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recent years, the colony has diversified its economy to include a strong
industrial base featuring production of clothing, textiles, photographic, and
electrical equipment.
1975-1979:
The First Boat Refugees
The first Vietnamese boat refugees arrived in Hong Kong in May 1975, fol-
lowing Saigon's fall to communist forces. They numbered 3,743 and came aboard
a commercial vessel, the Clara Maersk. Virtually all were Vietnamese who
either had close U.S. ties or strong anti-communist sentiments.
Following this large initial influx, the numbers dropped, but refugees
continued to come during the following years, attracted in part by the
colony's liberal, open-door refugee policy. By the end of 1978, Hong Kong had
provided refuge to 11,544 persons. Of these, 6,150 (53 percent) were
resettled in third countries, most (76 percent) in the United States.
1979-1982: A Shift in Sentiment
In 1979, tensions related to the border war between China and Vietnam
produced thousands of new refugees from Vietnam. Hundreds of thousands of
Vietnamese were persecuted and expelled--many, ethnic Chinese.
Suddenly, Hong
Kong was faced with providing refuge for dramatically higher numbers--in just
the first seven months of 1979 more than 66,000 refugees reached the colony's
shores. In July 1979, during a meeting of resettlement countries in Geneva,
they confronted the Hong Kong crisis. As a result, the participants agreed to
receive refugees either on a first asylum or resettlement basis. In the
ensuing months, internal conditions in Vietnam, as well as other factors
involving other states in the region, caused the rate of new arrivals in first
2
asylum countries to fall sharply. Nonetheless, over the period through
1982, the numbers of new arrivals remained significant throughout the region.
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