The position of Hong Kong in Britain's policy towards the two rival Chinese regimes during the early years of the cold war

Abstract

The main purpose of this article is to discuss Britain's relations with the two Chinese rival regimes — the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang or KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) — by examining Hong Kong's position in the early Cold War. After the Second World War, both Britain and China declared their intention of recovering sovereignty over Hong Kong, and competed in taking over the colony from the Japanese. Britain won the race with the Americans’ acquiescence. During the Chinese Civil War, the Hong Kong administration adopted a neutral policy toward the Chinese Nationalists’ and Communists’ activities in the colony in conformity with the British government's China policy of non‐intervention in the civil strife. However, after the Chinese Communists declared victory on the mainland, Hong Kong still maintained its neutral position by allowing both of the Chinese rivals to continue their presence in the colony while London attempted an early recognition of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in order to be one of the first Western nations to set up diplomatic relations with the new regime, although this was later to prove to be in vain.