Remember A DayEspionage claims, meth lab raids and power station plans: headlines from four decades ago
A journey back through time to look at significant news and events reported by the South China Morning Post from this week in history
It was just another regular week in Hong Kong as (alleged) espionage, raids on large-scale meth labs and the like continued to grace the front pages of the South China Morning Post 40 years ago this week. Across the strait in Taiwan, mob madness was brewing and capital punishment reigned in the Philippines. Thankfully though, wage increases spelt optimism on the mainland and the magical properties of ginseng were also made public.
November 20, 1977
● Writing letters to friends put a former United Nations co-ordinator into seven months of solitary confinement in a Ho Chi Minh City prison on espionage charges. Richard White, 52, arrived in Hong Kong the day before on a Hong Kong government charter flight after having been expelled from Vietnam for alleged espionage. White denied the allegations, saying he had only written letters to friends overseas.
November 21, 1977
● The ruling Kuomintang (KMT) won 1,120 of the 1,318 seats at stake in the Taiwan Provincial Assembly and the Taipei City Council. But the elections were marred by Taiwan’s first riot in 21 years as a mob estimated at 10,000 burned a police station and a fire station in Chungli, 22 miles southwest of Taipei.
Wholesale dog meat, boat protests and marrying monks: Hong Kong headlines from four decades ago
November 22, 1977