Demarcation of the Yunnan-Burma Tai Minority Area in Warry's Report of 1891–97: A Critical Evaluation against the Background of Contemporary Chinese Historiography

Abstract

William Warry (1854–1936) was a British intelligence officer who was sent to investigate Upper Burma and southwest China in 1889. The primary purpose of his mission was to understand the local history and society and, in particular, the Chinese influence in these areas. His report was intended to help the British government devise proper strategies for the Yunnan-Burma frontier negotiation with China. Warry's mission should be read in the context of the Chinese tusi system of "aboriginal commission, " the imperial government's century-long strategy of governing the mainly non-Han frontier region of southwest China, which did not require a delineated border. This eventually turned into a serious crisis with the arrival of Western colonial powers who wanted to enter inland China via the Indochinese Peninsula.