Hong Kong: Mao-Think v. the Stiff Upper Lip

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The demands were almost identical to the ones that Peking last December served on Lisbon to force the Portuguese to surrender de facto control of Macao to local Maoists. The British decided to be tough. Hong Kong's 10,000 well-disciplined police kept the mass of the rioters confined to two areas in Kowloon, arrested more than 400. Whitehall refused to dignify the Red Chinese demands with an answer. Instead, the British Commonwealth Office pledged that law and order would be maintained in the colony. Faced with this determination, Peking seemed to back off a bit. At week's end, though, mobs took to the streets again, roughing up newsmen, shouting Maoisms in front of the U.S. consulate, and painting pro-Communist slogans on buildings.

Mutual Dependence. Britain wants to hold onto Hong Kong to protect its vast investments and to retain a Far Eastern headquarters for British banking and trade interests. It also does not know how it could gracefully withdraw from Hong Kong under the present circumstances without totally losing face in the Orient. In recent years, Red China has been building up its influence in the Crown Colony, and Britain has been too afraid of offending its overpowering neighbor to do anything about it. As a result, about one-fifth of the colony's Chinese, who make up 99% of the 4,000,000 population, are openly pro-Peking, and the rest play it safe. Red China commands the support of three of Hong Kong's major daily newspapers, the most important labor unions, and a large number of schoolteachers, which is one reason a high proportion of young Chinese in Hong Kong are Maoists.

Even without Peking's infiltration, the colony is at the mercy of the mainland. Hong Kong depends on Red China for 47% of its water and for nearly all its food and building materials. Red China, in turn, is considerably dependent on Hong Kong. Its sales to Hong Kong each year bring in the $500 million in hard currency that it needs to pay for its own imports of wheat from Australia and Canada. So far, the Red Chinese have been careful not to interfere with this golden flow; Hong Kong hoped last week that the riots were a reminder of its ties to Red China rather than a full-scale attack on the colony's independence from it.

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