All china had to do was buy top of the line warships from Britain in exchange for tea. But there doesn't seem to an intelligence service worth it's salt in the

All china had to do was buy top of the line warships from Britain in exchange for tea. But there doesn't seem to an intelligence service worth it's salt in the imperial palace at the time. Didn't china learn to get it's navy together after the largest pirate empire in the history of the world forced it to capitulate? So the woman that ran it could retire.