In modern times, in the war conflicts between the mainland and the Western capitalist countries, it has become a very common thing to pay compensation for land and apologize, and China's modern history can be called a history of humiliation.
This humiliating history tells us that weak countries have no diplomacy, and weak countries have no sovereignty.
This situation of passive beatings did not gradually improve until after the founding of New China; in the early days of the founding of New China, the country was in ruins waiting to be rebuilt, its economic development was very backward, and the Western capitalist countries headed by the United States stepped up their encirclement and blockade of New China in an attempt to strangle the newborn China.
In 1950, after the outbreak of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, the Portuguese colonists in the Macao area of China believed that China was nothing more than hitting a pebble with a pebble, and at the same time wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to share a piece of the pie.
Since 1951, the Portuguese colonists have repeatedly sent soldiers to carry out armed provocations against the border areas of the mainland, launching artillery attacks on our army on many occasions, wounding and killing 33 mainland soldiers.
How will our army respond to the deliberate provocation and unscrupulous behavior of the Portuguese soldiers? What was the end of the matter?
Ambitious, occupy Macau
In 1521, the Portuguese used their advanced navigation technology to repeatedly harass the people, plunder property, and even kill ordinary people along the coast of Guangdong.
In order to occupy the land of Macau, Portugal continued its colonial expansion, spending money to buy macau's generals, making Macau its own trading place, and setting up administrative bodies on the island and appointing officials.
Gradually, Macao's economy and trade were completely monopolized by portugal, they relied on Chinese porcelain and silk to make a fortune, and also sold opium in China, the local people were miserable, and some patriotic officials made many suggestions to the Qing government, but in the end they all sank into the sea.
After the outbreak of the Opium War, the incompetence and compromise of the Qing government led to the cession of Hong Kong Island to the British, which made the Portuguese government feel that its opportunity had come.
Before the Qing government could emerge from the shadow of ceding Hong Kong Island, the Portuguese quickly sent people to occupy the peninsula south of the Guanzha Gate and the islands such as Coloane (Guanzha refers to a brand-style building built in 1574 when passing through Gongbei Customs from the mainland to Macau).
In order to enable itself to legally occupy Macao, the Portuguese Government has tried its best and done its best.
In 1887, the Portuguese government forced the Qing government to sign the Sino-Portuguese Lisbon Draft Treaty and gained the legal right to administer Macau.
After the founding of New China, the Chinese Government announced to the whole world that China would not recognize a series of unequal treaties imposed on China by imperialism, that Hong Kong and Macao had been China's territory since ancient times, and that China's territorial sovereignty absolutely could not be trampled upon.
However, due to historical reasons, the events in Hong Kong and Macau could not be resolved quickly, and Macau still belonged to Portuguese jurisdiction, so the Chinese government decided that China would maintain the status quo for the time being until the time was ripe.
However, the Party Central Committee and the Central Military Commission attach great importance to Macao's border defense work, and under the instructions of the Central Committee, on November 15, 1949, the public security department set up a border defense force and established five public security border defense sub-bureaus at the border gate, and the Chinese and Portuguese sides each set up five sentries on the border of the border gate.
In the middle of the gate, a neutral area is divided, the two sides agree not to interfere with each other, and there is a dividing line in the middle area, and a prismatic Trojan horse is used as the symbol of the dividing line.
Active provocation, escalation of events
Since the liberation of Guangzhou, although no diplomatic relations had been established between China and Portugal, they were independent and did not interfere with each other, until after the outbreak of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, Portugal thought it saw an opportunity and repeatedly sent troops to harass the mainland border.
At that time, our army was stationed at the border of the gate with the Twenty-ninth Regiment of the Tenth Division of the Public Security Division of the Central and Southern Military Region, while Portugal had only one battalion of troops, and most of them were black soldiers who had been hired at a cost.
No one expected that a small incident would become the trigger for the conflict between China and Portugal, and almost lead to an irreparable mistake, which became known as the "Gate Incident".
On the afternoon of July 25, 1952, a black Portuguese soldier on duty repeatedly deliberately put his foot in a neutral area and shouted at the soldiers of our army.
Although the soldiers of our army cannot understand what the other side is shouting, they can also see from their expressions that they are not good words, and they uphold the demeanor of a big country, as long as they do not invade the cordon of our army, the soldiers of our army will ignore them.
The black soldiers on the opposite side saw that our soldiers did not pay attention, so they became more and more arrogant, throwing all the canned boxes, cigarette butts and other garbage they had eaten at our army, and the soldiers of our army still ignored them and let their childish behavior go unchecked.
Until a black soldier urinated in public outside the turret because of his urgency to urinate, the soldiers of our army finally couldn't help but laugh when they saw this situation.
The black soldier saw the soldiers of our army laughing, his face could not hang on, and for a moment he felt that he had suffered a great humiliation, so he kept cursing and spitting in the direction of the soldiers of our army, and the soldiers of our army endured each other for nearly two hours for the sake of the overall situation.
At 6 p.m. on the same day, this arrogant black soldier actually ran to the neutral area to push the Trojan horse of the border line forward, and Zhao Xuedeng, the border guard sentry of our army, saw this situation and immediately warned him by gesturing.
But the black soldier ignored Zhao Xuedeng's warning and called for several other Portuguese soldiers to push the Trojan horse into the Chinese cordon, and Zhao Xuedeng once again gestured to warn these Portuguese soldiers, but the Portuguese soldiers remained unmoved.
Song Youzeng, the third squad leader of the first company of the Twenty-ninth Regiment on duty, could not bear it any longer, so he personally went forward to warn him, but the black soldier not only did not listen but also shouted and scolded, while several other Portuguese soldiers on duty suddenly crossed the cordon with their guns and stabbed Song Youzeng in the arm.
When the soldiers of our army saw that their comrades were wounded, they immediately rushed to the rescue, and the Portuguese soldiers on the opposite side actually opened fire on the soldiers of our army, and the soldiers of our army were forced to start fighting back, and the gun battle officially began.
Song Youzeng and the soldiers quickly withdrew to safety, after which the soldiers of the two armies began to exchange fire fiercely, and the gun battle lasted for half an hour, and after the Portuguese stopped shooting, the commanders and fighters of our army also ordered a ceasefire.
On the morning of July 26, the seriousness of the incident continued to escalate, and in the morning the Portuguese sent people to pull the Trojan back into the middle, and our army thought that this was a gesture of portuguese goodwill, but it did not expect that this was only a means for the enemy to reduce the vigilance of our army.
When the Portuguese soldier returned the Mumara back to the middle, he suddenly turned around and fired a frantic fire at our sentry, while firing artillery bombardment at our army, killing both civilians and one wounded.
After that, the Portuguese soldiers began shelling the flag raisers on the border of our army, resulting in the death of the flag raisers, and during the time of the exchange of fire between the two sides, our soldiers lost 3 people, 30 people were wounded, and 11 people were killed.
Take the initiative to show weakness and negotiate
In the face of the Portuguese attack, the Central Military Commission adhered to the principle of "neither provoking nor showing weakness", counterattacked Portugal, taught them a lesson, and played a role in China's military and national prestige.
The Portuguese government did not expect that the mainland's attitude was so tough that force could not bring the mainland to its knees, so they wanted to use Western anti-China forces to exert pressure on the mainland.
Portugal's lobbying soon set off an anti-China wave in the West, and some Western media even distorted the facts, saying that China took the lead in provoking the incident.
On 27 July, the British ambassador to Portugal and the General Headquarters of the Army in the Far East even openly declared that there was a military alliance between Britain and Portugal, and that Britain would not sit idly by if Portugal was threatened militarily.
With regard to the interference of Western countries, China adheres to the principle of not taking the initiative to cause trouble, but it is also not afraid of things, and China will never give in to the interference of Western countries.
On August 2, our army decided to impose a blockade on Macao, and the grain and vegetables that Macao relied on every day for supply from the mainland soon began to be in short supply, and land transportation was immediately interrupted.
For a time, the people of Macao panicked, the docks were crowded, and many people rushed to Hong Kong to avoid the wind, and after Realizing the seriousness of the matter, Ao Dui Spoutai immediately asked the Secretary of economic affairs Luo Bao to convey a message to the CCP: "The Macao authorities have no intention of expanding the incident, and hope that the CCP side can also exercise restraint." ”
So Luo Bao, the director of the Economic Bureau, approached Ma Man Kei, the head of the Macau Chamber of Commerce, in the middle of the night, hoping that he could contact the CCP and jointly discuss a peaceful solution to the problem.
Ma Man-kei immediately called Guangzhou to convey Portugal's views to Ke Ping, head of the CPC Macao Working Group, who immediately relayed the situation to General Ye Da.
At this time, General Ye Da was holding a meeting to discuss countermeasures, at which everyone was very emotional, and some people believed that this incident was completely caused by Portugal, so they should bear full responsibility and insist on continuing to blockade Macao and impose economic sanctions.
After listening to everyone's opinions, General Ye said calmly:
"After the founding of New China, the Western imperialist countries hated us very much, repeatedly suppressed and blockaded us, and everyone held their stomachs full of anger, and it was understandable that they had emotions, not to mention that this time Portugal provoked the incident first, and it was reasonable for everyone to punish them!"
Speaking of this General Ye, his words turned sharply:
"However, the great man also said that in handling the relations between countries, we must treat them differently, small countries should be lenient, big countries should be strict, unite all those who can be united, and concentrate their forces on dealing with the main enemy, not to mention that most of the people in Macao are our compatriots, and if we continue to suffer in this way, they will eventually suffer, so we must handle this matter carefully."
At this time, United Front Work Minister Rao Zhangfeng hurriedly went into the conference room to tell General Ye that Mr. Ma Man Kei had called to say that the Macao authorities hoped that the two sides could contact each other and discuss ways to solve the problem.
Finally, the meeting decided to hold peace talks with Portugal and sent Huang Shimin, deputy secretary of the Hong Kong and Macao Working Committee, and the director of the Foreign Affairs Department of Guangdong Province to Gongbei to negotiate with the Macao authorities.
But there are three conditions for negotiations:
1. The Macao authorities must ensure that similar incidents do not occur again;
2. Formally make a written apology for the incident;
3. Compensation for losses.
At the request of the Director of the Economic Bureau, Luo Bao, the president of the Australian-Chinese Chamber of Commerce, He Xian, and the vice president, Ma Man-kei, were entrusted with negotiations with the Chinese side, but the first negotiations soon failed, and Portugal was only willing to agree to the first condition.
The Chinese negotiators said to He Xian and Ma Man-kei:
"Thank you so much for your hard work for the negotiations, for the compatriots in Macao, and for the motherland, but China is no longer the China it once was, the generation of people who were bullied has ended, if you agree to the three conditions, there will be a basis for negotiations, and if it is to drag on, the Chinese side will accompany it to the end."
The two of them personally relayed these words to the Governor of Australia, who was silent for a long time, and finally said, "Let me think about it again and tell you tomorrow morning." ”
In the evening of the same day, the Governor of Australia made a report to the Portuguese government, and finally Portugal agreed to the Chinese side's request, and after 15 negotiations, the two sides finally reached an agreement.
On August 23, the Macao authorities sent Luo Bao to submit a written apology to China in place of the Governor of Macao, admitting his mistake and promising not to enter the neutral area again to provoke, and Portugal also retreated 50 meters from the original cordon and compensated us with 443720300 yuan.
The handling of this incident is a major diplomatic victory since the founding of the mainland, which has dealt a blow to the arrogance of imperialism to a large extent, and has also made us once again vigilant: Backwardness will be beaten.