NIDUVW SIHL NI NILUNUM 33 OL SNIHION
CONFIDENTIAL
17 Chinese Communist views. Whatever had been gleaned of the
Republican attitude towards succession to the treaties
establishing ilong Kong, hnd by the end of the 1940s
to be re-evaluated in the light of the rise to power of Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung) and the Chinese Communist Party: Although CCP views. on the status of Hong Kong reflected a definite continuity with those of
Nationalist Government the Guomindang (Kuomintang), the interpretation of the meaning of "unequal treaties" and the distinction between the
-leased and ceded territories of the Colony came to assume new
meanings. When the CCP came to power in Üctober 1949 questions
of succession held real implications for the future of Chinese
policy and practice towards Hong Kong.
18
Probably the earliest statement of the Communist view of
the legal position of Hong Kong is in a publication of 1925 entitled "Unequal Treaties" ("Bupingdeng Tiaoyue"):
19.
"Leased territories may be divided into two types, one
being without a time limit, such as the grant of Hong Hong
to Britain to be governed in perpetuity, and the grant of
Macao to Fortugal for perpetual residence and
administration; the other type has a time limit; for
example, Lushun, Dairen and Weihaiwei were originally
leased for 25 years; Kowloon, Chiacao and Kwangchowan
were originally leased for 99 years" (Place of publication unknown, ilsiang Tao Chou Pao Press, 1925, F.23)
Between 1936 and 1949 Mao Zedong delivered soveral
observations on "unequal, trgaties" which closely paralleled
the Guomindang leader those made by/Jiang Jleshi (Chiang Kai-shek), and which
reflected in many ways the same distinction between the guntin
of extraterritorial rights and territorial annexation. Fired by the same sense of nationalism, rao sought to redress wont ne
considered the national humiliation suffered at the hans of
"Western imperialism". Writing in December 1939 in a pamphlet
titled "The Chin.se evolution and the Chinese Communist
Kao described two of the sources of imperialist oppression
in the followin,; termo:
"They