The tea trade spread through out mainland Asia. During the Ming Dynasty 1368 1644 China became powerful. Tea was irreplaceable to their daily diet so the tea trade was essential. China used tea as an economical and political tool. They traded tea for horses to keep their army mobile.

Due to China's superiority and self sufficiency, doing business with China wasn't easy.

The country isolated itself and trading was only allowed in Canton. Europeans were not allowed to enter China or communicate with Chinese Merchants. Tea was becoming popular in Europe and in high demand in the 18th century and the East India Company tried to import as much as possible. China needed nothing from the Europeans and the company suffered huge deficits. As a way to decrease the deficit they introduced opium to the Chinese causing millions to become addicted, decreasing their deficit and causing a huge crisis in China. The Chinese government took action and confiscated and burned huge amounts of opium causing the English traders to feel threatened and so war was waged on the coastal towns of China.

The Opium war lasted from 1840 to 1842 and ended with the Chinese suffering the worst defeat in history. They were forced to open the country and five ports for foreign trade between Shanghai and Canton. Hong Kong fell under British rule until 1997. The export of tea increased by five hundred percent. This ended soon though as Europe discovered the tea plant in India. The tea trade of China suffered for many years afterwards.