Dervock wants to forge links with Chinese community

DERVOCK would be delighted to host a visit from the Chinese community in Northern Ireland, a senior official in the village’s Community Association has said.

Steven Phillips (right) has written to Stormont MLA, Anna Lo, inviting her to Dervock as well as others from the Chinese communities and representatives of the Chamber of Commerce.

Mr. Phillips, who is vice-chair of the Association, says he is anxious to build links between the two communities particularly so as Lord George McCartney, who was from Dervock, was the first envoy of Great Britain to China.

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“Lord McCartney was very influential in the trade missions of the day and I think it would be a great opportunity to get our two communities together and build links in North Antrim,” Mr. Phillips told the Times.

The invitation to Anna Lo was sent at the end of last November and so far, Mr. Phillips has not had a response.

Undaunted, he has now written again in the hope that his request will be met favourably.

The Macartney Embassy, also called the Macartney Mission, was a British embassy to China in 1793. The Mission ran from 1792 to 1794.

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It is named for the first envoy of Great Britain to China, George Macartney, who led the endeavour. The goal of the embassy was to convince Emperor Qianlong of China to ease restrictions on trade between Great Britain and China by allowing Great Britain to have a permanent embassy in Beijing, possession of “a small unfortified island near Chusan for the residence of British traders, storage of goods, and outfitting of ships,” and reduced tariffs on traders in Guangzhou.

The mission failed badly in its attempt to win the trust over the Chinese authorities.