In less than a hundred years from the outbreak of the Opium War in 1840 until the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the weak and incompetent Qing government was frequently bullied by the European and American powers, and various unequal treaties signed with the great powers were numerous. The Qing Dynasty gradually changed from a feudal dynasty to a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society.
The Treaty of Nanjing was signed
With the establishment of the Communist Party of China in 1921, under the leadership of the Party, the Chinese military and people not only defeated the Japanese aggressors, but also overthrew the rule of the Kuomintang reactionaries, established a new China in which the people were the masters of their own affairs, and truly put an end to the semi-colonial and semi-feudal society.
The new China
It abrogated all treaties signed between the Qing Dynasty and the Kuomintang government and foreign countries, and adhered to an independent foreign policy.
The Western powers are still hostile to New China, and they think that we are as weak and incompetent as the corrupt Qing government, and they can still act arbitrarily, and the imperialist powers headed by the United States will impose an economic blockade and military suppression on the nascent China.
On September 15, 1950, the United Nations army, which was mainly the United States, landed at Inchon and intervened in the Korean War, using this as a springboard to try to burn the war to the Yalu River, and the US military took advantage of air superiority to frequently fly to the northeast of our country to conduct reconnaissance and bombing of China's northeast border facilities.
The U.S. military bombed our northeast border area
In October 1950, after receiving a letter of help from The Supreme Leader of the Dprk, Kim Il Sung, the Party Central Committee decided to form the Chinese Volunteer Army to cross the Yalu River and join hands with the Korean People's Army to fight against the United Nations army led by the US army.
At the same time, the United States sent the Seventh Fleet into the Taiwan Strait to prevent our people's army from liberating Taiwan.
Just after our volunteer army entered the Korean War, the Portuguese troops stationed in Macao brazenly provoked our Guangdong border public security forces, not only maliciously shooting down the Chinese flag on the border line, but also openly firing artillery at our People's Liberation Army.
What's going on here? How was it handled later?
Macau has been an integral part of China since ancient times, and Portuguese colonists acquired the right of residence in the name of exposed goods in the thirty-second year of Jiajing (1553) of the Ming Dynasty, but the Ming government still had the right to administer the area. Only 500 taels of silver are required to pay a rental fee of 500 taels per year.
Lu-Ao Gate
In order to limit the Portuguese's continued expansion to the north, the Ming government built a special gate. In order to facilitate exchanges between Macao and the mainland and to ensure the daily lives of the people of Macao south of the gate, the Ming government decided to switch six times a month to facilitate the transportation of grain and daily necessities from the mainland to the southern region of Macao.
In 1840, after britain opened the door of China through the cannon of the ship and forced the Qing government to sign the Sino-British Treaty of Nanking, which humiliated the country, and ceded Hong Kong Island as a British colony, the great powers of various countries regarded China as a lamb to be slaughtered and wantonly provoked in China's coastal areas.
The weak and incompetent Qing government could only treat one treaty after another with the Western powers to satisfy the European powers' claims on China's territory, and China gradually fell into a semi-feudal and semi-colonial society.
Seeing that the dim-witted Qing government was subservient to the European powers, the Portuguese colonists took advantage of the fire and robbery to launch an armed conflict in Macao, brazenly pushed the barrier restricting the expansion of the Portuguese colonists to the north of the Guanbei, and forcibly expelled and burned the special agencies of the Qing government to administer Macao, and then occupied the territory of our country such as Taipa Island and Coloane Island.
In the thirteenth year of the Qing Dynasty (1887), in order to consolidate their preemptive interests, the Portuguese colonists made the occupation and legalization of Macao territory, and the Portuguese government forced the Qing government to sign the "Sino-Portuguese Lisbon Draft Treaty" stipulating that the treaty of trade and commerce in Beijing, China, would be exchanged and repaired."
On December 1, 1887, the Qing government and the Portuguese government officially signed the Sino-Portuguese Treaty of Peace and Commerce in Beijing, which stated that "Macao and Macao shall be permanently administered by China and the land belonging to Macao, and it is no different from the Portuguese government of other places" Since then Macao has officially become a Portuguese colony.
In April 1949, a million heroes crossed the river
In April 1949, the Party Central Committee and the Central Military Commission ordered the Chinese People's Liberation Army
"Fight across the Yangtze River and liberate all of China"
Millions of lions crossed the Yangtze River, and on April 23, Nanjing, the capital of the Kuomintang regime, was occupied by the People's Liberation Army, completely ending the rule of the Kuomintang reactionary regime.
In November 1949, when news of Guangdong's announcement of liberation spread across the country, the Portuguese colonists in Macau were helpless in the face of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) at hand. It is even more unknown whether the attitude of this nascent people's power toward Macao will cross the Gongbei to liberate Macao.
After the founding of New China, the Chinese Government immediately declared that it would not recognize all the unequal treaties imposed on China by imperialism, and solemnly declared that Hong Kong and Macao had been China's territory since ancient times, and advocated resolving this historical problem through peaceful negotiations at an appropriate time, and temporarily maintaining the status quo until it was resolved.
Chinese people experienced a long period of war, domestic economic production and industry suffered a major blow, coupled with the Technical and Economic Blockade of the nascent China by the Western countries led by the United States, the New China under the difficulties of internal and external affairs decided to restore the economy and state building on its own.
Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai raised the issue of Hong Kong and Macao
"Fully intended, long-term use"
The eight-character policy.
For reasons of all reasons, Macao is temporarily under the administration of the Portuguese government, and the Chinese and Portuguese sides decided to draw a neutral area on both sides of the previously established gate, stipulating that sentries from both Countries cannot enter.
Since then, the two sides have abided by each other, and the mainland-Australia border has been at peace.
Along with the entry of volunteers into the DPRK, the Western powers further strengthened their blockade of New China.
Just as the volunteers were fighting fiercely on the Korean battlefield, the Portuguese army occupying Macao, with the support of the West, brazenly provoked the People's Liberation Army and openly opened fire on the barracks of our Guangdong Border Guard And caused two deaths and thirty injuries.
The "Lu-Ao Gate Incident" broke out.
The former site of the Macao Customs Gate
On 25 July 1952, an Afro-descendant soldier in the Portuguese army repeatedly deliberately stepped into the neutral area demarcated by the Chinese and Portuguese sides while standing guard, and provoked by spitting at the sentries of our border guards. Our side has exercised great restraint in this move.
Seeing that the Chinese sentry did not make any move, the Soldier of African Descent brazenly stepped into the neutral area and pushed the Trojan horse used to demarcate the border between the two sentries in the direction of Guangdong.
The sentry on duty at this time was Zhao Xuedeng, a platoon and a squad of soldiers in the 29th Regiment of the Border Guard Force of the Chinese People's Liberation Army; after seeing the Portuguese soldiers illegally entering the neutral area and constantly pushing the wooden horses of the Land-Australia Demarcation Line towards our side, he strictly complied with the instructions made by Chairman Mao Zedong and the Central Military Commission:
"Neither take the initiative to cause trouble, nor show weakness."
Immediately warn the Portuguese soldiers with gestures.
However, this Portuguese soldier not only did not heed Zhao Xuedeng's warning, but instead gathered more Portuguese soldiers and openly provoked the border guards of our People's Liberation Army.
The Portuguese soldiers ignored our warnings and continued to push the Trojan towards us.
There was a skirmish between the sentries of China and Portugal.
In the course of this conflict, the Portuguese soldiers not only stabbed Song Zengyou, the leader of the third squad who came to change the guard, but also took out machine guns and other weapons in an attempt to deter our personnel.
In the face of provocations from the Portuguese army, our border guards threw grenades at the neutral zone in warning.
The Portuguese soldiers still ignored the warnings, and the machine gunners hidden in the bunker opened fire on our border guards, and our border guards, who had previously maintained the greatest restraint, launched a counterattack, and then a company of the twenty-ninth regiment of the border troops rushed to support, and a large-scale conflict broke out between the two sides.
The Chinese and Portuguese armies engaged in a ten-minute shootout, which ended with our voluntary withdrawal.
On the same night, the Portuguese troops stationed in Macau actually launched artillery shelling at the residential areas and military camps of the People's Liberation Army in the Gongbei area, and the Chinese troops also returned fire on the Portuguese military camps.
Both China and Portugal have entered a state of first-class combat readiness, and war is about to break out.
Originally, the Portuguese government thought that the new Chinese government and the original Manchu Qing government were as weak and incompetent, and after intimidating them by force, they further acceded to their illegal demands. What they did not know, however, was that the nascent China under the leadership of Chairman Mao Zedong was no longer what it used to be, and that it would never return to the era of being slaughtered by others.
Macau at the beginning of the last century
After the clash between the Chinese and Portuguese armies broke out, the Central and Southern Region, the Guangzhou Military Region, and the Guangdong Provincial CPC Committee attached great importance to the clash and immediately telegraphed the Central Military Commission.
"Resolutely eliminate all enemies who have invaded, deal a heavy blow to the anti-China enemies in the West, and strike a role in the prestige of the country and the military." command.
In the early morning of the next day, the Portuguese side once again sent soldiers to our control area to carry out further provocations, illegally crossing the police cordon and firing at our sentries, which once again triggered a clash between the two armies.
According to the instructions of Chairman Mao and the Central Military Commission, our border troops rose up to fight back, and the Portuguese soldiers gradually retreated in the counterattack of our army, and finally they could only shrink in the bunker to take shelter.
In the face of this lesson, the Portuguese side still went its own way and further expanded the incident.
Soldiers of the Portuguese government of Australia
On the third day after the second conflict, Portuguese soldiers continued to provoke us. After shooting down the national flag on the post of our border defense unit, Xing Qi, deputy company commander stationed at the post, saw the provocative actions of the Portuguese soldiers, and after consulting the opinions of the higher authorities, he and the soldier Su Guangzhao planned to raise the national flag again in the hazy night.
Unexpectedly, their move to raise the flag was seen by the Portuguese soldiers who had already been ambushed, and the Portuguese soldiers launched an attack on the soldiers of our army, under the flagpole
Xing Qi quickly commanded the fighters to fight back, and he himself was sacrificed in the battle.
After Re-raising the national flag in the rain of bullets and bullets at the flagpole, Su Guangzhao, who was at the edge of the flagpole, threw himself into battle for the first time, and as he was creeping along the trench, he was shelled by the Portuguese side, and then fainted with serious injuries.
When he woke up again, the fighting was still going on, and he dragged his wounded and bleeding body to crawl hard for more than twenty meters before seeing the deputy company commander
Xing Qi lay on the ground. Su Guangzhao did not know that Xing Qi had been sacrificed, shook his body and said:
"Deputy Company Commander Xing, I have completed the task, and you see the five-star red flag rising again."
He didn't get a response from Xing Qi, and there was only the sound of gunfire in his ears.
Su Guangzhao died after being sent to the hospital because of excessive bleeding. Before the sacrifice, he asked in a weak voice
"Doctor, is the five-star red flag still flying at the outpost?" ”
After receiving a positive reply, Su Guangzhao closed his eyes with satisfaction.
In the face of constant provocations by the Portuguese military, the Chinese government immediately exerted pressure on Portugal through both military and political means. The tough attitude of the Chinese government surprised the Australian and Portuguese governments, and the incident gradually developed in a direction unfavorable to the Portuguese government.
In order to seek international help, the Portuguese foreign minister began to actively lobby Western countries to continue to exert pressure on China, setting off a new round of anti-China upsurge, and the Portuguese government even made military threats to our country with Britain, the United States and other countries.
The Portuguese government thought that it could bring the Chinese government to its knees by uniting with Western countries such as britain and the United States, but what they did not expect was that the Chinese government did not care about the Portuguese approach at all. Portugal's approach has further complicated issues that could have been resolved through consultation and have been further complicated by the intervention of British and American countries.
In the face of repeated provocations by the soldiers of the Macao-Portuguese government, the Chinese government officially informed the Portuguese government that this incident was initiated by the Portuguese side and took the lead in firing at our soldiers, and the Portuguese government should bear full responsibility for this incident.
In view of the repeated provocations of the Portuguese soldiers, the border troops of the Chinese People's Liberation Army decided to impose a military and economic blockade on Macao,
At the same time, a 120 howitzer company was dispatched from the field troops of the Guangzhou Military Region to the mainland-Macao border to deal with the Provocations of the Portuguese side at any time.
A series of strong measures by the Chinese government have caused a high degree of panic among Macao residents, and the Governor general of the Macao-Portuguese government, Spoutel, has also discovered the seriousness of the incident, and after receiving the instructions of the Portuguese government, Spoutet has found the Director of the Macao Economic Bureau, Luo Bao, to discuss the solution to the incident.
Since China and Portugal had not yet established formal diplomatic relations at that time, neither the Portuguese government nor the Macau authorities could come forward directly. After discussion, the two decided to use business people to mediate.
Spoutet's idea was to let Luo Bao contact the CCP through Macau's business leaders, saying that the Macao-Portuguese government had no intention of further expanding the incident and hoped that the Chinese side would exercise restraint.
Luo Bao, who had received The Order of Spoutai, found Mr. Ma Man Kei, a well-known patriotic businessman in Macao, overnight, and conveyed to him the opinion of the Governor of Macau, Sputtai, hoping that he would come forward to contact our Party and jointly resolve this incident.
A famous patriotic businessman- Mr. Ma Man Kei
Ma Man Kei communicated overnight with Rao Zhangfeng, director of the United Front Work Department of the South China Branch of the Communist Party of China, and conveyed the views of the Macao-Portuguese government.
Just when the Macao-Portuguese government hoped to seek contact with the Chinese government through various channels, Ye Jianying, chairman of the People's Government of Guangdong Province, held an emergency meeting to discuss countermeasures.
"It would be better to transfer a division directly from the Guangzhou Military Region to directly recover Macao."
Ye Jianying listened carefully to everyone's opinions, but never heard Ye Jianying's attitude towards this incident, and when everyone's eyes were all focused on him, Ye Jianying slowly stood up and signaled everyone to be quiet...
He said slowly:
Our new China has just been founded, and the Western imperialist countries are trying to strangle us in the cradle, impose various blockades on us, and suppress us in various ways. Moreover, this time it was the Australian and Portuguese sides who provoked first, and no matter how they were sanctioned, they were reasonable. Today's Portugal is nothing more than a declining imperialist country, which is still different from the imperialism that dominates everywhere.
Therefore, Ye Jianying quoted the spirit of Chairman Mao's instructions: "
Chairman Mao once said that in handling relations with these countries, the big countries should be strict and the small countries should be lenient, in order to unite all those who can be united and concentrate their forces on dealing with the main enemy.
”
Ye Jianying stressed at the meeting: "Let us not forget that there are still our compatriots there, and if we meet them in battle, it will still be them who will suffer in the end. ”
After Ye Jianying expressed his opinion, the atmosphere of the meeting gradually relaxed, and finally Ye Jianying finally determined the matter: "After all, this incident is a local conflict, which could have been easily resolved, and there is no need to make such a big move, but we cannot let go of the Portuguese and Macao Portuguese governments so easily, and we must let them apologize!" ”
Just after Ye Jianying had expressed his opinion, United Front Work Minister Rao Zhangfeng hurriedly broke into the conference room and whispered in Ye Jianying's ear about Ma Manqi's contact with him just now.
Marshal Ye Jianying inspected the troops
Ye Jianying then said to everyone, "Just now Mr. Ma Man Kei of the Macao Chamber of Commerce called and conveyed the opinions of the Macao-Portuguese government, and they hoped that we would send representatives to communicate with them to discuss how to ease the current tense situation, and I think we can send people to contact them, but at present we have not established diplomatic relations with the Portuguese government, so it is not convenient for us to contact the Macao-Portuguese government, so let them entrust non-governmental representatives to come." ”
Therefore, Through Rao Zhangfeng, Ip Jianying conveyed to Mr. Ma Man Kei that we would allow the Macao non-governmental representatives to go north with the 8:00 a.m. next morning to negotiate with our representatives on this incident.
After studying and deciding, Huang Shimin, then deputy secretary of the Hong Kong and Macao Working Committee of the CPC, and Cao Ruoming, director of the Guangdong Provincial Foreign Affairs Department, were sent to Gongbei and Macao on behalf of the Chinese side to negotiate.
Ye Jianying put forward three conditions for this negotiation:
First, the Macau authorities must ensure that similar incidents do not occur again;
Second, a formal written apology must be made for the closing of the gate;
The third is to compensate China for economic losses.
Macau patriotic businessman Ho Yin and Vice President Ma Man Kei negotiated on behalf of the Portuguese government and Chinese representatives at the request of the Director general of the Macao Economic Bureau, Luo Bao.
However, during the negotiations, the two sides exchanged in-depth views on the "gate incident", but the differences were still very large, and the negotiations had to be terminated.
After Ho Yin and Ma Man Kei returned to Macau, they conveyed our request to Luo Bao, who said:
"We are old friends, and I said straight to the point, we don't care about running a few more times, but if you don't change your attitude, how many times you run is useless, the Communist government and the Kuomintang are different, they are not even afraid of the Americans, will they be afraid of you?" 」
After learning of China's tough attitude, Luo Bao did not dare to delay and immediately rushed to the Macau Governor's Palace to convey the Chinese side's opinion to Spoutel, and as a result, the Macao-Portuguese government only agreed to the first condition, and the other two were rejected, hoping to bargain with China, and Spouti made a small calculation.
Then Governor of Macau, Spencer
The next day, He Xian and Ma Manqi came to Gongbei again to convey Spoutey's opinion, but Spoutey's Xiaojiujiu was rejected by Huang Shimin and Cao Ruoming, representatives of our country. Huang Shimin said: "I am very grateful to Mr. He and Mr. Ma for their hard work in resolving this incident, and highly commended their contributions to Both Places in Mainland China and Macao. ”
Cao Ruoming said:
"Please mr. He and Mr. Ma to convey to the Macao-Portuguese authorities that China today can no longer be compared with the government of the late Qing Dynasty, that the Chinese people are invincible, that the three conditions we have put forward are the bottom line of negotiations, that if we are willing to negotiate with our side, we must unconditionally accept these three conditions; if we are unwilling to accept them, the Chinese Government is willing to continue to drag on, but all the consequences will be borne by the Portuguese Government."
After He Xian and Ma Man Kei returned to Macau, they had a long conversation with Sputhai and analyzed the current situation with him, if the Chinese government continued to impose an economic blockade on Macau.
The armed recovery of Macao is nothing more than a show of hands for today's China, and without the support of the mainland, how long can Macao hold out?
Hearing this, Spoutert felt that he had almost no bargaining chips with the Chinese government, and finally said only one sentence: "I will tell Lisbon about this result, and tomorrow I will give you the final result."
On the same night, the Governor of Macau, Spoutey, reported to Lisbon on the situation of the negotiations, and the Portuguese government, faced with such a tough attitude, knew that new China could not be defeated, and continued to drag on and really wanted to lose Macao, and finally agreed to our three conditions.
Ip Kin Ying considered that this matter was a decision to be lenient caused by individual Portuguese soldiers, as long as they were willing to make a formal apology and compensate our side for economic losses, and to ensure the stability of the border between Lu and Macao.
On August 23, 1952, after many efforts, the Portuguese government of Australia sent Luo Bao as a representative, accompanied by He Xian and Ma Man-kei, to go north to Zhongshan to negotiate with our representatives.
Luo Bao made a formal apology to the Chinese government and signed an apology, compensating the Chinese side for economic losses caused by the conflict of 443.733 million yuan (old currency, equivalent to 44373.3 yuan) and assuring the Chinese government that it would resolutely not enter the neutral area to provoke in the future, and would also retreat the police cordon of the Macau side by 50 meters.
During the conflict, the Portuguese army launched a total of eight provocations against our army, firing 420 shells and more than 20,000 bullets, and our side returned 1,014 shells and more than 8,000 bullets. Five people were killed and fourteen wounded on the Portuguese side.
In the border defense unit of our People's Liberation Army, two soldiers were killed and thirty people were wounded.
Macau's landmark, the Ruins of St. Paul's
In this incident, New China showed the world a tough attitude different from that of the late Qing government and the Nationalist government, and achieved reasonableness, benefit, and moderation in military, diplomatic, and moral aspects, so that the opportunistic Portuguese and Macao authorities kicked an iron plate. The settlement of the gate closure incident has greatly deterred the Portuguese, Macao, Hong Kong, and British authorities, so that after this incident, the provocative behavior of Western countries in China's south China has been significantly reduced, effectively ensuring the relative stability of this region.