Lin Zexu, an officer in the government headed by Emperor Daoguang. When the Opium was popular in the country, he sent a memo to the emperor requesting to ban it. He says that if there is no immediate action than later there would be no able-bodied officers left to defend the country. Emperor Daoguang, taking into consideration of Yong Zheng's smoke-ban policy, sent Lin Zesu to ban Opium.

Upon arrival in Canton, he strictly banned Opium, disposing any drugs he found and demanding that the British opium traders surrender all the drugs on their vessels. This act made the situation very tense between the British and the Chinese. After futile resistance, the British traders were forced to turn over 20,000 chests of opium.

Not happy with the situation, the British started to attack China but was defeated in the first combat. Having this defeat at hand, the British summoned more battle ships from England and started an assult on China. Terribly underestimating the power of the British troops, the Chinese lost badly and was forced to sign the first of a series of unequal treaties. This "Nanjing Treaty" submitted Hong Kong to Britian and started to reduce China to a semi-colonial and semi-feudal country.