A cultural disaster
A small headline in the Post on May 2, 1966, was the first indication that an enormous political earthquake was about to shake the mainland. 'New Purge Under Way in China', it read, and trailed premier Zhou Enlai's comment that a 'socialist cultural revolution of great historic significance' was beginning. 'This is a fierce and protracted struggle of who will win, the proletariat or the bourgeoisie. We must vigorously promote proletarian ideology and eradicate bourgeois ideology in the academic, educational and journalistic fields, in art, literature and all other fields of culture,' he said.
China was about to plunge into a frenzy of hateful and neurotic political campaigns that would cripple the economy, ruin millions of lives and halt progress. They isolated the nation from the rest of the world and brought it to the brink of collapse.
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, spawned largely by Madame Mao (Jiang Qing) and her extremist clique ushered in 10 black years for China.
By May 1967, China was deep in the clutches of the revolution. In Hong Kong, workers at a plastic flower factory in San Po Kong were involved in a labour dispute with their employer; negotiations broke down. Suddenly, workers were confronting police, stones were being thrown, batons drawn and tear gas fired.
Political statements were being shouted and crowds of rioters filled streets, angry mobs chanting slogans as they faced ranks of riot police. The Cultural Revolution had come to Hong Kong. During the tense months that followed there were riots, protests and bombings. Demonstrators by the thousand marched on Government House, waving Mao's Little Red Book and yelling rallying cries.
Police were ordered to use restraint, but when acid was thrown and bombs exploded, the question became one of control: who ruled Hong Kong, the authorities or the rioters? An enormous majority backed the government. At least 50 people died in the disturbances that summer, some killed by bombs, others shot by police during street battles. Popular radio commentator Lam Bun, who criticised rioters on his programme, was ambushed and burned alive in his car after petrol was thrown over him.