Qing China’s View of the Eastern Shan States and Northern Thailand in the 1760s

This paper discusses Qing China’s view of the eastern Shan States and northern Thailand in the 1760s. Until at least 1750, Qing China did not know that the Tai states in southernmost Yunnan, the eastern Shan States, and northern Thailand had had close relations with Burmese dynasties. However, in the middle of the 1760s, when the troops of Konbaung Burma advanced from the eastern Shan States to Sipsongpanna, Qing China had to fight them because Sipsongpanna was recognised as the Chinese interior. Although the Tai states in the eastern Shan States and northern Thailand were temporarily subordinated to Qing China in 1766, and Qing China tried to extend the tusi system to the areas, Konbaung Burma brought these Tai states under its control in 1767. During this war, Qing China gathered more information about the relations between Burmese dynasties and the Tai states in southernmost Yunnan, the eastern Shan States, and northern Thailand. In 1768, new and reliable information reached the Qing imperial court. On this occasion, Qing China probably understood and accepted that those Tai states had close relations with Burma and that they would continue to have relations with Konbaung Burma, even if they sometimes submitted to China.