1967 Hong Kong riots facts for kids
Quick facts for kids 1967 Hong Kong riots |
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Clash between striking tram workers and police officers on 30 August 1967
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| Date | May – December 1967 | ||
| Location | |||
| Methods | Demonstrations, strikes, assassinations, planting of bombs | ||
| Resulted in | Riots quelled
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| Parties to the civil conflict | |||
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| Casualties | |||
| Death(s) | 51 | ||
| Injuries | 832 | ||
| Arrested | 4,979 | ||
| 1967 Hong Kong riots | |||||||||||||||||
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| Traditional Chinese | 六七暴動 | ||||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 六七暴动 | ||||||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | '67 riots | ||||||||||||||||
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The 1967 Hong Kong riots were large-scale anti-government riots that occurred in Hong Kong during British colonial rule. Beginning as a minor labour dispute, the demonstrations eventually escalated into protests against the colonial government. The protests were partially inspired by successful anti-colonial demonstrations in Portuguese Macau which had occurred a few months prior.
The use of roadside bombs and petrol bombs by demonstrators prompted the Hong Kong Police Force to raid the demonstrators' strongholds and arrest their leaders. Fifty-one people were killed in the subsequent violence. As many of the bombs were made in pro-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) schools, then governor David Trench decided to close those schools and ban pro-CCP publications in the colony.
The protests occurred in the backdrop of the Cultural Revolution taking place in the People's Republic of China (Mainland China), with many of the protesters harbouring leftist views and sympathies toward the CCP. After the riots, the British Hong Kong government publicly reflected on its failure to address certain social grievances and carried out major social reforms. However, another series of riots would occur in 1981.
Tensions
The initial demonstrations were labour disputes that began as early as May 1967 in shipping, taxi, textile, and cement companies. The unions that took up the cause were all members of the Hong Kong and Kowloon Federation of Trade Unions, a labour group with strong ties to Beijing.
The political climate was tense in Hong Kong in the spring of 1967. Across the colony's northern border was a tumultuous People's Republic of China (PRC), with Red Guards carrying out purges and engaging in infighting amidst the Cultural Revolution. To the west of Hong Kong, in the Portuguese colony of Macau, two months of violent clashes between colonial police and pro-CCP demonstrators had just ended. Order was not restored to Macau despite the intervention of the Portuguese army, and a general strike in January 1967 pressured the Portuguese government into agreeing to many of the demonstrators' demands, placing the colony under the de facto control of the PRC. Up to 31 protests were held in Hong Kong.
See also
In Spanish: Disturbios en Hong Kong de 1967 para niños
