Remember A Day | Vietnamese officials suspected of recruiting spies for the Soviet Union, intersex twins born in Hong Kong, and government considering petrol rationing: headlines from 40 years 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
Vietnamese officials being suspected of recruiting spies for the Soviet Union, a set of intersex twins being born in Hong Kong, and the government considering implementing petrol rationing made the headlines 40 years ago this week.
September 21, 1980
● A property company had paid more than HK$1.3 billion (about US$260 million at the time) for a government site in Tsim Sha Tsui, the biggest land deal in Hong Kong’s history. The commercial plot was sold to Silver Cord Ltd, a subsidiary of Li Ka-shing’s Cheung Kong Holdings.
● The government was investigating reports that Vietnamese officials in Hong Kong were recruiting spies for the Soviet Union. The check on the activities of certain Vietnamese nationals followed the repeated failure of Russians, Eastern European bloc, and Cuban nationals to enter Hong Kong. There had been persistent fears that the Vietnamese and Russians could be trying to infiltrate various host countries taking refugees by sneaking agents among those fleeing the oppressive rule of Hanoi.
● US Secretary of State Edmund Muskie said the US was monitoring the situation regarding the movement of Soviet troops in the western parts of the Soviet Union and East Germany. Washington was nervous about possible Soviet moves into Poland. Any such incursion would evoke a sharp reaction from the US following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.
