LettersRemember when Chinese Maoists were the ‘black hands’ fomenting unrest in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia?

While Mao’s China was behind the 1967 leftist riots that rocked Hong Kong, it did not invade the colony then for tactical reasons. Had Hongkongers made a bid for independence, though, Mao may have decided differently

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Young students waving “little red books” take part in a left-wing protest outside Government House in Hong Kong in 1967. Photo: Chu Ming-hoi

Published: 7:35am, 20 Oct 2019Updated: 7:35am, 20 Oct 2019

Mr Jan Myrdal’s offers a flawed comparison between India’s decision to send troops into the state of Hyderabad and Maoist China’s decision not to invade Hong Kong (“Why Mao was right not to send the PLA into Hong Kong before 1997”, September 16).

The partition of British India resulted in the creation of India and Pakistan. Hyderabad fell under the former’s dominion soon after. While the ruler of Hyderabad might have been inclined towards it remaining an independent state, this was not universally supported by all the state’s political constituents.

On the other hand, Hong Kong was a British colony until 1997, around 20 years after Chairman Mao Zedong’s demise.

This did not prevent Maoist China from trying to agitate against British colonial rule over Hong Kong or to foment communist insurrections elsewhere, especially in Southeast Asia, in its struggle for ideological supremacy against the Soviet Union.

The 1967 leftist riots in Hong Kong are an example of how Chinese Communist agents sought to rock the apple cart in the colony. Today, the Communist Party is accusing “foreign black hands” of inciting the ongoing Hong Kong protests.

Outright invasion of colonial Hong Kong was off the cards for a poverty-stricken China in turmoil due to the power struggles within the Communist Party at the height of the Cultural Revolution.