Socialism In Hong Kong

Socialism in Hong Kong is a political trend taking root from Marxism and Leninism which was imported to Hong Kong in the early 1920s. Socialist trends have taken various forms, including Marxism–Leninism, Maoism, Trotskyism, democratic socialism and liberal socialism, with the Marxism–Leninists being the most dominant faction due to the influence of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime in the mainland. The "traditional leftists" became the largest force representing the pro-Beijing camp in the post-war decades, which had an uneasy relationship with the colonial authorities. As the Chinese Communist Party adopted capitalist economic reforms from 1978 onwards and the pro-Beijing faction became increasingly conservative, the socialist agenda has been slowly taken up by the liberal-dominated pro-democratic camp.

1920s labour movements in Hong Kong

Marxism was imported to China in the early 1900s and its literature was translated from German, Russian and Japanese into Cantonese and Mandarin. Following the Russian October Revolution led by the Bolsheviks in 1917, a number of Chinese intellectuals emerged from the May Fourth Movement, which saw communism as the solution to rescue China from its present plight. The first social organisation in Hong Kong was the Marxist Research Group in 1920, formed by Lin Junwei, a school inspector of the Education Department, Zhang Rendao, a graduate from the Queen's College, and Li Yibao, a primary school teacher.

In July 1921, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was formally established in Shanghai. The Communist Party was modelled on Vladimir Lenin's theory of a vanguard party, and was under the guidance of the Soviet-led Comintern. The Marxist Research Group formed a connection with the CCP in Guangdong and later formed the New Chinese Students Club - Hong Kong Branch and subsequently the Chinese Socialist Youth League - Hong Kong Special Branch, under the Guangdong Socialist Youth League. In mid-1924, the CCP set up a branch in Hong Kong.

1922 Seamen's strike

The 1922 seamen's strike became the most important episode of the labour movement in China and Hong Kong. On 13 January 1922, against the backdrop of skyrocketing prices, seamen in Hong Kong launched a well-organised strike which lasted 56 days and involved 120,000 seamen at its peak. Having received organisational and financial support from Sun Yat-sen's left-leaning Kuomintang government in Guangzhou, the Chinese Seamen's Union led the Hong Kong strikers to victory.

Although the Communists played no leadership role in the strike, some Communists in Hong Kong participated and others in the neighbouring Guangzhou made supportive speeches and published the strikers' manifesto. Su Zhaozheng and Lin Weimin, the two leaders of the seamen's strike, would later join the Communist Party. Henk Sneevliet, representative of the Comintern in China who was greatly impressed by the strike's success, concluded that the strike was "undoubtedly the most important event in the young history of the Chinese labour movement." He also held talks with Sun Yat-sen from 23 to 25 December 1921 in Guilin about possible cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communists. Sneevliet became more actively involved in organising the First United Front between the two parties after he saw the support given by the Kuomintang in the Hong Kong seamen's strike.

1925–26 Guangzhou–Hong Kong strike

The Guangzhou–Hong Kong strike between 1925 and 1926 was another key historical event of the labour movement in Hong Kong. It was triggered by the killing of a worker named Gu Zhenghong, who was a Communist Party member in a Japanese-owned mill in February 1925. The Communists launched an anti-imperialist demonstration in the Shanghai International Settlement on 30 May, which is now referred to as the May 30th Movement. A Sikh policeman under British command opened fire on a crowd of Chinese demonstrators, killing nine and injuring much of the crowd. The incident fuelled even more anti-British sentiment across China. The Kuomintang gave funds to the Communists, who then in turn organised the strike on 18 June, which began with the walkout of over 80 percent of the senior students from the Queen's College. Many seamen, tramway drivers, printers and students led the walkout and left for Guangzhou. On 23 June, the British and French troops opened fire on the strikers, killing 52 people and injuring over 170 demonstrators in the foreign concession of Shamian Island, which provoked more workers in Hong Kong who were working for foreign corporations to join the strike.

Various unions representing Hong Kong and mainland workers convened a conference in Guangzhou and formed the Guangzhou–Hong Kong Strike Committee chaired by Su Zhaozheng, under the direction of the CCP. The Strike Committee called for a boycott of all British goods and a ban on foreign ships utilising Hong Kong's ports. The strike paralysed the Hong Kong economy, as food prices began to soar, tax revenue began to drop sharply and the banking system started collapsing.

The strike began to fall apart after Sun Yat-sen died in March 1925 and Liao Zhongkai, a left-wing leader within the Kuomintang, was assassinated in August. After commander-in-chief of the National Revolutionary Army Chiang Kai-shek seized power, he confiscated the arms of the Strike Committee. The strike received less support as Chiang began his Northern Expedition in the middle of 1926. On 10 October 1926, the boycott was formally lifted after a compromise settlement was reached with the British, which signified the end of the 16-month strike. Several leftist labour unions including the Chinese Seamen's Union were prosecuted and their leaders arrested. New legislation to ban unions from being affiliated with organisations outside the colony and to outlaw strikes with political causes were also enacted.

1930s to 40s: From the anti-communist purge to the anti-Japanese resistance

Colonial suppression

The Shanghai massacre of April 1927 which was caused by Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang government led to the escape and relocation of the CCP's Guangzhou branch into Hong Kong until the Second United Front between the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party was formed in 1936. The Communists in Hong Kong at that time were actively involved in military actions to overthrow the Kuomintang government in Guangdong.

The Communists experienced a period of White Terror during the late 1920s to 1930s in Hong Kong as Hong Kong Governor Cecil Clementi developed a close relationship with Kuomintang with the intention of suppressing suspected Communist and socialist activities. Despite facing pressure from the colonial government, Ho Chi Minh managed to found the Indochinese Communist Party in Hong Kong in February 1930 before he was arrested by the British authorities in June.

Anti-Japanese guerilla warfare

During the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Communist Party set up the Office of the Eighth Route Army which engaged works for United Front in Hong Kong and raising funds disguised as the Yue Hwa Company. The Chinese Seamen's Union also organised a resistance movement by recruiting volunteers to cross over to Guangdong and wage a guerrilla war behind Japanese lines led by Zeng Sheng. There were also the Huizhou-Bao'an People's Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Force and the Dongguan-Bao'an-Huizhou People's Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Force militias which were formed in 1938. Commanded by Cai Guoliang, the guerrillas began operations in 1941 before the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong. On 2 December 1943, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party regrouped the five guerrilla fighting units within the Pearl River Delta into the East River Column directly under Communist command. By 1943, the East River guerrillas had the total strength of about 5,000 full-time soldiers, who were divided into six detachments.

By the time of the Japanese surrender, the Communist Hong Kong-Kowloon Independence Brigade was the only military force left within the territory. The guerrillas took control of Tai Po and Yuen Long and all other market towns in the New Territories as well as outlying islands, until the British forces arrived on 30 August 1945 and accepted the formal surrender of the Japanese Empire. The agreement between the Hong Kong-Kowloon Independence Brigade and the British was reached, as the Communists would be allowed to set up a liaison office, and its members would be guaranteed freedom of travel and publication as long as they refrained from carrying out "unlawful" activities. The liaison office later became the New China News Agency, headed by Qiao Guanhua