J.
CONFIDENTIAL
circumstances. "Such questions as those of llong Kong and Macao
rels to the category of unequal treaties left over by history",
explains the article, which goes on to say that these should be
settled by peaceful negotiations when the conditions are ripe:-
"When we deal with various imperialist countries, we take
differing circumstances into consideration and make
distinctions in our policy. As a matter of fact, many of
these treaties concluded in the past either have lost their
validity, or have been abrogated or have been replaced by
new ones. With regard to the outstanding issues, which are
a legacy from the past, we have always held that, when
conditions are ripe, they should be settled peacefully
through negotiations and that, pending a settlement, the
status quo should be maintained. Within this category
are the questions of Hong Kong, Kowloon and Macao and the
questions of all those boundaries which have not been
formally delimited by the parties concerned in each case",
27
In the Chinese view, Hong Kong.could not fit any colonial
category. llong Kong remained Chinese territory despite the fact
that it was administered by a foreign power. Thus, the Chinese
delegation to the World Youth forum held in hoscow in
September 1964 protested strongly at a resolution which called
for the independence of various Asian colonial territories, and
included Hong Kong and Macao in the list of such territories.
The delegation argued that Hong Kong and Macao were different
from the other colonies because they were Chinese territory
taken by unequal treaties. The message was clear questions
on Hong Kong and Macao were solely a Chinese responsibility and
that questions left over from history by unequal treaties were
to be resolved between the contracting powers alone.
28 In the mid-1960s the relative calm with which Britain and
China had tacitly agr.ed to a maintenance of the status quo in Hong Kong was seriously threated by the upheaval of the Cultural Revolution in China. This political and ideological revolution had the effect of generating a vehement anti- imperialism that overspilled into Hong Kong. There are many indications that the extremist mood of anti-imperialism which swept Hong Kong in the summer of 1967 took even the leadership in Peking (itself split into bitterly
opposing factions) by surprise.
Nevertheless,
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