View source for 1970s Hong Kong student protests

{{Expert needed|1=Hong Kong|date=May 2023}}
{{Chinese democracy movement}}
During the [[1970s in Hong Kong|1970s]] in [[Hong Kong]], university campuses experienced a period of heated political discussion and debate, referred to as the "hot era" of the Hong Kong student protests. 

In this period, university students — mainly from the [[Chinese University of Hong Kong]] and the [[University of Hong Kong]] — could be divided into three major factions according to their political stances: the [[Maoist]] faction, the social action faction, and the [[Trotskyist]] and [[anarchist]] faction. Many activists in those student protests later became key figures in Hong Kong's political, journalistic or cultural sectors.

==Factions==
===Maoist faction===
{{Further|United front in Hong Kong}}
The Maoists, also called the "pro-China faction" ({{lang|zh-HK|國粹派}}), initially retained their dominance in the universities and youth movements. In December 1971, the [[Hong Kong University Students' Union]] (HKUSU) organised its first visit into mainland China. In the next few years, the student activists undertook further tours into mainland China, ran Chinese study groups, and organised the so-called "Chinese Weeks", to carry out their mission of educating Hong Kong students about the achievements of China's socialist government.<ref name="dynamics">{{cite book|page=215|title=The Dynamics of Social Movements in Hong Kong: Real and Financial Linkages and the Prospects for Currency Union|first1=Stephen Wing Kai|last1=Chiu|first2=Tai Lok|last2=Lui|publisher=Hong Kong University Press|year=2000}}</ref>

In April 1976, the death of [[Premier of the People's Republic of China|Premier]] [[Zhou Enlai]] triggered a [[April Fifth Incident|large-scale demonstration]] at the [[Tiananmen Square]] in [[Beijing]] which was suppressed by the orthodox [[Gang of Four]]. The Maoist-dominated [[Hong Kong Federation of Students]] (HKFS) passed a resolution titled "[[Counterattack the Right-Deviationist Reversal-of-Verdicts Trend]]" on 3 May 1976, condemning the Tiananmen protesters as "anti-socialists" and "subversives".<ref name="maoist">{{cite web|title=毛派，托派與 1976年天安門事件──兩份歷史文件|url=http://www.workerdemo.org.hk/0004/cr00-0004T.htm}}</ref>

However, the resolution faced stiff opposition from the [[Trotskyists]], who issued a statement in a left-wing periodical titled ''October Review'', condemning the Chinese Communist Party and calling for an uprising of the Chinese workers and peasants to topple the CCP's regime.<ref name="maoist"/> By the end of 1976, the death of Mao Zedong which was followed by the arrest and downfall of the [[Gang of Four]] severely demoralised the Maoists in Hong Kong and damaged their formerly unshakeably idealistic belief in Marxist–Leninist socialism. The official verdict of the Tiananmen Incident was also reversed after [[Deng Xiaoping]] came to power in 1978, as it would later be officially hailed as a display of [[Pro-Beijing camp (Hong Kong)|pro-Beijing]] patriotism, which further diminished the prestige of the Maoists, eventually wiping out their influence from Hong Kong's left-wing movements.<ref name="thinking">{{cite book|page=38|title=文化研究：游與疑（思想15）|author=思想編輯委員會|publisher=聯經出版事業公司|year=2010}}</ref>

===Social action faction===
{{Further|Liberalism in Hong Kong}}
In the universities, the [[Maoist]]-dominated student unions faced challenges from the non-Maoist leftists, who were more critical of the Chinese Communist Party and criticised the blind-eyed ultranationalist sentiments of the Maoists. Instead, they focused more on the injustices in Hong Kong's colonial capitalist system and helped emancipate the indigent and underprivileged members of the community.<ref name="dynamics"/> The social action faction ({{lang|zh-HK|社會派}}) was influenced by the doctrines and ideals of the [[New Left]], which was emerging in the [[Western culture|West]] during the 1960s and 1970s, and was introduced to Hong Kong by [[Tsang Shu-ki]], editor of the ''Socialist Review'' and ''Sensibility'', two left-wing Hong Kong periodicals published in that time. The social action faction actively participated in the 1970s non-aligned social movements, such as the Chinese Language Movement, the anti-corruption movement, the "Defend the Diaoyu Islands" movement et al., in which many of the student leaders became the main figureheads and leaders of the contemporary [[Pro-democracy camp (Hong Kong)|pro-democracy camp]].<ref name="Butenhoff 1999 25–6">{{cite book|pages=25–6|title=Social Movements and Political Reform in Hong Kong|first=Linda|last=Butenhoff|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|year=1999}}</ref><ref name="dynamics"/>

The [[Yaumatei]] resettlement movement was one of the movements that attempted to pressure the colonial government into resettling the [[boat people]] located in the Yaumatei typhoon shelter into affordable public housing in 1971–72 and again in 1978–79. The social activists founded their own organisation with several [[Maryknoll]]s and the staffs of the [[Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee]] (HKCIC), which was called the [[Society for Community Organisation]] (SoCO) in 1971. Moreover, the social workers who felt constrained by the pro-government Hong Kong Social Workers' Association founded the [[Hong Kong Social Workers' General Union]] (HKSWGU) in 1980.<ref name="Butenhoff 1999 25–6"/>

===Trotskyists and anarchists===
{{Further|Socialism in Hong Kong|Anarchism in Hong Kong}}
The [[Revolutionary Communist Party of China]], which was founded in September 1948 by Chinese [[Trotskyists]] and led by [[Peng Shuzhi]] on the basis of the Communist League of China fled to Hong Kong after the Chinese Communist Party's takeover of China in 1949. The party has legally been active and has been publishing the ''October Review'' periodical in Hong Kong since 1974.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.broadleft.org/cn.htm|work=Marxists Internet Archive|title=Leftist Parties of the World - China|access-date=2023-03-09|archive-date=2016-09-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160905204340/http://www.broadleft.org/cn.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>

New Trotskyist and [[anarchist]] faction ({{lang|zh-HK|自由派}}) emerged from a student movement that broke out at the [[Chu Hai College]] in 1969. The students were disillusioned with the Communist Party in the aftermath of events such as the Cultural Revolution and the [[Lin Biao#The "Lin Biao incident"|Lin Bao Incident]], which heavily discredited the CCP.<ref name="Alexander">{{cite book|title=International Trotskyism 1929-1985: A Documented Analysis of the Movement|first=Robert Jackson|last=Alexander|publisher=Duke University Press|year=1991|pages=217–220}}</ref>

In 1972, several members of Hong Kong's youth made an expensive trip to Paris to meet with exiled Chinese Trotskyists including Peng Shuzhi. Several of the returnees such as [[John Shum]] and [[Ng Chung-yin]] left the ''70's Biweekly'', which was at the time dominated by anarchists, and established a Trotskyist youth group called the Revolutionary International League, after meeting with Peng Shuzhi in Paris. It later took the name "Socialist League", and soon after changed its name into the [[Revolutionary Marxist League (Hong Kong)|Revolutionary Marxist League]], which became the Chinese section of the [[Fourth International]] in 1975.<ref name="Alexander"/> Members of the group include [[Leung Kwok-hung]], who formed the [[April Fifth Action]] after the league was disbanded in 1990, and [[Leung Yiu-chung]] of the [[Neighbourhood and Worker's Service Centre]], who both became members of the [[Legislative Council of Hong Kong|Legislative Council]] in the 1990s and 2000s.{{citation needed|date= March 2023}}

== Leading figures ==
{{col-begin}}
{{col-break}}
'''Maoists:'''
* [[David Chan Yuk-cheung|David Chan]]
* [[Ching Cheong]]
* [[Choy So-yuk]]
* [[Chung Shui-ming]]
* [[Lau Nai-keung]]
* [[Antony Leung]]
* [[Ma Lik]]
* [[Ng Ching-fai]]
* [[Yeung Yiu-chung]]

{{col-break}}
'''Social actionists:'''
* [[Anthony Cheung Bing-leung|Anthony Cheung]]
* [[Cheung Man-kwong]]
* [[Frederick Fung]]
* [[Tsang Shu-ki]]
* [[Yeung Sum]]

'''Trotskyists and anarchists:'''
* [[Albert Ho]]
* [[Mak Hoi-wah]]
* [[Leung Kwok-hung]]
* [[Leung Yiu-chung]]
* [[Ng Chung-yin]]
* [[John Shum]]
{{col-end}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:1970s in Hong Kong]]
[[Category:Student protests in Hong Kong]]
[[Category:Hong Kong democracy movements]]
[[Category:Anarchism in Hong Kong]]
[[Category:Liberalism in Hong Kong]]
[[Category:Trotskyism in China]]
[[Category:Maoism in China]]