Chapter 57 US State Department

At the US State Department, Steinberg had just come out of his boss's office and turned a few turns. He saw the old man sitting in the hall: a gray beard, a spire, a hat with red spikes, an ugly jacket and a long gown, and a pheasant feather inserted behind the hat. Some people say that it was a peacock feather, and in addition to these, the old man's most noticeable one was the thick and long braid.

"He really has perseverance." Steinberg sighed helplessly and walked over slowly. His boss just gave him an order to get the old man away because the Secretary of State did not want to see this Chinese, this old man. Because the Secretary of State did not want to hear any protests at all, nor did he think that the so-called protests of the Chinese minister could have any value.

That's right, the old man with braids is the Chinese ambassador to the United States, Chen Lanbin.

Chen Lanbin, a native of Huangpo Village, Huangpo Town, Wuchuan, Guangdong, was a Jinshi in the first year of Xianfeng. In the ninth year of Tongzhi (1870), under the recommendation of Zeng Guofan, he was appointed as a student committee member of the United States under the title of Taichang Temple. In conjunction with Vice Committee Member Yung Wing, he formulated the 12 Articles of the "Regulations on Selecting Children to Study in Thailand". In the 11th year of Tongzhi (1872), he began to select four batches of children, a total of 120 people, to study in the United States. On August 11 of that year, Chen Lanbin was appointed as the supervisor and Yung Wing was the deputy supervisor, and led the first batch of 30 students to study in the United States. This was the first batch of students studying in the United States in modern China. Many students studied diligently. After a few years, they finished elementary school and entered college in middle school, and many of them were successful.

For example: Zhan Tianyou returned to China after his studies and made great contributions to my country's railway industry. He was respected as the "father of China's railways" and the "father of modern Chinese engineering". New China also specially established the Zhan Tianyou Civil Engineering Award as a commemoration;

Wu Tingfang was an outstanding diplomat and jurist in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China. After the Westernization Movement began, he joined the Li Hongzhang shogunate as a legal adviser in 1882, participated in Sino-French negotiations, Shimonoseki negotiations, etc. In 1896, he was appointed as the Minister of the United States, Spain and Peru by the Qing government. He signed the China-Mexico Trade Treaty, the first equality treaty in China, presided over the revision of the law, and put forward a series of advanced propositions including deletion of torture, implementation of the jury and lawyer system. After the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution, he served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Military Government of the Republic of China, presided over the peace talks between the north and the south, and reached a forced abdication of the Qing Dynasty. After the establishment of the Provisional Government of Nanjing, he served as the Minister of Justice. In 1917, he went to Guangzhou to participate in the Protective Movement, and served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Finance, and Governor of Guangdong. Later, in 1922, when Chen Jiongming rebelled, he died in Guangzhou due to anger and became ill in shock and anger;

Tang Shaoyi, a famous political activist and diplomat, served as the Consul General in Seoul, North Korea, the Consul General in North Korea, the representative of the North-South North-South Controversy in the late Qing Dynasty, the first cabinet prime minister of the Republic of China, etc., and made important contributions to China's sovereignty, diplomatic rights and interests and the promotion of democratic republic. After his political differences with Sun Yat-sen, his politics became depressed and later served as the county magistrate of Zhongshan. However, after Japan's invasion of China, he had an ambiguous relationship with all parties, which caused speculation from many parties. There were also rumors that the Japanese enemy planned to use Tang Shaoyi and other parties to organize a pseudo-government in Central China, and was ordered by Chiang Kai-shek to send spies to kill him at home.

In addition to organizing students to study in the United States with Yung Wing, Chen Lanbin also did a lot of things for Chinese workers who were bullied in the West. When Chen Lanbin went on a mission to the United States, it was when the United States and Spain plundered Chinese workers in the Western Hemisphere. The tragic experience of Chinese workers made Chen Lanbin deeply shamed and angry. He said in his "A Brief History of the U.S. Newspapers based on their conjectures and arguments, "all those who can bully Chinese will speak freely", and "make people angry and angry."

Of course, Chen Lanbin did not just express this in the article, he also put this mood into action.

Cuba, as a Spanish territory, used a large number of Chinese workers during the development process. According to statistics, from the Opium War in 1840 to the ban on the "cool trade" in Macao in 1874, tens of thousands of Chinese workers were transported to Latin America every year. Chinese workers suffered hardships in Latin America and died in large numbers. For example, from 1847 to 1872, there were 114,081 Chinese workers transported to Cuba, and only 58,400 were left in 1874.

In order to confirm the fact that Cuba abused Chinese workers, the Qing Dynasty Zongli Yamen conducted diplomatic negotiations with Spain (called "Japansbalia" at the time) in Beijing, and took the initiative to send letters to the envoys of Britain, Russia, France, the United States, the Netherlands and other countries, requesting an excuse. While appointing Chen Lanbin to investigate and inquire about the situation of Cuba's abuse of Chinese workers. British envoy Weituma said: "Spain has said that there is no abuse of Chinese workers, and China refuses to believe it, so it should send personnel. If it is true, China will not compensate."

Chen Lanbin's investigation team arrived in Havana in March 1874 and inspected sugarcane plantations, piglet shops, sugar factories and "official workers' offices" that imprisoned Chinese workers in Havana and Cuban provinces. They collected a large amount of written materials and 1,176 testimonies, and received 85 complaints signed by 1,665 people, indicating that 80% of Chinese workers were kidnapped or lured, and confirmed that the abuse of Chinese workers was true.

Based on this, the Zongli Yamen finally obtained support from the five countries and forced Spain to reorganize Article 16 of the Cuban Chinese Workers' Clauses in 1877. Later, China set up a consulate in Havana.

Overseas Chinese wrote a couplet to praise: "I will never forget my gratitude and virtue, and I will never forget my life, ninety thousand miles of the ocean, and I will help people with suffering; I will make 16 peace agreements with great powers and immortality.

It can be said that Chen Lanbin completed the diplomatic mission of protecting the expatriates excellently. During the Cuban War of Independence, the Chinese bravely participated in the war, and the praise of Kangzatedi Kshada, the author of the book "The Independence of Chinese and Cuba" was engraved on the "Medal of the Memorial to Assisting the Independence of Overseas Chinese in Cuba (Pakistan)":

"There are no Chinese in Cuba, and there are no Chinese in Cuba, and there are no Chinese in Cuba."

However, although the strong diplomatic offensive forced second-rate countries like Spain to gradually change their attitude towards Chinese workers and achieved certain diplomatic victories, Chen Lanbin's diplomatic activities in the United States have never achieved any results. Because the United States is a big country, a strong country, and its status is far higher than that of Spain, so China cannot argue with this country's strength to bully the Chinese people.

But Chen Lanbin never gave up, especially as the Americans' anti-Chinese sentiment became increasingly high, and the anti-Chinese wave was wave after wave. He saw it, anxiously in his heart, and kept protesting to the US government. Not long ago, when he learned that thousands of white people in Denver organized a siege on the local Chinese workers' settlement, he immediately raised a strong protest to the US government.

However, President Hayes is now busy reforming the country, trying to change American politics from a political weight system to a civil service system, and is busy pacifying southern states, and has no time to meet him "for such a small matter". Therefore, he had to set his target on the US State Department, but Secretary of State Everte also refused to pay attention to him and only shirked that "the US government has no direct jurisdiction over local governments. If Chinese people are treated unfairly in the local area, they can file a lawsuit in the local court to protect their rights and interests."

Americans have such a face. Chen Lanbin knows what the other party means, but he did not give up and kept "petitioning" because it is not just a matter in Denver. The anti-Chinese incident in Denver is actually just a microcosm. The anti-Chinese sentiment of Americans is rising for various reasons. According to the news Chen Lanbin received, many US senators have made rejection remarks about Chinese workers in public, which is by no means a good thing. If he, the ambassador to the United States, does not do anything, then what awaits Chinese workers will be a terrible situation... It will never be "better" than the treatment received by Chinese workers in Spain! Chen Lanbin, who personally investigated how persecuted Chinese workers in Cuba were subject to the Spanish, could not help but be able to resist the further stage of such things in the United States.

"Minister Chen, Secretary of State is very busy, and he cannot meet you for the time being."

Chen Lanbin lowered his head, thinking about how to make the US government face up to the experience of Chinese workers. He knew that the means of dealing with Spain could not be used to deal with a powerful country like the United States, unless trade means were used to threaten the interruption of economic exchanges between China and the United States. However, the cowardice and incompetence of the Qing court could not give him any confidence... The fierce inner activities made him unable to notice Steinberg's approach until the other party spoke on his own initiative.

"When will Mr. Everett be free?" After a little slow down, Chen Lanbin asked again. The person in front of him is also an old acquaintance, secretary of the Office of the Concierge of the State Council... What position is this? The US State Department actually sent such a person to send him away? Therefore, whenever he saw this person, a trace of sadness flashed through his heart.

"I think your Secretary of State will not be free during this period." A bitter smile flashed across Steinberg's mouth. He knew that as soon as he said this, he would definitely see the Chinese ambassador in front of him again tomorrow. However, he could not really give a certain time, right? He is just a secretary, but he cannot arrange the itinerary of the Secretary of State. You must know that the Secretary of State's nickname in the United States is "invisible president", which is much stronger than a vice president and other people!

"Since that's the case, I'll come back tomorrow."

"really!"

Steinberg smiled bitterly again.

"Was that guy gone?"

After seeing Chen Lanbin off, Steinberg returned to his boss's office again. Concierge Sullivan was sitting behind his desk. As soon as he saw him, he immediately asked.

"Go away." Steinberg replied.

"Huh..." Sullivan breathed, "He's really annoying."

"It's really annoying, but I sympathize with this Chinese ambassador," Steinberg said again.

"I'm the same, but I also look down on him... Who said he is Chinese?" Sullivan curled his lips disdainfully.

"Dingling..."

Steinberg shrugged and was about to respond to Sullivan's words, but the phone on the wall suddenly rang... So he hurried over: "hello, the Office of the Concierge of the State Council..."

"Who?"

Bell has just invented the phone for two years, and this thing is a new thing, so not many people can afford it. At least Sullivan himself knows very well that most of the people who can call him are his superiors, or politicians and wealthy people he can't afford to provoke... Of course, the people behind him generally don't call him, and those people will only call him to find his bosses.

"It's...Secretary of State!"

Steinberg quickly put down the phone, but his face looked very strange.

"Secretary of State?" Sullivan was shocked, "What's the matter?"

"He, he wants to meet with the Chinese ambassador!" Steinberg's expression became even more strange.

"What did you say? Arrange... Chinese ambassador?"
Chapter completed!