Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-5g6vh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-28T10:01:33.249Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

From Empire Defence to Imperial Retreat: Britain's Postwar China Policy and the Decolonization of Hong Kong

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

James T. H. Tang
Affiliation:
University of Hong Kong

Extract

Attempts to examine Hong Kong as an issue in British postwar colonial policy often emphasize the unique nature of the colony, and therefore a special case in British decolonization. Hong Kong has been regarded as an unconventional colonial entity, an anachronism in the modern world. But others argue that the word colony is not an appropriate term to describe it, except in the most severely technical legal sense, because of its spectacular industrial and economic development since the end of the Second World War. Nonetheless, Hong Kong has existed as a British crown colony since 1842, and its colonial political structures have remained more or less the same until the early 1980s. Hong Kong's special relations with China is an important factor making it an oddity in post-war British decolonization. Instead of becoming independent like most other British colonialterritories, Hong Kong's political future is linked to China. This situation of ‘decolonization without independence’ has been an important theme of academic analysis on the colony's political development.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 See for example: Cameron, Nigel, An Illustrated Histoy of Hong Kong (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1991), p. 4Google Scholar; Miners, N.J., The Government and Politics of Hong Kong (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1981), 3rd edn, p. xvGoogle Scholar; Harris, Peter, Hong Kong: A Study in Bureaucracy and Politics (Hong Kong: Macmillan, 1988), p. 11.Google Scholar

2 Siu-kai, Lau, Decolonization without Independence: The Unfinished Political Reforms of the Hong Kong Government (Hong Kong: The Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1987).Google Scholar

3 Holland, R. F., ‘The Imperial Factor in British Strategies: From Attlee to Macmillan, 1945–1963’ in Holland, R. F. and Rizvi, G. (eds), Perspectives on Imperialism and Decolonization: Essays in Honour of A. F. Madden (London: Frank Cass, 1984), Pp. 165–6.Google Scholar

4 Darwin, John, ‘British Decolonization since 1945: A Pattern or a Puzzle?’ in Holland, and Rizvi, (eds)Google Scholar, ibid., p. 190.

5 Newly opened classified British official documents in the Public Record Office in London have generated a large number of works on postwar British foreign policy. Some examples of the rapidly expanding research efforts in this area are: Deighton, A. (ed.), Britain and the First Cold War (London: Macmillan, 1990)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Dockrill, M. and Young, J. W. (eds), British Foreign Policy 1945–56 (London: Macmillan, 1989)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lucas, W. S., Divided We Stand: Britain, the U.S., and the Suez Crisis (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1991)Google Scholar; Tang, J. T. H., Britain's Encounter with Revolutionary China, 1949–1954 (London: Macmillan, 1992)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Young, J. W. (ed), The Foreign Policy of Churchill's Peacetime Administration, 1951–1955 (Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1988).Google Scholar

6 Eade, C. (ed), Winston Churchill War Speeches (London: Cassell, 1951), ii, p. 344.Google Scholar

7 Darby, Phillip, British Defence Policy East of Suez, 1947–1968 (London: Oxford University Press for the Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1973), p. 10.Google Scholar

8 A useful account of the idea of the ‘Third Force’ is Young, John W. and Kent, John, ‘British Policy Overseas: “The Third Force” and the Origins of NATO–In Search of a New Perspective’ in Heuser, Beatrice and O'sNeill, Robert (eds), Securing Peace in Europe, 1945–1962: Thoughts for the Post-Cold War Era (London: Macmillan in association with St Antony's College Oxford, 1992).Google Scholar

9 General accounts of Britain's post-war foreign policy include: Frankel, Joseph, British Foreign Policy, 1945 to 1973 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1975)Google Scholar; Northedge, F. S., Descent from Power: British Foreign Policy, 1945–73 (London: Allen and Unwin, 1974).Google Scholar

10 Public Record Office, London (hereafter PRO) CAB 129/35 CP(49) 120.Google Scholar

11 Grantham, Alexander, Via Ports: From Hong Kong to Hong Kong (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1965).Google Scholar

12 Tsang, Steve Yui-sang, Democracy Shelved: Great Britain, China, and Attempts at Constitutional Reform in Hong Kong, 1945–1952 (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1988), p. 13Google Scholar; Kit-ching, Chan Lau, China, Britain and Hong Kong, 1895–1945 (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1990), pp. 293309.Google Scholar

13 Foreign Relations of the United States: The Conferences at Cairo and Teheran (Washington, 1961), p. 554Google Scholar quoted in Louis, Wm Roger, Imperialism at Bay 1941–1945: The United States and the Decolonization of the British Empire (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977), p. 285.Google Scholar

14 For an account of the Yalta Conference and the agreements for post-war Asia see Iriye, Akira, The Cold War in Asia: A Historical Introduction (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1974), pp. 94–7.Google Scholar

15 Note by Churchill 11 April 1945 PRO FO37/46325, quoted in Wm Roger Louis, Imperialism at Bay, p. 548Google Scholar, see also Callahan, Raymond A., Churchill: Retreat from Empire (Wilmington: Scholarly Resources, 1984), p. 210.Google Scholar

16 Kit-ching, Chan Lau, China, Britain and Hong Kong, p. 314.Google Scholar

17 Ibid., pp. 321–2; Tsang, Steve, Democracy Shelved, pp. 1920Google Scholar; Shai, Aron, Britain and China, 1941–1947: Imperial Momentum (London: Macmillan, 1984), pp. 120–2.Google Scholar

18 See Shai, Aron, Britain and China, pp. 124–5.Google Scholar

19 Tsang, Steve, Democracy Shelved, pp. 52, 28–9.Google Scholar

20 Morgan, D. J., The Official History of Colonial Development, Vol. 5, Guidance Towards Self-Government in British Colonies: 1941–1971 (Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Humanities Press, 1980), p. 20.Google ScholarTsang's, SteveDemocracy Shelved remains the most fascinating account of the abortive attempt to bring about constitutional reforms in postwar Hong Kong.Google Scholar

21 PRO FO371 63440 F4491/4491/10.Google Scholar

22 See Fung-shen, Ho, Waijiao Sheng Ya Sishi Nian [Forty Years as a Diplomat[ (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1990), pp. 201–3Google Scholar, and Grantham, , Via Ports: From Hong Kong to Hong Kong, pp. 130–3.Google Scholar Other useful accounts of the Kowloon Walled-City included: Westly-Smith, Peter, ‘Unequal Treaty; Forlorn, Forbidden and Forgotten: Kowloon's Walled City’, Kaleidoscope, vol. 1 no. 3Google Scholar; Miners, N. J., ‘A Tale of Two Walled Cities: Kowloon and Weihaiwei’, Hong Kong Law Journal, 12: 2 (1982).Google Scholar

23 Minute by Coulson, 6 March 1945; minute by Victor Cavendish-Bentinck, 13 March 1945, PRO FO371 46232 F1331/409/10.Google Scholar See also Tang, , Britain’s Encounter with Revolutionary China, pp. 1516.Google Scholar

24 PRO FO371 63549 F2612/2612/10, also see Shai, Aron, Britain and China, pp. 150–1Google Scholar; see also Tang, , Britain's Encounter with Revolutionary China, pp. 1618.Google Scholar

25 PRO CABI29/31 CP(48)299. For a more detailed analysis of CP(48)299 see Tang, , Britain's Encounter with Revolutionary China, pp. 32–4.Google Scholar

27 Gaddis, John Lewis, The United States and the Origins of the Cold War, 1941–1947 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1972), p. 356.Google Scholar

28 For more details on the Truman doctrine see Gaddis, ibid., ch. 10; LaFeber, Walter, America, Russia, and the Cold War: 1945–1980 (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 4th edn, 1980), ch. 3Google Scholar; Hall, Louis J., The Cold War as History (New York: Harper, 1967), ch. 12.Google Scholar

29 PRO CAB 129/23 CP(48)6, 4 Jan. 1948.Google Scholar

30 A brief account of British analysis of British defence thinking about the nature of the Soviet threat is in Beatrice Heuser, ‘Stalin as Hitler's Successor’ in Heuser, and O'Neill, , Securing Peace in Europe, pp. 1820.Google Scholar

31 Cabinet paper, PRO CAB 129/23 CP(48)6, 4 Jan. 1948.Google Scholar For a discussion of the linkage between Britain's postwar imperial ambition and the Cold War see Kent, John, ‘The British Empire and the Origins of the Cold War, 1944–49’ in Deighton, (ed.), Britain and the First Cold War, pp. 165–83.Google Scholar

32 Two detailed accounts on Britain's decision to accord recognition to the People's Republic of China are: Ovendale, Ritchie, ‘Britain, the United States, and the Recognition of Communist China’, The Historical Journal, 1 (1983)Google Scholar, and Wolf, D. C., ‘“To Secure a Convenience”: Britain Recognizes China—1950’, Journal of Contemporary History, 18, 2 (04 1983).CrossRefGoogle Scholar Also see Tang, , Britain's Encounter with Revolutionary China, ch. 2.Google Scholar

33 For a comprehensive discussion of the US attitude towards the recognition question see Tucker, Nancy Bernkopf, Pattern in the Dust: Chinese—American Relations and the Recognition Controversy, 1949–1950 (New York: Columbia, 1983). The Anglo-American can differences were clearly shown in the exchanges between Bevin and Acheson during a meeting in December 1949: Memorandum of Conversation by the Secretary of State, 8 Dec. 1949Google Scholar, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1949, Vol. IX, pp. 219–20 Washington to Foreign Office, 8 Dec. 1949, PRO FO 371 75826 F18418/1023/10.Google Scholar Two more general discussions are: McFarquhar, Roderick, ‘The China Problem in Anglo-American Relations’ in Louis, Wm Roger and Bull, Hedley (eds), The ‘Special Relationship’: Anglo-American Relations Since 1945 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986)Google Scholar, and Tang, James T. H., ‘Alliance Under Stress: Anglo-American Relations and East Asia, 1949–1951’ in Heuser, and O'Neill, (eds), Securing Peace in Europe.Google Scholar

34 Note of meeting between the Foreign Secretary and Commonwealth Ambassadors in Washington, 16 Sept. 1949, PRO FO371 76024 F14305/1024/61G.Google Scholar

35 PRO CAB 129/35 CP(49) 120.Google Scholar

36 A detailed study of the tortuous Sino-British negotiations for the establishment of official diplomatic relations is in Tang, , Britain's Encounter with Revolutionay China, chs and 4.Google Scholar

37 Dangdai Zhongguo Waijiao (Beijing; Zhongguo Shehui Kexue Chubanshe, 1990), pp. 1223Google Scholar, an English edition is available: Diplomacy of Contemporay China (Hong Kong: New Horizon Press, 1990), pp. 1718.Google Scholar The original Chinese version of the Sino-British exchanges can be found in Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo Duiwai Guanxi Wenjianji, vol. 1: 1949–1950 (Beijing: Shijie Zhishi Chubanshe, 1957), p. 123. The English version can be found in PRO FO37, 83295 FC 1022/518.Google Scholar

38 An official account of the aircraft incident can be found in Annex A to Cabinet Paper 3 April 1950, PRO CP(50)61.Google Scholar

39 Memorandum by the Colonial Secretary and the Minister of State at the Foreign Office, 3 April 1950, PRO CAB 129/39 CP(50)61.Google Scholar

40 Cabinet meeting, 6 April 1950, PRO CM(50) 19th meeting; Cabinet paper, 21 April 1950, PRO CAB 129/39 CP(50)74; Cabinet meeting 24 April 1950, PRO CM(50)24th meeting.Google Scholar

41 Truman, Harry, The Memoirs of Hary S. Truman, vol. 2: Years of Trial and Hope, 1946–53 (New York: Doubleday, 1956), p. 351.Google Scholar

42 Cabinet meeting, 27 June 1950, PRO CAB 128/17 CM39(50). Full text of Truman's statement in Department of State Bulletin, 3 July 1950.Google Scholar

43 Chief of Staff Meeting, 30 June 1950, PRO DEFE COS(50) 100th Meeting item one.Google Scholar See also Ovendale, Ritchie, ‘Britain and the Cold War in Asia’ in Ovendale, Ritchie (ed.), The Foreign Policy of the British Labour Governments, 1945–1951 (Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1984), pp. 131–2.Google Scholar

44 UN Doc.A/ 15th session, General Assembly item 76, pp. 20–1; General Assembly 5th session supplement no. 20A R.500(v), p. 2Google Scholar; Hansard, , House of Commons Debates, series 5, vol. 489, cols 245–52.Google Scholar

45 ZhongHua Renmin Gongheguo duiwai guanxi wenjianji, 1951–53 (Beijing: Shijie Zhishi Chubanshe, 1958), p. 27.Google Scholar

46 Grantham, Alexander, Via Ports: From Hong Kong to Hong Kong, p. 167.Google Scholar

47 For a study of the movement of capital into Hong Kong during this period see Siu-lun, Wong, Emigrant Entrepreneurs: Shanghai Industrialists in Hong Kong (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1988), ch. 3.Google Scholar

48 Morgan, , Guidance Towards Self-Government in British Colonies, p. 20.Google Scholar

49 ‘Policy in the Far East’, Cabinet paper, 24 Nov. 1953, PRO CAB 129/64 C(53)330. For an analysis of the changes in Britain's China policy as a result of the Korean conflict see Tang, Britain's Encounter with Revolutionary China, chs 3 and 4.Google Scholar

50 Murray, James, Minute, 14 Aug. 1954.Google Scholar PRO FO371/110187, quoted in Dockrill, Michael, ‘Britain and the First Chinese Off-Shore Islands Crisis, 1954–55’ in Dockrill, and Young, (eds), British Foreign Policy, 1945–56, p. 192.Google Scholar

51 Eden, Anthony, The Memoirs of Sir Anthony Eden: Full Circle (London: Cassell, 1960), p. 93.Google Scholar A brief discussion of Britain's exclusion from ANZUS and the Commonwealth responsibilities in Southeast Asia is in Miller, J. D. B., ‘The “Special Relationship” in the Pacific’ in Louis and Bull, The ‘Special Relationship’, pp. 382–4.Google Scholar One useful book on SEATO is Buszynski, Leszek, SEATO: The Failure of an Alliance Strategy (Singapore: Singapore University Press, 1983).Google Scholar

52 Hansard, , House of Commons Debates, series 5, 16 Dec. 1964, cols 423–4.Google Scholar

53 For a discussion of the final British decision to withdraw completely from Asia see Darby, , British Defence Policy East of Suez, pp. 316–26.Google Scholar

54 Scott, Ian, Political Change and the Crisis of Legitimacy in Hong Kong (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1989), p. 174.Google Scholar

55 Bonavia, David, Hong Kong 1997: The Final Settlement (Bromley: Colombus, 1985), p. 7.Google Scholar

56 Hill, Christopher, ‘The Historical Background Past and Present in British Foreign Policy’ in Smith, Michael, Smith, Steve and White, Brian (eds), British Foreign Policy: Tradition, Change, and Transformation (London: Unwin Hyman, 1988).Google Scholar

57 Memorandum by the Foreign and Colonial Secretaries, 19 Aug. 1949 CP(49)177, closed in the PRO, but available in Arthur Creech-Jones papers, Hong Kong, Box 57 File 1, Rhodes House Library, Oxford. See also Tang, Britain's Encounter with Revolutionary China, p. 185.Google Scholar