U.S. Legation in Peking - shady dealings by diplomats

Aloha:

I'm trying to come up with some sort of plausible dishonest and/or illegal activity for an American diplomat posted to the U.S. Legation in Peking in the early 1900s. Ideal would be an activity that could interest the Green Gang (gangsters) in Shanghai at the time. Any ideas?

Aloha, Frimble3:

Thank you for your suggestions. US-China relations were temporarily interrupted in 1912 (when the Qing Emperor abdicated his throne). I hadn't thought about that, so I need to take that into account as relations resumed the same year my novel opens with (1913). So thanks, too, for raising the point.

You've got me thinking about the Boxer Rebellion. Perhaps I'll have my character involved with smuggling stolen Chinese antiquities -- i.e., fencing loot from the ransacking of the Forbidden City at the end of the Boxer Rebellion should work.
Thanks again.

Thanks!

Aloha, Jeff:

Thanks for responding to my post. My character won't be in a position to sell emigration documents, but I'll look into gun running to see if it would be a better fit than fencing stolen Chinese artifacts (per Frimble3). Opium plays a role in another part of the novel, so pursuing that would be probably be redundant.

As the novel is set in Shanghai in 1913, the Green Gang is present but Chiang Kai-Shek isn't really on the scene.

Thanks again for your help.