And Chinese bureaucrats of the day didn't do anything about it either, until it was too late.
> Chinese bureaucrats of the day didn’t do anything about it either, until it was too late. <
Once the danger of opium addiction was realized, the Chinese imperial government tried to stop the flow. And that (among other things) lead to the Opium Wars. China suffered humiliating defeats in those wars. As dfwgator noted, the Chinese have not forgotten that.
They’ve got a score to settle with the West. And they’ve got a score to settle with Japan.