The History of Hong Kong (Part 9)

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The views expressed should not be used for medical diagnosis or treatment as a substitute for professional medical advice. Individual circumstances may vary, for prescription only. Safety info found at freestylelibrary.us. Hey everyone, laws low Montgomery again coming to you with another China history podcast. Today we're going to focus on the 1967 riots in Hong Kong. That year was one for the Hong Kong history books. These days walking around the streets of Hong Kong or Calu and it's hard to imagine. A mere 46 years ago, bombs were going off in the streets and Hong Kong people were dumping their property and were giving up and getting out. You see the cultural revolution was by now in 1967 at a full and rolling boil. All the excitement going on in China with the red guards, the rallies, the shouting of slogans and of course all the screeching about the West and all those capitalist rotors. It didn't stop at the border. A whole thing wafted into Hong Kong as well and although the majority of people did not embrace the whole spirit of the cultural revolution, you couldn't help but notice what was going on. A leftists in Hong Kong were plentiful but by no means a majority. They were pro-communist, pro-China, pro-labor and anti-British. They stood for social equality and concern for the disadvantaged. As if a harbinger of things to come in Macau, red guards had stirred up trouble and rioting broke out in 1966 as soon as the cultural revolution began to heat up. Police in Macau actually had to use their guns to quell the disturbance. So Macau was the first place to see trouble that came as a result of Mao's big production. If you recall from CHP 108 last time, riots had broken out as a result of fair increases for the star fairy that in pre-Cross Harbour Tunnel days shuttled locals and tourists back and forth between Hong Kong Island and Kaolun. That short burst of popular dissatisfaction fired a warning shot to the Hong Kong government that not everything was copacetic with the popular mood. In the past episodes, we saw how the Hong Kong economy mushroomed, starting off first as a trading entrepote, and later as a major manufacturing powerhouse. People back then had already been saying this for years but by the 1960s, everyone cognizant of Lord Palmerston's words about Hong Kong a century and four score years before really knew the vi accounts most death had gotten it wrong. In 1960s, Hong Kong was truly an amazing place, but underneath that facade of a spectacular economy was the same old, tired story told all over the world for centuries. Wealth was pouring in and accumulating in Hong Kong, but those who toiled at or near the bottom of society didn't get to even get a nibble of Hong Kong's prosperity. There were no basic labor rights to speak of. If you didn't like your job, there were a hundred others who were standing in line to take it. Supplying to man was the way things worked. So that's the setup for today's story. The flames from the Cultural Revolution are making things a little hot in Hong Kong and the 1966 Star Fairy riots allowed the government to know they had better do something because the masses were appearing dissatisfied with business as usual. So in short, things were a little tense. The Star Fairy riots happened in April of 1966. Now in the following year of 1967, when Mayday rolled around, something was about to give. Maybe it was a combination of what went down with the April 1966 riots, along with the ruckus being raised by all these leftists and the streets. More and more noise was being made against the establishment and all those who owned and operated these sweatshop factories. All that was needed was a spark to light that fire. And the spark happened May 6, 1967, five days after Labor Day. A factory in San Paul Gong, which, along with Diamond Hill, was one of the big centers for manufacturing in Kaolun, they fired 650 workers. Why did these guys get fired? This San Paul Gong factory had taken some rather heavy-handed action to screw their workers. They did so by issuing all these new rules on April 13th that gave the workers a nice healthy kick in the teeth. There were 10 of these rules, and one of the rules went like this. If you were a worker and the piece of equipment you were working on broke needed repairs, you didn't get paid. You had to take time off a day, a week, maybe longer, and you had to wait for this machine to be repaired. After all, if you weren't productive, why should you get paid? So rules were put in place that were all more or less in this vein. The rules just trampled all over the workers' job security and rights. They symbolized everything that was wrong with the whole system. Wages and working hours were of course the main gripes. Some of the workers at this factory in San Paul Gong organized and presented their own set of demands to the factory bosses. They insisted that one, those 10 new rules were to be abolished. Two, if the machine broke and the worker couldn't do his thing, he should get at least $1.50 Hong Kong per hour. Three, the work should be distributed up fairly and four, those producing lower priced parts demanded higher pay and last but not least five, no getting fired without good reason. This factory in question up in San Paul Gong was called the Hong Kong Artificial Flower Works. Guess what they made? Yes, artificial flowers made from plastic. There were over a thousand of these factories all over Hong Kong and 30,000 workers worked plastic injection machines all day long pumping out flower parts. This was a massive industry in the territory and 12% of Hong Kong's exports, believe it or not, were these plastic flowers. Of the richest men in Asia today, Mr. Lee Ka-sheng, who we featured a long time ago in CHP episode 13, he was one of these guys, not a worker, but a factory owner who made plastic flowers. More about Mr. Lee later. So the Hong Kong artificial flower works. They got tough with their workers who are standing up to them. After the workers presented their demands, the management and so many words told them all to go bugger off. They believed that this whole disturbance was being caused by a few troublemakers looking to stir up trouble. So they didn't see any reason whatsoever to cooperate or consider the workers five counter-proposals. So on April 28th, they dismissed 92 workers, including all the perceived ring leaders and troublemakers, and to show they meant business. The company told everyone to stop their work and 566 were promptly laid off and this really raised the temperature in San Pogong. One official at the time, Mr. John Cooper, he had said of San Pogong, quote, "street upon street of tall, dilapidated buildings, vied with each other for the limited space available." Hundreds upon hundreds of hostile citizens lived out their lives and human rabbit warrants. Plenty of workers were available to start a riot, and plenty of workers' organizations existed to support it, and plenty of students would come along to give it political backing. And so on the morning of May 11th, the whole affair morphed into something more than just a labor dispute. All the sudden in San Pogong, these and many other workers began putting up posters condemning the British in Hong Kong. Mao's little red book had already found its way into Hong Kong, and these workers waved it in the air and shouted the same anti-British, anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist slogans as their cousins north of the border. A mob set upon the Hong Kong artificial flower works and began banging on the gates and causing an old-fashioned disturbance. A lot of people, with no dog in this fight, joined in on the fun and excitement to let off a little steam. This included all manners of young troublemakers, disaffected youth, and left-leaning students. Naturally, the police were called in, and they promptly started banging some heads. So this disturbance that began at the Hong Kong artificial flower works. Galvanized popular discontent. You have to remember this was a labor dispute that received a nice added boost because of the message. the cultural revolution was blaring out. The next day after the disturbance in San Po Gong drivers for the Kaolun motor bus company joined in on the fray. Now KMB, which is still around today of course, was founded by one Dung Xu Kin. He is a future topic for the China history podcast. He was a rich guy who among other assets owned KMB. He later on became a major philanthropist and you could see his name around Hong Kong on hospitals and other public works. His grandson by the way is none other than Mr. David Tang. Deng Yongcheng, who many of you will know as the founder and the brains behind the upmarket retailer, Shanghai Tang, now owned by Richmont, the company behind Mary Kay Cosmetics. These KMB drivers were all chanting slogans and Mao sayings. They plastered their buses with signs that supported the workers and Chairman Mao. Among the signs were many anti-British ones as well. So San Po Gong was the center of all the disturbances. This part of Hong Kong was up for grabs. Roadblocks were built and barricades created to slow the police down. Cars and buses were set alight. Things weren't looking good for this very densely populated area of Hong Kong. The fight was shaping up now. On one side were left-wing activists supported by workers and locals looking to blow off some steam. And on the other side of course were the Hong Kong police. It was only natural that the whole thing would spread. By mid-May Hong Kong island had caught the infection and now everyone could see something was gonna happen. Now the British had to be careful. As I mentioned, all things considered they always had to stay and China's good graces. China tolerated the British down in Hong Kong only because there was something in it for them by having this backdoor to the rest of the world and to the West. Sino-British relations with respect to Hong Kong survived the Korean War but now with the cultural revolution it was a much more dangerous and unpredictable situation. The stories about China being out of control were well known at the top levels of the Hong Kong government. We all know from the eight-part cultural revolution series that this beast chairman Mao created could not be tamed and when it spilled into Hong Kong the authorities there had to be careful how hard they came down on these hotheads and want to be red guards who were stirring up trouble in the colony. So the Hong Kong government handled the situation gingerly and did their best to keep the situation under control while at the same time allowing the protesters to you know do their thing. They allowed a demonstration outside government house which is right above central. The crowd came in force but was kept under control. They pasted posters, placards, dots of ball and whatnot all over the gates and walls to the compound and there were megaphones and chanting and everyone just got everything off their chests but one of the main things they were protesting was the arrest of the other leftist protesters. Their followed demonstrations right in central buildings were defaced and it was like a little bit of the great proletarian cultural revolution madness that was engulfing China had shown up on Queens Road Central. In one incident a BBC TV crew got all roughed up then the crowd descended on the Hong Kong Hilton which is there anymore. The leaders of the demonstration were demanding that the British and American flags flying in front of the Hilton be taken down. They weren't well by late May the whole matter of a disgruntled labor force just took hold strikes broke out in transport food production retail textiles and even at some government departments staff weren't showing up and were showing solidarity with all the striking workers and those who had been laid off arrested or dismissed. All the excitement going on in Hong Kong was noticed up in Beijing. The radical elements in charge up there had a real bone to pick with the British embassy about the arrested protesters and the heavy-handed tactics that they were hearing about. The British Charger de Faires in Beijing was called to the MFA the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was given a major dressing down by a vice minister there. He was properly presented with a list of demands. They were five and all. One, accept all the workers demands. Two, free all arrested peoples. Three, end all fascist measures. Four, apologize to victims and compensate them. Five, guarantee no further similar incidents will occur. Yeah, right. Then on May 17th, a million protesters marched past the British embassy. Many were holding up posters saying, you know, "Britz get the heck out of Hong Kong" and, you know, things in that vein. And you know, these wild and crazy cultural revolution days, there was always someone anxious to fan the flames of outrage. Rumors were spread about all these supposed terrible things happening in Hong Kong. It was further declared that all of this was, of course, caused by the British and the Americans colluding against China. This was not true because the Americans didn't really get involved in the whole 1967 riots. They kept their distance. The US was by now knee deep in Vietnam and had their own problems. The next day on May 18th, the British gave their formal reply to the Chinese minister. They replied that the Hong Kong authorities had fulfilled their "inescapable duty" to maintain law and order as impartially and fairly as possible for the benefit of all of Hong Kong. Then to add weight to all of this, three officials had been sent from London to investigate what had gone down in Hong Kong during the first couple weeks of May with, you know, all the strikes, violence, disorder, etc. And they concluded, this is no surprise, that the Hong Kong authorities did the right thing. They did, however, say there seemed to be some legitimate gripes about the whole labor situation and they promised to look into that. The British and China took a lot of heat, though, and well-documented incident that happened in Shanghai, British diplomats' house was broken into. The poor guy was pushed around by a bunch of screeching radicals and roughed up. Not only was a picture of her majesty defaced in his house, they made this guy bow before a picture of Mao that someone was carrying, and they did this all in front of the guy's family with a trauma, you know, typical run-of-the-mill cultural revolution behavior, and was happening all over China. A June 3rd editorial in The People's Daily called for the people to "launch a vigorous struggle against the wicked British imperialists." A few weeks later in the House of Lords, the whole matter of what was happening in Hong Kong was debated. The whole upshot was that the Hong Kong authorities must maintain law, order, and security, but they said maybe it was a good idea to look into these labor conditions and see if there's anything there. So now began the face-off between the leftist radicals and the Hong Kong police. The leftist were rather organized and used every means at their disposal to do their work. They had at least 10 left-leaning newspapers to get their version of things out. They had the NCNA, the new China news agency Xinhua, that had always served as the unofficial China office in Hong Kong. They kept a steady drum beat of anti- British anti-imperialist propaganda going. News reports were constantly being sent to China that exaggerated the strong armed role of the Hong Kong police and quelling the disturbances. At the same time, they worded all their reports completely in favor of the radicals. Another thing about those crazy days in May, June, and into July, all the buildings owned by China, the Bank of China most notably, were completely covered in posters which said things like "stoo the white skinned pig, fry the yellow-running dogs and hang David Trench, the governor. Effigies of governor trench and other prominent British officials were burned at these demonstrations. This wasn't shaping up to be like the Star Fairy riots from a year ago." This is the story of the one. As a shipping manager, he's running the dock, stocking supplies, and making sure every order goes out on time, and Granger helps him stay prepared. From shipping supplies to PPE to hand tools, he counts on Granger to keep products moving and trucks rolling. So his operation runs smoothly, no matter the shift, call 1-800 Granger, click Granger.com or just out by Granger for the ones who get it done. Observe the North American dad, 50s, great polo collection. He enters his vehicle information on Carvana and offers appears in minutes. Remarkable. He squints, reads it again, smiles and says, "Dang, that's a good offer." The highest form of approval, no haggling, no hassle, no one called him boss. He's still on the couch, astonishing. Sell your car today on Carvana.com. Pick up these may apply. Hong Kong leftists or telling them to be cool and not overdo it. The leftists were spoiling for a fight and whatever orders coming from Beijing to keep things under control were ignored. The British brought in the aircraft carrier HMS Bullwork in order to have a show of force. The government wasn't taking all this lying down. After everyone had had enough of the loudspeakers blaring all the time, the authorities, as part of emergency measures, banned loudspeakers and on top of that, they banned any and all provocative and inflammatory posters. And to show they meant business, those who went against this emergency order, faced all manners of troubles and inconveniences. In anyone trying to test the resolve of the Hong Kong police, learn they weren't kidding. On the morning of July 8, 1967, the Hong Kong police had their own little date that lived in infamy. Up in Shatau Kok on the border with China, there was a daring daylight raid where leftist fighters crossed into Hong Kong and attacked a remote police post guarding the border. Shatau Kok was one of those towns that was half in China and half in Hong Kong. Across the border in China, the town was called by its Mandarin name, Shatau Gel. By the time the skirmish ended, five Hong Kong policemen were killed by gunfire and 80 others ended up barricading themselves inside the post and endured all manners of rocks, bottles and bombs thrown at them until the cavalry arrived and those who had infiltrated the border hustled back to China. When word got out in China about the daring raid, it was hailed as a fantastic victory over the British imperialist running dogs. Now came the time for the Hong Kong authorities to remove their boxing gloves and teach the radicals a thing or two. The British got wind of what was happening. It decided now is as good a time as any to call in the military. All hell was breaking loose now. At the same time as the incident on the border at Shatau Kok, there was also some excitement going on at another border town called Mankom Toe or Wenjin Du in Mandarin. Today this place is one of the several border crossings between China and Hong Kong. But back then, this predominantly Haka village was a restricted area. Very credible rumors got out that the PLA was starting to mass on the border and that they were going to invade Hong Kong. Now in retrospect, this doesn't seem possible, but given what was going on with all the protesting and violence and now with the murder of five Hong Kong policemen, the idea that the red army was going to invade Hong Kong and take it over, didn't seem so crazy. Words spread through the territory. The PLA was invading and what was happening in China with all the worst excesses of the cultural revolution was coming to Hong Kong. July 9th to 11th, there were more violent clashes in Hong Kong. This time on the island, another policeman was killed, bringing the total to six in one weekend. The next night, a curfew was imposed, six of their own had been killed. The Hong Kong police were now itching for a fight and were not going to exercise the restraint they had done up till now. They went on the offensive at once. They went after known leftists head on, known centers of communist activity were raided and troublemakers were rounded up, weapons, bombs and all manners of communist literature and propaganda confiscated. So leftists naturally didn't crumble. They had the numbers in the home field advantage. If the Hong Kong police were going to play rough, they would play rougher. And so began a bombing campaign that saw explosions all over the territory. The main targets were police stations and government buildings. By late July 1967, the bombing campaign was extended to other public places like movie theaters, outdoor markets, parks, vehicles were set on fire. Those were buses, taxis and private cars. Another tactic used to spread terror was the planting of fake bombs everywhere. No one knew when they came upon one if it was real or fake until it was too late. The people were freaking out and widespread panic and sood. No one was quite sure if the British were going to be able to prevail against the widespread terror. And the threat that the PLA was about to invade just made things that much worse. And so thousands began to give up and get out. There was a mass exodus from Hong Kong of people who knew the end had come. Hong Kong was finished. They dumped all their properties and assets and fled for safer places. Taiwan, other areas of Southeast Asia, wherever they could go. Not everyone was convinced that the worst case scenario was happening. One of those was Mr. Lee Ka-sheng. Despite the chaos and commotion going on, he knew this was just a passing phase and in the end, all would quiet down and return to normal. A lot of people thought this way, not everyone was heading for the exits. And so as people began to dump their properties, Mr. Lee took every cent he had and bought up all this real estate at bargain basement prices. Although Lee Ka-sheng was already a successful factory boss and one of the bigger artificial flower exporters, it was this period in July, August, September 1967 that really made him. This real estate that he bought up during these dark days ended up being the foundation of his fortune that today exceeds $24 billion, making him not only the richest man in Asia, but one of the richest people in the whole world. On July 20th, the government granted the police more powers and dusted off the so-called nine emergency measures they had come up with back in 1949. Now a vice was starting to put the squeeze on the radical leftists. Editors, publishers and printers of three leftist papers spewing out the most egregious propaganda were shut down, charged and locked up for inciting violence through their false reporting. Then in August, the heat got turned up a bit as the leftists pulled out all the stops to fight back against the authorities. On August 4th, the police carried out a joint raid with the military. A combination of 1,000 police and soldiers and three helicopters from the HMS Hermes launched an attack against three leftist strongholds, one of which was booby-trapped and filled with bomb-making equipment. By the end of August 1967, the popular tide began to turn irrevocably against the leftists. Back when they were rampaging for workers' rights, it was OK. People stood behind them. But now, after all the violence and in-your-faced propaganda and disturbances, the people of Hong Kong began turning away from them and became more and more reluctant to sign on. At August 20th, two children were killed after a ball they discovered and began playing with, exploded in their faces, killing both kids. And it planted a bomb inside and these two children became innocent victims of the violence. This didn't go over too well in the eyes of the Hong Kong populace, but it was four days later that really caused widespread revulsion against the methods of these radical leftists. On that day, August 24th, 1967, popular Hong Kong radio commentator Mr. Lombun was attacked in his car as he was leaving his house. Lombun and his cousin were ambushed by leftists who had been masquerading as a maintenance crew. They blocked his street and surrounded his car, dousing it with gasoline and they set it on fire and burned Lombun and his cousin to death. Lombun had been perhaps the most outspoken critic of the leftists, mocking them and pouring scorn on them in his radio program. Now the leftists had exited their revenge and assassinated him and forced his wife and three young daughters to flee to Taiwan for safety. Well, this is essentially what did it as far as any further popular support for the leftists went, carrying out a hit in broad daylight on such a popular figure as Lombun in such a horrific way. Turn the tide against the leftists and in favor of the police and the Hong Kong government. For a while now, the leftists have been sending out threatening letters to various Chinese business and community leaders, anyone else who dared to be outspoken like Lombun ended up on some leftist hit list and were branded as traitors who had to be rubbed out. Now how did the authorities in China feel about all this? Right about now, August September 1967, you had red guards attacking the PLA and those two were slugging it out big time up in China. The country was just being torn apart and Joe and Lai and others had bigger fish to fry in China trying to keep the ship of state from sinking than to worry about Hong Kong spiraling out of control. But Premier Joe surely knew about these incidents that went down in Hong Kong. He didn't like it, but under the circumstances there was little he could do to stop it. That British warships and aircraft carriers were heading in that direction didn't make the Premier too happy. Right around the time of the Wuhan incident that we discussed back in CHP Episode 87, Cultural Revolution Part 5, on August 22nd, red guards set fire to the British mission in Beijing and pushed around and physically abused the staff up. there. The British and Chinese by now were having a classic diplomatic tit for tat brawl. On August 29, in London, there was a violent incident involving PRC diplomats who attacked police in the street. This resulted in the PRC canceling all exit permits for any Britons wanting to bail out of China. The red guards by now were in a froth over what was happening. It was getting uglier by the day and taking sign-o-British relations to lows not seen since the opium wars. September 1967, the top PRC leaders began to turn away from the Hong Kong leftists. "Hey man, they were making the PRC look bad! Between the withdrawal of PRC support and the very effective measures taken by the Hong Kong authorities to shut down all these leftist dens and headquarters. These strong armed tactics were paying off and both sides just continued to slug things out, but a corner had been turned. On the one hand, the government continued their heavy-handed measures to defeat the leftists and at the same time they tried to cut all kinds of deals with striking workers. They did things like promise them if they came back to work, all would be forgiven and no one would suffer any retribution. This really divided the workers as some wanted to keep up the fight and some had decided enough was enough." Now you'd think the end was at hand between Britain and China. Yet despite all this kind of totally strange behavior coming out of China and directed at Britain, the British still believed and they were sending out feelers to this extent that the PRC should be admitted to the UN. This didn't go unnoticed by Joe and Li. On National Day, October 1, 1967, the traditional day to give the annual renewal of China's water supply agreement to Hong Kong. The approval came without any incident. Hong Kong didn't have much of a natural water supply and was completely dependent on China's goodwill to supply water to the territory. Every National Day was the symbolic renewal date and although there was some fear that China would use this nuclear option to whack Britain, nothing of the sword happened. The water kept flowing. As 1967 was narrowing the end, the attitude towards the leftists in Hong Kong had fallen to an all-time low up in Beijing. Joe knew by now most of the accounts of activities down there that he was reading were fiction and wildly exaggerated. The leftists there weren't following orders and had proven to be most unreliable and uncontrollable. Joe had a big enough problem on his hands with China out of control. He didn't need the additional headache down in Hong Kong. And so the last line of support for the leftists began to fade. The public had by now grown tired of the madness that hit Hong Kong in 1967. Now with Beijing turning their back on the Hong Kong leftists, their days were numbered. Pretty soon, everyone was simply going to have to stand down and go back to whatever it was they were doing before the fireworks at the Hong Kong artificial flower works in Sanpo Gong. By December, Premier Joe and I gave the formal order to these leftists to stop what they were doing. And with this order, it was over. See, there was no question that something had to be done about labor rights. When the leftists referred to their cause as a national, heroic, patriotic reaction of an oppressed people, they weren't far from the mark. Anyone could see the state of affairs wasn't fair, but this didn't mean the masses in Hong Kong wished for Britain to leave. The alternative was not generally acceptable to everyone. Most of the older populists of Hong Kong had all fled China for one reason or another. Chaos, war, fear of communist oppression led them to Hong Kong. When Hong Kong people read and heard about the worst excesses of the Cultural Revolution, that was the I told you so, the people felt as far as the correctness of their decision to leave China for the milder political and social climate of Hong Kong. There was some sympathy that people felt for the leftists due to the Hong Kong police strong armed tactics. But other than this, there was very little widespread support. You'd think the students would have hopped on board the leftists trained, but even they cooled towards them. The violence and tactics of the left simply turned them off. In fact, they're ended up being quite a bit of local support from students in favor of the government's decision and, you know, after the incidents and chateau cock for the police as well. Aside from all this, people had simply had enough of the disruption the leftists were causing to the people's daily lives. And when the leftists turned to violence in July and August, this just turned people off. It turned them away from the message the leftists were trying to get out and in favor of the government and the police. In 1969, Queen Elizabeth later bestowed a great honor on the police, renaming the police force, the royal Hong Kong police force. The well-known Hong Kong politician and founder in 1992 of the pro-Beijing Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong, Zhang Yoxing, said many years later that a lot of these troublemakers were simple workers who had been oppressed their entire lives and lived without hope that they should embrace the leftists like they did was only natural. It's a great Britain and the colonial government came out of this whole mess smelling quite good. The government had a newfound popularity in legitimacy. What had happened in 1967 allowed the people of Hong Kong, at least at the time, to know that there was very little in it for them to throw the British out of Hong Kong and embrace China instead. All the violence, chaos, and disruption in Hong Kong was all the proof that people needed that this kind of leftist talk was best left at the border. Nobody wanted it down in Hong Kong. Another thing that came out of this experience was the way Hong Kong people now identified themselves. Not so much anymore with Britain or with China, they felt a new independent identity, that of Hong Kong people. It was the beginning of a new age and much of the change they demanded was now set to happen. The three biggest demands for reform centered around improving labor relations, communication between the government and the people, and expanding education. In the years immediately following the 1967 Hong Kong riots, there was quite a bit of discussion that led to implementation of many reforms in the 1970s. Governor David Trench actually had hoped to become Hong Kong's champion of reform when he began serving as governor in 1964. But any hopes of bringing a new age to Hong Kong got swept away once the 1967 riots started. And so it fell to Governor Trench's successor, the 25th governor of Hong Kong, Murray McElhose, to become Hong Kong's great champion of reform. In our next episode, we will look at the McElhose years. He served as Hong Kong's governor from 1971 to 1982, which made him Hong Kong's longest serving governor in the history of the colony. The Starferry riots of 1966 and the Hong Kong leftist riots of 1967 were all the Hong Kong government needed to get the point. The old ways weren't suitable anymore. This was a new age, and people demanded dignity and respect. The old ways didn't fit in to this new modern age. Hong Kong society didn't come to a halt during the riots. Life was disrupted, but it was by no means anything like what was happening in China, even with so many thousands deserting the territory and fleeing to more peaceful lands. Most felt like Lee Kashin, that this was terrible, but it would pass and pass it did. And it was during the worst part of the riots, by the way, that Mr. Yang Wingsheng, known affectionately as Fifth Uncle, opened up the Hong Kong landmark, amigo restaurant. This Hong Kong institution that I've eaten at many times opened up in the middle of the riots and Causeway Bay later, moving to their present location, and Happy Valley. In the end, 51 people died in the riots, including the six police officers. 15 of these deaths came from the bombings of the 800 people who were injured, almost half came from the bombs that were planted all over the place by the leftists. In the end, 5,000 people were arrested, and of those 5,000, 2,000 were convicted. Okay, let's put the bookmark in right here and save the rest for later. This is now the longest running series for the China History Podcast. Nine episodes, and still going strong. I don't know if we'll be able to finish up in episode 10, but probably episode 11, we should be able to make it to 1997. If you've made it this far, and thank you for listening, this is Los Lamont Gummary coming to you from room 1902 of the Weston Guangzhou. I'm often in Boa tomorrow for a visit to the head office. This one should be a barn burner. After that, I'm going to Frankfurt for my annual trip to the paper world show there, so we're going into a tunnel now until the 29th of January. Once I get back to LA, I'll begin working on CHP 110, and with this episode, perhaps, we could finish up this history of Hong Kong series. Take care everyone, and there's nothing in this world I wish for more. Then to see you next time for another exciting episode of the China History Podcast. moving and trucks rolling, so his operation runs smoothly, no matter the shift. Call 1-800-Grainger. Click ranger.com or just out by Granger for the ones who get it done.