J
CURRENT COMMUNIST DISTURBANCES IN HONGKONG
3 AUG 1967
Thirteen months seperate Hongkong's two outbreaks of rioting. This time the present disturbances had their origin in a labour dispute on 29th April at the Hongkong Artificial Flower Works which concerned wages and working conditions. They were very quickly taken up and exploited by the local communists for political ends. By 6th May, political slogans, posters and little red books of Chairman Mao Tse Tung were very much in evidence.
According to some China-watchers, it is believed the present trouble stems from the purging of the former Chinese propaganda chief, Tao Shu, who belonged to the Chinese President, Liu Shao-Chi olique. Before his unsteady rise to mumber four in the Chinese Communist Party, Tao Chu was the secretary of the Central-South section of the Politbureau which is in charge of Hongkong activities. His downfall reflected on those who served him including the Hongkong communists, and the people working in the New China News Agonoy, Hongkong Branch. To redeem themselves they decided to win a "victory for Mao Tse Tung's thoughts" in Hongkong mainly to save their own neck.
The above theory to the causes of the recent disturbances is not without justification as events of the past weeks have shown. But to appreciate the above theory, one has to understand the unique relationship existing between Hongkong and Peking. Officially there has been no diplomatic contact between Hongkong and Peking. On an urgent matter, the Governor would send a telegram to the Foreign office, London, for it to be relayed to the British Charge d'Affairs in Paking who would then deliver it. But this diplomatic triangle was discreetly set aside when Hongkong Government officials contacted the Kwangtung authorities through the Hongkong branch of the New China News Agency.
Formerly a cordial relationship had enabled Hongkong to arrange for water to be piped from Kwangtung and to send engineers across the border to advise on the laying of the pipeline. Chinese water still flows to Kowloon at 60 million gallons a day supporting the theory that local communists had the idea of making Hongkong into another "Macao".
Mr. William Liang Yei-ling, the Director General of Now China News Agency (Hongkong), is the top man in the communist hierachy of longkong who decides the policy line to be adopted. The mumber two man is the head of the Bank of China. But when it came to action, Mr. Yeung Kwong, Chairman of the left-wing Hongkong Federation of Trade Unions, was the most active member of the present Anti-Hongkong British Porsecution Committee. Some of Hongkong's top communists are dollar millionaires living in top luxury. Such poople include Mr. Fei Yi-min, publisher of the left-wing Ta Kung Pao (Chinese language newspapers) and Mr. K.C.Wong, Chairman of the Chineso General Chamber of Commerce. But these leaders profor to stay back-stage. The New China News Agency is a headquarters for propaganda and intelligence work and sometimes is known as the "Chineso Consulate" because it is the place to go if one wishes to enter or contact China.