The June 7 Riots, also known as the June 7 Leftist Labor Union Riots, which participants at the time called the Anti-British Resistance Riots, took place in Hong Kong in 1967. The pro-*** leftists in Hong Kong, inspired by the Cultural Revolution in mainland China, started a riot against the British colonial government. The incident progressed from strikes and demonstrations in the beginning to assassinations and planting of bombs in the later stages. As a result, 51 people lost their lives directly in the riots and more than 800 others were injured.
In May 1967, a labor dispute broke out at the San Po Kong Flower Factory in San Po Kong, Kowloon. 21 workers were arrested by the police on May 6 after a clash between laborers who surrounded the factory and the police who suppressed the strike, injuring a number of workers, and a union representative who went to the police station was also detained. The following day, workers and other supporters took to the streets. Demonstrators held Mao quotes and chanted ****production party slogans, modeled after those of the Cultural Revolution in mainland China. Police used tear gas and wooden bombs to disperse the demonstrators and arrested 127 people. In the evening, the government announced that all police officers would cancel their leave and a curfew would be imposed in Kowloon. On May 15, Beijing's Foreign Ministry protested to the British Chargé d'affaires and mobilized Beijingers to demonstrate outside the British Chargé d'affaires in Beijing. On May 15, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs protested to the British Chargé d'Affaires and mobilized Beijingers to demonstrate outside the British Chargé d'Affaires. Some of them even stormed the residence and office of the Chargé d'affaires that night. The leftist newspapers in Hong Kong reported the news of Beijing's support, which was distributed to passers-by by leftist school students in the streets, and the Bank of China installed loudspeakers on the roof of its head office in Central to publicize the revolution.
On May 16, the pro-China leftists in Hong Kong announced the establishment of the Hong Kong and Kowloon Compatriots' Struggle Committee Against the British Hong Kong Persecution, or the Struggle Committee for short, with Yang Guang, chairman of the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (FTU), as its director. Under the slogan of "Anti-British and Anti-Violence", the committee joined hands with hundreds of pro-*** groups to demonstrate at the Governor's Mansion, carrying Mao's dictums and posting large-character posters outside the Governor's Mansion.
Thereafter, there were rallies and demonstrations all over Hong Kong and Kowloon, involving not only workers but also students and other people. There were also regular strikes by buses, trams, gas companies and the Star Ferry.
On May 21, the riot spread to Central, and on May 22, 167 people were arrested in a bloody clash between protesters and police. The rioting workers and students took advantage of leftist newspapers, banks, national product companies and schools to stage demonstrations and attacked the police and the still moving public **** traffic. After the riot police arrived and dispersed the demonstration with tear gas and batons, the demonstrators quickly withdrew to their strongholds, exhausting the police.
On July 8, about 100 mainland militiamen engaged in a gun battle with Hong Kong police at Sha Tau Kok, in which five Hong Kong police officers were killed in the line of duty. The People's Daily once again published remarks in support of Hong Kong's leftist anti-British resistance to the riots. Rumors emerged in Hong Kong that Beijing intended to take back Hong Kong. After that, the actions of the leftists further escalated, and they started to make clay bombs to attack police stations, and used acids (hydrochloric acid) to attack passing police cars and public **** traffic from a high place, and the laboratories of the leftist schools became bomb-making workshops.
The police responded with force in July and August, storming various leftist strongholds, and on Aug. 4, helicopters from a British aircraft carrier landed from the rooftop and attacked the leftist stronghold of Kiu Koon Building, which is located at the junction of King's Road and Sugar Shui Road, and is home to the national department store Wah Fung Department Store. The police found a variety of bombs and weapons in the building, as well as a well-equipped field hospital with an operating room. Under an emergency decree, police closed down leftist schools and leftist newspapers that had been making incendiary statements, and made arrests of leftists, detaining them in cells at the political department in Mount Davis, some of whom were later arrested and taken out of the country.
The leftists responded by escalating bombing campaigns, placing real and fake bombs in various downtown areas in Hong Kong and Kowloon. The bombs, most of which bore the message "compatriots stay away" in large letters, were found on trams, buses and in the streets. Apart from disrupting people's lives, the bomb attacks also caused death and injury to innocent people. A seven-year-old girl and her two-year-old brother were killed by a gift-wrapped claymore bomb in North Point. Police and British Army bomb disposal experts, who were responsible for defusing the bomb, were also killed or injured.
There was widespread public disgust at the violence. Many media outlets not controlled by the left opposed the riots and supported the government and police in maintaining order and security. On August 24, Lam Bun, a commercial radio host, was ambushed on his way to work. Murderers disguised as road construction workers stopped the car driven by Lam and set fire to Lam and his cousin, who later died in hospital. Ming Pao's president, Louis Cha, also left Hong Kong after receiving death threats because of his clear opposition to the Cultural Revolution and the riots in his newspaper.
The real and fake bombs continued to injure people in the downtown area until October, when the government launched the local Hong Kong Festival to boost public confidence and create an atmosphere of peace, countering the leftist's "11th National Day" and the rightist's "Double Tenth National Day". The leftists launched the local Hong Kong Festival to counter the "11th National Day" of the leftists and the "Double Ten National Day" of the rightists. In mid-December, Zhou Enlai gave a direct order to the leftists in Hong Kong to stop the bombing trend, and the June 7 riots came to an end.
Impact
According to statistics, at least 51 people died in the June 7 riots, including 11 police officers, a British bomb disposal expert and a fireman. More than 800 people were injured, including 200 police officers. The riots also caused economic damage, with some people selling their possessions and leaving Hong Kong, resulting in the first wave of emigration from the city and a sharp drop in urban property prices.
After the riots subsided, pro-China leftist organizations in Hong Kong were damaged to a certain extent, with many underground organizations exposed in the incident and some of them repatriated to the mainland. The leftist approach of violent resistance lost its popularity; after the riots, many Hong Kong people were wary of the leftists, and the effects lasted until after 1997. Many people who used to belong to or were close to the leftists have since left the leftist organizations.
After studying the causes of the riots, the colonial government of Hong Kong realized that young people were being recruited by the leftists because of a lack of activities to engage them in their free time, and decided to increase the number of recreational and cultural activities. At the same time, the government recognized the need to improve people's livelihood to reduce social unrest and confrontation between the public and the government; this indirectly led to the reforms in education, health care, and clean government in Hong Kong in the 1970s.
The Hong Kong Police Force was recognized for its loyalty and bravery during the riots, and in 1969 was awarded the title of "Royal" by the Queen of England, which it retained until June 30, 1997, when sovereignty was returned to Hong Kong.