How intertwined were the Opium Wars and the Taiping Rebellion?

by jigglysquishy

I'm reading "The Opium War" by Julia Lowell and I'm struck by how halfheartedly the Qing fought the British. The Second Opium War happened concurrently as the Taiping Rebellion.

Was the rise of the anti opium Taiping Heavenly Kingdom tied to the rise of opium importation? Why did the Qing expend millions more lives fighting the THK than the British? How related are these two (three really) conflicts?

EnclavedMicrostate

I will likely produce a full answer later, but to sate your curiosity for now, I noted here the links between the Taiping and Second Opium War, and here their relationship to the First.