TNAG-0943-FCO40-1162-Future-of-Hong-Kong-1980 — Page 233

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validity, or have been abrogated or have been replaced by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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