Canton–Hong Kong strike

The Canton–Hong Kong strike was a strike and boycott that took place in British Hong Kong and Canton, Republic of China, from June 1925 to October 1926.[1][2] It started out as a response to the May 30 Movement shooting incidents in which Chinese protesters were fired upon by Sikh detachments of the Shanghai Municipal Police in Shanghai.

A pamphlet distributed at the strike by protestors.
Canton–Hong Kong strike
Traditional Chinese省港大罷工
Simplified Chinese省港大罢工
Literal meaningProvince Hong Kong Big Strike

Incident
Main article: May 30 Movement

On May 30, 1925, Sikh detachments of the Shanghai Municipal Police opened fire on a crowd of Chinese demonstrators at the Shanghai International Settlement. At least nine demonstrators were killed, and many others wounded.[1] Escalating the incident, on June 23, 1925, a heated demonstration in Shameen Island took place which resulted in the Shakee Massacre.[2] Troops under foreign command, perceiving shots being fired at them, killed more than fifty Chinese protesters and wounded almost two hundred more.[1]

Strike

Prominent Chinese citizens in Guangdong called for an anti-British strike, especially in Hong Kong, then a British colony. The Kuomintang leaders and Soviet advisors even considered attacking the Anglo-French Settlement in Shamian.[1] Anti-British pamphlets were passed around in Hong Kong. Rumours also spread that the colonial government planned to poison the colony's water supplies.[1] Guangdong offered free train passage to Hong Kong. In the first week of protest, more than 50,000 Chinese citizens left Hong Kong. Food prices soared. The colony was a ghost town by July. By the end of July, some 250,000 Chinese left for Guangdong.[1] The worst of the strike was over by 1926.[1]

Government and economy

The British government had to provide a trade loan of 3 million pounds to prevent the economy from collapsing. Hong Kong's top two colonial officials, Governor Sir Reginald Stubbs and Colonial Secretary Claud Severn were replaced in 1925 as a consequence of the crisis, under criticism from James Jamieson, the British Consul General in Canton.[3] Jamieson claimed the two were out of touch and out of date, unable to converse in Chinese and ignorant of the political situation in China.[4]:98

An anti-British boycott continued for several more months.[1] The economy was paralysed and Hong Kong's total trade fell by 50%, shipping diminished by 40%, rents decreased by 60%, which lasted until the end of the boycott.[2]

In literature

The Canton–Hong Kong strike plays a prominent part in André Malraux's first novel, The Conquerors (1928).

See also

References
  1. Carroll, John Mark (2007). A concise history of Hong Kong. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 100. ISBN 978-0-7425-3422-3.
  2. Jens Bangsbo, Thomas Reilly, Mike Hughes. [1995] (1995). Science and Football III: Proceedings of the Third World Congress of Science and Football, Cardiff, Wales, 9–13 April 1995. Taylor & Francis publishing. ISBN 0-419-22160-3, ISBN 978-0-419-22160-9. p 42-43.
  3. Nield, Robert (2012). May Holdsworth; Christopher Munn (eds.). Dictionary of Hong Kong Biography. Hong Kong University Press. p. 390. ISBN 9789888083664.
  4. Kwan, Daniel Y K (1997). Marxist Intellectuals and the Chinese Labor Movement: A Study of Deng Zhongxia (1894-1933). University of Washington Press. ISBN 9780295976013.
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