Opioid selling Indian opium which was smuggled into China in defiance of Chinese government bans. This led to the First (1839–1842) and Second Opium Wars (1856–1860) between China and Britain. In the 19th century, two major scientific advances were made that had far-reaching effects. Around 1804, German pharmacist Friedrich Sertürner isolated morphine from opium. He described its crystallization, structure, and pharmacological properties in a well-received paper in 1817. Morphine was the first alkaloid to be isolated from any medicinal plant, the beginning of modern scientific drug discovery. The second advance, nearly fifty years later, was the refinement of the hypodermic needle
Immigration to China Immigration to China Immigration to the People's Republic of China is small, and made up mostly of around 300,000 ethnic Chinese immigrating to China from Vietnam in the late 1970s. Immigration has increased modestly since the opening up of the country and the liberalisation of the economy, mostly of people moving to the large cities and to Hong Kong. Many of the foreign nationals who immigrate to China are of Chinese ethnic heritage. The only significant immigration to China has been by the Overseas Chinese, who in the years since 1949 have been offered various enticements to return to their