The People's Republic of China has made its position clear on a number of oc- casions. Its overall position is perhaps best summed up by a 1967 article from the Renmin Ribao (People's Daily):
"Hong Kong has been Chinese territory since ancient times. This is a fact known to all, old and young, in the world. More than a century ago British imperialism came to China by pirate ships, provoked the criminal "opium war", massacred numerous Chinese people, and occupied the Chinese terri- tory of Hong Kong. Later it snapped [up] the Chinese territory of Kowloon and the Chinese territory of the "New Territories". This is an enormous blood debt British imperialism owes to the Chinese people. Sooner or later, the Chinese people will make a thorough-going liquidation of this debt" 82
In an editorial in the People's Daily in March 1963 China made it clear that Hong Kong remains an unresolved problem left over from the past. Taiwan, having been formally restored to China in 1945, forms a separate category and is an entirely in- ternal Chinese affair. Hong Kong, along with the Portuguese colony of Macau, is bracketed with the outstanding border issues as a question which "when conditions are ripe... should be settled peacefully through negotiations.
83 The implication
of this (and other) statements was that Hong Kong was definitely an issue; it was not something that could be left indefinitely; but that Taiwan would probably be settled first; and that Hong Kong and Macau might have to wait until a general settlement of China's 'border' problems inherited from the past - i.e., those with the USSR, Britain and Portugal.
In June 1967, at the height of the Cultural Revolution, and after major riots had swept both Hong Kong and Macau, encountering stiff repression from the British and violent but brief resistance from the Portuguese, Chou En-lai told a banquet in Peking given by Zambian President Kaunda:
"Hong Kong and Kowloon have always been Chinese territory... the Chinese people are determined to give, in accordance with the needs of the situation, every support to their compatriots in Hong Kong till final victory ... Hong Kong's destiny will be decided by our patriotic country- men there and the 700 million Chinese people as a whole, definitely not by a handful of British imperialists". 84
In March 1972 China's Permanent Representative to the UN, Huang Hua, elabor- ated on his government's position on Hong Kong in a letter requesting that Hong Kong and Macau be removed from the list of territories covered by the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples. Hong Kong and Macau are defined as "part of Chinese territory occupied by the British and Portuguese authorities. The settlement of the questions of Hong Kong and Macau is entirely within China's sovereign right... [and] should be settled in an approp- riate way when conditions are ripe" 85 Further, neither Chou's 1967 speech nor the 1972 letter to the UN makes any mention of negotiation.
These general statements of principle about China's position on Hong Kong have been accompanied by specific actions, both political and economic, on different issues. One of the first elements of contention between Peking and the Hong Kong administration concerned the right of Chinese citizens to enter and leave Hong Kong
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