British East India Company Аctivities in the Qing Empire and Their Interpretations by Western and Chinese Researchers of the Second Half of the 20th – Early 21st Centuries

The relevance of the topic of this research is associated with the participation of the British East India Company (BEIC) in certain historical events (such as the First Opium War), which are widely discussed in modern Chinese society, primarily in terms of examining the "humiliating position" of China relative to foreign states and the spread of drug use practices. The work studied the features of interpretation by Western and Chinese authors (from the second half of the 20th century to the early 21st century) of the role of the BEIC in its relations with the Qing Empire, as well as differences in assessments of the company's activities and its influence on the subsequent development of China. During the research, the history of the creation and functioning of the BEIC was considered, a comparative analysis of assessments of the activities of this organization by Western and Chinese scholars was conducted, and a subsequent interpretation of the quantitative results obtained based on the mentioned analysis was performed.