a scandalous example by living in debauchery with the girls they have bought, and whom some of them introduce into their cabins on the passage to Macao. I here omit the excesses committed on the lands of the pagans, where the Portuguese spread themselves to recruit youths and girls, and where they live in such a fashion that the pagans themselves are stupefied at it."

"A history of Japan during the century of early foreign intercourse, 1542-1651" by James Murdoch, Isoh (1903)

As a result, the Chinese posted an edict banning men with Caucasian features from entering Canton. The Chinese responded by killing multiple Portuguese in Canton and drove the Portuguese back to sea.

After the Sultan of Bintan detained several Portuguese, The Chinese then executed 23 members of Tomé Pires' ill-fated embassy, and threw the rest into prison where they resided in squalid, sometimes fatal conditions.

After the Portuguese bribed their way into obtaining a trade mission in Ningbo and Quanzhou, they inflicted savage behaviour against the Chinese, and raided the Chinese ports. In retaliation, in 1545 the entire Portuguese community of Ningbo were exterminated by Chinese forces. The Portuguese began trading in Ningbo around 1522. By 1542, the Portuguese had a sizable community in Ningbo (or, more likely, on nearby small islands). Portuguese activities from their Ningbo base included pillaging and attacking multiple Chinese port cities around Ningbo for plunder and spoil. They also enslaved people during their raids. The resulting complaints made it to the province's governor who commanded the settlement destroyed in 1548.

In 1564, Portugal commanded the trade of India, Japan, and China, though their pride was deeply shocked at the supreme indifference with which the Chinese treated them. Their atrocities at Ningpo and Macao, and their subsequent servility, had opened the eyes of the Celestials to their true character, and unfortunately for other European adventurers, they had come to the conclusion that all western nations were alike. The senate of Macao complained to the viceroy of Goa, of the contempt with which the Chinese authorities treated them, confessing however that, “it was owing more to the Portuguese themselves than to the Chinese.” The Chinese were obliged to restrict the commerce of Portugal to the port of Macao, in 1631.

The Mirror of literature, amusement, and instruction, Volume 7, 1845

The later antagonism of Chinese toward foreigners was a result of the "reprehensible" behavior of first Portuguese who made contact.

However, with gradual improvement of relations and aid given against the Wokou pirates along China's shores, by 1557 Ming China finally agreed to allow the Portuguese to settle at Macau in a new Portuguese trade colony. The Malay Sultanate of Johor also improved relations with the Portuguese and fought alongside them against the Aceh Sultanate.

Sino-Malay alliance against Portugal

The Malay Malacca Sultanate was a tributary state and ally to Ming Dynasty China. When Portugal conquered Malacca in 1511 and committed atrocities against the Malay Sultanate, the Chinese responded with violent force against Portugal.

The Chinese Imperial Government imprisoned and executed multiple Portuguese envoys after torturing them in Guangzhou. The Malaccans had informed the Chinese of the Portuguese seizure of Malacca, to which the Chinese responded with hostility toward the Portuguese. The Malaccans told the Chinese of the deception the Portuguese used, disguising plans for conquering territory as mere trading activities, and told of all the atrocities committed by the Portuguese.

Due to the Malaccan Sultan lodging a complaint against the Portuguese invasion to the Chinese Emperor, the Portuguese were greeted with hostility from the Chinese when they arrived in China. The Malaccan Sultan, based in Bintan after fleeing Malacca, sent a message to the Chinese, which combined with Portuguese banditry and violent activity in China, led the Chinese authorities to execute 23 Portuguese and torture the rest of them in jails. After the Portuguese set up posts for trading in China and committed piratical activities and raids in China, the Chinese responded with the complete extermination of the Portuguese in Ningbo and Quanzhou Pires, a Portuguese trade envoy, was among those who died in the Chinese dungeons.

The Chinese defeated a Portuguese fleet in 1521 at the First Battle of Tamao (1521), killing and capturing so many Portuguese that the Portuguese had to abandon their junks and retreat with only three ships, only escaping back to Malacca because a wind scattered the Chinese ships as the Chinese launched a final attack.

The Chinese effectively held the Portuguese embassy hostage, using them as a bargaining chip in demanding that the Portuguese restore the deposed Malaccan Sultan (King) to his throne.

The Chinese proceeded to execute several Portuguese by beating and strangling them, and torturing the rest. The other Portuguese prisoners were put into iron chains and kept in prison. The Chinese confiscated all of the Portuguese property and goods in the Pires embassy's possession.

In 1522, Martim Afonso de Merlo Coutinho was appointed commander of another Portuguese fleet sent to establish diplomatic relations. The Chinese defeated the Portuguese ships led by Coutinho at the Second Battle of Tamao (1522). A large number of Portuguese were captured and ships destroyed during the battle. The Portuguese were forced to retreat to Malacca.

The Chinese forced Pires to write letters for them, demanding that the Portuguese restore the deposed Malaccan Sultahn (king) back onto his throne. The Malay ambassador to China was to deliver the letter.

The Chinese had sent a message to the deposed sultan (king) of Malacca concerning the fate of the Portuguese embassy, which the Chinese held prisoner. When they received his reply, the Chinese officials then proceeded to executed the Portuguese embassy, slicing their bodies into multiple pieces. Their genitalia were inserted into the oral cavity. The Portuguese were executed in public in multiple areas in Guangzhou, deliberately by the Chinese in order to show that the Portuguese were insignificant in the eyes of the Chinese. When more Portuguese ships landed and were seized by the Chinese, the Chinese then executed them as well, cutting off the genitalia and beheading the bodies and forcing their fellow Portuguese to wear the body parts, while the Chinese celebrated with music. The genitalia and heads were displayed strung up for display in public, after which they were discarded.

In response to Portuguese piracy and establishing bases in Fujian at Wuyu island and Yue harbor at Zhangzhou, Shuangyu island in Wenzhou, and Nan'ao island in Guangdong, the Imperial Chinese Right Deputy Commander Zhu Wan exterminated all the pirates and razed the Shuangyu Portuguese base, using force to prohibit trading with foreigners by sea.

Chinese traders boycotted Malacca after it fell under Portuguese control, some Chinese in Java assisted in Muslim attempts to reconquer the city from Portugal using ships. The Java Chinese participation in retaking Malacca was recorded in "The Malay Annals of Semarang and Cerbon" trading the Chinese did business with Malays and Javanese instead of the Portuguese.

Due to hostility from the Chinese regarding the trafficking in Chinese slaves, in 1595 a law was passed by Portugal banning the selling and buying of Chinese slaves. On 19 February 1624, the King of Portugal forbade the enslavement of Chinese of either sex.

Qing dynasty - Ningbo Massacre of Portuguese Pirate

During the Qing dynasty, in the 1800s, the Ningbo authorities contracted Cantonese pirates to exterminate and massacre Portuguese pirates who raided Cantonese shipping around Ningbo. The massacre was "successful", with 40 Portuguese dead and only 2 Chinese dead, being dubbed "THE NINGPO MASSACRE" by an English correspondent, who noted that the Portuguese pirates had behaved savagely towards the Chinese, and that the Portuguese authorities at Macau should have reigned in the pirates.

Portuguese pirates who raided Cantonesee shipping in the early 1800s were exterminated by Cantonese forces around Ningbo.

The Ningbonese people supported the Cantonese massacre of the Portuguese pirates and the attack on the Portuguese consul. The Cantonese did not see the Portuguese as the same as other Europeans, not being afraid of them and fighting them man to man. The Ningbo authorities had made an agreement with a Cantonese pirate named A'Pak to exterminate the Portuguese pirates. The Portuguese did not even try to fight when the Cantonese pirates sacked their consulate, trying to flee and hide among the tombs, the Cantonese butchered around 40 Portuguese while sacking the consulate. Only two Chinese and one Englishman who sided with the Cantonese died.

Modern era

As China underwent turbulent times in the 19th and 20th century, Portugal maintained its colony in Macau by stationing its troops, refusing to pay rent and opposing the ruling Qing Empire. With the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, formal diplomatic relations were not officially instated until 1979 and after the Carnation Revolution in Portugal which began the period of decolonization. The Chinese government viewed Macau as Chinese territory under Portuguese administration.

Relations between Portugal and China began to improve as talks in relation to Macau's future were conducted and final agreement reach to return Macau to Chinese sovereignty in 1999. After Macau returned to China, Portugal's ties with China has largely been about cultural and economic exchanges.

Bilateral relations

The trade between the two countries have increased since resolving the longstanding issue of Macau's future and the economic reforms of Deng Xiaoping in the early 1980s. In 2002, trade between the two countries were valued at US$380 million in 2002.

China's exports to Portugal are textile goods, garments, shoes, plastics, acoustic equipment, steel materials, ceramic goods, and lighting equipment. China is Portugal's ninth biggest trading partner.

Portugal's exports to China are electric condensers and accessory parts, primary plastics, paper, medicinal, textile goods and wine.

Portugal has participated in Shanghai's Expo 2010 to further boost bilateral trade.