Discuss the "Chinese Problem" and the American response

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

After their work was completed, Chinese were often banned from the area. By the 1860s they were clustering in Pacific Coast cities, where they established Chinatowns—and smoked opium. In 1883, Congress raised the tariff on the importation of smoking-grade opium. In 1887, Congress responded to obligations imposed on the United States by a Chinese American commercial treaty by banning the importation of smoking opium by Chinese subjects. Domestic anti-Chinese legislation raised the ire of China against the United States. In an effort to increase American influence in China, and thus improve its trade position, the United States supported anti-opium efforts of the International Reform Bureau (IRB). A temperance organization representing more than thirty missionary societies in the Far East, the IRB sought a ban on opiates, which was also the position of the Chinese government. In 1901, Congress enacted the Native Races Act, which prohibited the sale of alcohol and opium to "aboriginal tribes and uncivilized races.". The provisions of the act were later expanded to include "uncivilized elements" in the United States proper: Indians, Eskimos, and Chinese (Latimer and Goldberg 1981).