1967 Revolt — A Selected Diary

Phase 1 Worker Pickets and Rallies (May to June)
6 May
The workers at the Hong Kong Artificial Flower Works in San Po Kong expressed their demands to management. Police arrest 21 men.
11 May
Workers attempt to break into the Artificial Flower Works and clash with police while doing so. Organisers and workers chant Maoist slogans. Riots break out.
11-14 May
Workers clash with police at Artificial Flower Works in San Po Kong. Kowloon witnesses street demonstrations and rioting. Buses are set alight; government offices are looted and buildings are burnt. The Communist media spreads rumours about a rice shortage while converting labour issues into colony-wide political issues. The government counter-claims that rioters were paid and that they were ordered to violently target government offices.
15 May
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing releases a statement to the British colonial authorities in Hong Kong demanding an end to police brutality against the protesters. "Immediately accept all the just demands put forward by Chinese workers and residents in Hong Kong" it read. "Immediately stop all fascist measures. Immediately set free all the arrested persons (including workers, journalists and cameramen). Punish the culprits responsible for these sanguinary atrocities, offer apologies to the victims and compensate for their losses. Guarantee against the occurrence of similar incidents." The British did not respond.
22 May
Attempts to demonstrate outside Government House are thwarted by police. There are major confrontations between police and demonstrators in Garden Road, Central. Using loud speakers, the Communists broadcast threats and abuse aimed at the colonial authorities and offers solidarity messages to the protesters. The British colonial authorities counter this offensive with selections of Cantonese opera. A three-day unintelligible noise-barrage takes place in Central.

1 June
The British colonial authorities introduce emergency anti-Communist regulations forbidding the display of wall posters.

Phase 2 Workers General Strike and Boycotts (June to August)
Early to Mid-June
Transport services are widely disrupted. There are intermittent strikes and work stoppages at bus, ferry and taxi companies. Police force their way into government electrical and mechanical workshops and the Kowloon depot of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company. 500 people are arrested.
23 June
Police force their way into Hong Kong Rubber and Plastic Workers Union. Fifty-three arrested, three die.
24 June
The Communists call for a General Strike of which only about 50 percent of the transport sector participates. Any Government staff that took part in the work stoppage in the Marine Department, the Public Works, the Post Office and the Resettlement and Urban Services departments are suspended or dismissed, unless
they proved they had been intimidated. In total 1,651 civil service employees (2.35% of the total workforce) loose their jobs. Private companies followed the government’s lead and began to penalise communist supporters.
24 June
There is an armed attack on the police station at Sha Tau Kok from over the border.
July
Drought. No response to request for additional water supplies from China.
28 June to 4 July
Food strike. There is an attempt to disrupt food supplies from China.
8 July
Second attack on the police station at Sha Tau Kok. Five policemen killed,
eleven wounded.
9-12 July
Further urban demonstrations.
12 July
Police take offensive action against communists, raiding premises, seizing
weapons and detaining suspects.
15 July
Workers boycott of the port announced.
24 July to 15 September
Freight service between China and Hong Kong suspended.

Phase 3 Violent Collision with Authorities (August to December)
August
Random bomb attacks including those in large shopping centres, police stations,
harbour ferries, trams and Salvation Army buildings. A rumoured assassination
list of well-known Hong Kong anti-Communist figures is circulated by colonial
agents. Public support wanes.
22 August
British Charge d’Affaires in Beijing sacked in reprisal for the arrest of New
China News Agency reporters and colonial action against communist newspapers. The
communist party seeks to reduce the level of violent confrontation between Hong
Kong communists and police. However, by now, they did not have sufficient control
of local activists.
24 August
Anti-communist radio commentator, Lam Bun and his cousin are burned to death.
30 October to 5 November
Increase in bomb attacks in an attempt to disrupt Hong Kong week, a government-sponsored promotion displaying the territory’s products.
August to December
Random bomb attacks start across Hong Kong. Fifteen people killed by explosions. A total of 8,074 suspected bombs were found of which 1,167 were genuine. Loss of public support for Communists. Government anti-Communist campaign continues in full force while colonial authorities are quick to claim victory for ‘restoring order’ in Hong Kong. Hong Kong experiences a colonial makeover.

Sources compiled from: Hong Kong Disturbances 1967 (Hong Kong: Government Printer, 1968); John Cooper, Colony in Conflict: The Hong Kong Disturbances, May 1967 - January 1968 (Hong Kong: Swindon, 1970); Stephen Edward Waldron, Fire on the Rim: A Study in Contradictions in Left-Wing Mobilization (unpublished Ph.D dissertation, Syracuse University, 1976); Ian Scott, Political Change and the Crisis of Legitimacy in Hong Kong (Oxford University Press, 1989); David Faure, A Documentary History of Hong Kong Society (Hong Kong University Press, 1997) and also press coverage at the time.