Daoguang Emperor appointed scholar-official Lin Zexu to the post of Special Imperial Commissioner with the task of eradicating the opium trade. He bans the trade of opium and writes a letter to Queen Victoria asking her to stop the illegal importation of opium
early July 1839 - a group of British merchant sailors in Kowloon became intoxicated after consuming rice liqueur. Two of the sailors became agitated with and beat to death Lin Weixi, a villager from nearby Tsim Sha Tsui.[2][3] They are disciplined by British military court and the British refuse to hand them over to Chinese prosecutors
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