[00:00.000] 作曲 : David Stefan Rovics
[00:07.171]Let me tell you a tale, stir a hornet' s nest
[00:10.411]Well remembered in the east, most forgotten in the west
[00:13.917]lt was the 1830’ s and the industrial revolution
[00:17.412]Was turning Europe into a land of wage slaves and air pollution
[00:21.672]The history books tell us it was the era of free trade
[00:24.912]And the entire world hungered for the products Europe made
[00:28.673]Merchants plied their wares across the seven seas
[00:32.167]And they brought back things like porcelain, silk and tea
[00:35.919]Soon all the tea in China could barely keep the west awake
[00:39.667]Such a thirst for Chinese products as could barely be slaked
[00:43.673]They liked to drink their tea in cups of Chinese porcelain
[00:47.412]And those who could afford it loved the silk upon their skin
[00:50.919]But what made the merchants and the monarchs scream and cry and shout
[00:54.667]They seemed to have little to offer that China couldn’ t live without
[00:58.161]They didn’t want their muskets and they didn’t want their wool
[01:01.667]Which left the British coffers empty and the Chinese coffers full
[01:09.168]And they called it a "trade war”
[01:12.919]They called it a trade war and l guess that could be so
[01:16.360]They say it’ s not free trade if it's just a one-way flow
[01:20.109]Because apparently free trade is when the west comes out ahead
[01:23.362]That' s how it is in practice though that's never what is said
[01:27.609]The fact of history they’ d have us sweep under the rug
[01:31.558]The one thing they could sell in China was an addictive drug
[01:34.808]lt had long been banned by Chinese law but the British didn’ t care
[01:38.813]They packed the opium up in crates and they shipped it there
[01:47.557]And they called it a "trade war”
[01:50.064]It all came to a head in 1838
[01:53.060]When the soldiers of the emperor torched twenty thousand crates
[01:57.065]lt took three days to burn it, and when the fires had gone out
[02:01.059]The Chinese people would soon learn what "free trade" was all about
[02:04.566]Navies came from Britain, France and the USA
[02:08.314]In blood, land and silver they would make the Chinese pay
[02:11.808]Cities levelled, thousands killed, the war was three years long
[02:16.313]That s how they "opened” China, that'’ s how they got Hong Kong
[02:24.812]And they called it a "trade war”