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for entry to residents from Guangdong Province ("quota entrants")
over residents of other parts of China ("non-quota entrants"), the
Chinese authorities refused to recognise the distinction, as, they
did not consider that Cantonese and non-Cantonese should be
treated differently. Ma
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108 In response to the Hong Kong Government's restriction of
movement across the border, the Chinese Government argued that
Hong Kong's fears were unfounded. Instead of a surge of emigrants
etc.
across the border into Hong Kong, Chinese in the Colony with free
access to Guangdong would have a chance to see at firsthand the
superiority of Guangzhou with its low cost of living, fine parks
Emigration to China would take place, and Hong Kong would
have only its natural population increase to deal with. Yet when
the Hong Kong Government responded by lifting restrictions in
February 1956 and admitting anyone who had a permit to re-enter
China, the flow of immigrants to Hong Kong resumed. In the six
months to September 1956, 56,000 more Chinese entered Hong Kong
from China then left the Colony for the mainland. Since these
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56,000 people all had re-entry permits that quickly expired, they
became permanent residents in an already overcrowded city. The
British Chargé d'Affaires in Peking urged the Chinese Government
to limit the number of Chinese exit permits being issued in
Guangdong, but there was no reply. The Hong Kong Government
unilaterally reimposed restrictions on entry to Hong Kong. The
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୮
Chinese Government protested that this amounted to interference in the
free movement of Chinese nationals, although the matter was not ୮ pursued,
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J
log In fact, it was probably in China's interest to prevent any large-scale exodus of Chinese emigrants to Hong Kong. For
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practical economic and political reasons, the controls exercised by Hong Kong authorities between 1950 and 1967 also served China's
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