I was under the impression that silver was what the chinese emperor/government imposed as a means of payment for the most sought chinese exports: tea and silk.

I was under the impression that silver was what the chinese emperor/government imposed as a means of payment for the most sought chinese exports: tea and silk. But the "rest of the world" (meaning mostly the UK in that time period) did have something that was "in demand" in china: opium. It was the imbalance between imports and exports - china wasn't interested in buying/importing what europeans were selling/exporting - that prompted the uk to start smuggling opium against chinese law, thus paving the way to the opium wars.