Beginning in 1982, China and the United Kingdom held many talks on the issue of negotiations on the return of Hong Kong. At first, the British were more hardline, desperately trying to win the result of the separation of "governance" and "sovereignty" in Hong Kong.
To put it bluntly, it is to return Hong Kong to China in the form of sovereignty, but the governance is still governed by the British.
This is obviously unacceptable to the mainland.
Therefore, when Comrade Deng Xiaoping negotiated with Margaret Thatcher, he deliberately said two more "heavy" words to show our position.
The first sentence is "New China is not a Qing government", and the second sentence is "Chinese poor is poor, but when a war starts, it is not afraid of death." ”
As soon as these two "heavy" words were said, Margaret Thatcher, who had always been known for being tough, suddenly could not be tough.
Britain also realized that it was impossible to use the previous method of deception to fool us into giving up Hong Kong's sovereignty and governance, and it could only accept the plan of completely returning Hong Kong in 1997.
Since then, things in Hong Kong have basically been settled at the national level.
All that remained was to wait until July 1, 1997, to go through a procedural handover procedure.
But what no one expected was that at the end of June 1997, seeing that the return of Hong Kong was in sight, the British suddenly sent dozens of warships, including aircraft carriers, to form a fleet and break into the South China Sea together.
As soon as this news was discovered, it immediately attracted our attention. The return of Hong Kong is just around the corner, and what does britain want to do at this time by sending a fleet of such a size to break into the South China Sea? Is it difficult to prevent the mainland from taking back Hong Kong, just like the Falklands War? And how did the Continental Navy at that time respond?
Find yourself a field
To find out the ins and outs of this Sino-British confrontation, we must first find out what the British fleet is here for.
On the surface, the reason why the British fleet appeared near the South China Sea at that time was because it was invited by Southeast Asian countries to hold joint military exercises nearby.
But clear-eyed people know that this so-called "joint military exercise" was actually specially created by the British using its colonial influence for the return of Hong Kong.
The British fleet of more than thirty warships had a clear goal: Hong Kong.
Of course, it would be unrealistic for the British to send a fleet directly and prevent us from retaking Hong Kong by force. Don't look at the war between Britain and Argentina in 1982 for the ownership of the Falklands, but that's because britain knows it can win, even if it can't win, with the help of the United States, at least it won't lose.
But Hong Kong is not the Falklands, and China is not Argentina.
Although judging from the paper strength of the naval fleet, the Chinese Navy in 1997 may not be able to match the British fleet of aircraft carriers combined.
But the problem is that if China and britain really want to fight for Hong Kong, it is certainly not only naval combat.
With the support of the Continental Missile Force and the Army Air Force, the British did not say that they sent more than 30 warships, that is, they doubled, and they were not enough to hit the Dongfeng series of missiles.
Since they knew that they could not fight and did not want to fight, what did Britain do when it sent such a large fleet to the South China Sea in a menacing manner?
In fact, the reason is very simple, the United Kingdom is here to save face for itself.
As early as around 1984, the matter of The new China's recovery of Hong Kong was completed and settled.
But in 1997, when the British left Hong Kong in a daze, it was inevitable that it was a little embarrassing.
The British Empire, which once "never set the sun", was driven home without a sound, and in international public opinion, it was a great blow to Britain's international prestige.
Therefore, at that time, Britain sent a huge fleet, and deliberately broke into the South China Sea before the return of Hong Kong in 1997 to create a confrontation with the continental warships, just to show its "not afraid of China" attitude, in order to pick up Britain's status as one of the five permanent members of the United Nations in front of other small and medium-sized countries in the world.
Of course, facts speak louder than words, and different people have different views on whether the British left Hong Kong on their own initiative or were driven out of "Hong Kong" by new China.
However, one thing is unified, that is, after Hong Kong's return to the motherland, Britain's voice and influence in international affairs have become more and more scarce, and it has become a somewhat introverted European regional power.
This is not something that can be changed by sending a few warships to break into the territorial waters of the South China Sea on the mainland.
1 Chinese warship, facing off at sea with 34 British ships
The British have come to find a "field" for themselves, and there is nothing wrong with it.
But they set up their locations in the South China Sea and found a field for themselves in a way that provoked the mainland's territorial waters.
This is obviously not their own business, if they sit idly by and watch the British provoke, then the face of the British people will be found, and the international prestige of our country will be hit.
So how did the Chinese navy respond?
On June 25, 1997, the frigate Yibin, which was recuperating in the harbor, received orders from their superiors to quickly go to the relevant waters of the South China Sea to carry out their mission.
When the Yibin ship arrived at the site of the incident, it found that the British task force, which was originally "visiting" in Southeast Asia, had suddenly cruised to the vicinity of Hainan on the mainland.
What they were going to carry out was the task of "confronting" the British fleet.
The British fleet at this time was a super task force consisting of an aircraft carrier and two nuclear-powered submarines.
It can almost be said that the British can get all the naval foundations at that time.
Judging from the configuration of this fleet, in addition to the large-scale killers such as aircraft carriers and submarines, there are amphibious assault ships, which are specially used for island capture and landing operations.
Only from the perspective of strength, the British fleet, let alone in 1997, even if it is put to the present, it is still superior in strength and needs to be taken seriously.
So what are the warships that China has sent to intercept and monitor?
In fact, on the front line, there was only one frigate Yibin.
Its displacement is less than 2,000 tons, and it is not a concept at all with the British aircraft carrier of tens of thousands of tons and the large destroyer of thousands of tons.
More importantly, only one small ship of 2,000 tons was sent.
If you look at the comparison of the strengths of the two sides, it is simply not at the same level.
So since we are going to send warships to confront The British, why not send a little bigger, a little more warships, and only one Yibin warship to confront the 34 British warships?
In fact, there are two meanings in this.
First, there is only one Yibin ship on the front line, which does not mean that we only sent this one warship to confront the other side, in fact, in the rear base, overhead in the sky, there are people to help observe the movement of the British fleet.
The Yibin ship seems to be fighting alone, but in fact, behind it is our entire naval air force as a support, it is brave and courageous, and the soldiers are not "lonely" brave.
- The British sent 34 warships to the South China Sea deliberately to provoke, in order to show off their military force.
- If we also mobilized warships on a large scale to confront each other, at the level of continental warships at that time, whether we could win over the British or not, as long as we took it seriously, the purpose of the British would be achieved.
As mentioned earlier, hitting them is certainly not daring to fight.
The purpose of these people coming to the South China Sea is to make China overreact, and then to brag to the world that we, britain, have only sent a fleet (in fact, it is fully owned), which makes the Chinese navy nervous like a great enemy.
From this point of view, if you send more warships, on the contrary, you will follow the British way, on the contrary, if you only send one warship to follow the British fleet, observe their movements, and confront them, then no matter how powerful your British fleet is, it will not be reflected.
It is for this reason that the Sino-British maritime standoff lasted 72 hours. But it's basically a Chinese warship, walking 34 British warships.
In terms of scale, it is not like a military confrontation, but more like the British people ran all the way to hold a maritime armed parade, and then the Chinese took pictures of the whole process.
So, the purpose of the British to show off their might has not been achieved, and how is the matter finally resolved?
Yibin Ship: Bump and bump to see who is afraid of whom
As mentioned above, the British aggressively drove so many warships to the South China Sea, in fact, to "save" their dignity.
This redemption is definitely not really to fight with us, that is, to brighten the muscles and scare other small countries that do not understand the inside story.
Especially poor countries like Argentina, a small country with island disputes with Britain, avoid learning from China and taking back their islands.
Therefore, don't look at the British warships, but my Yibin warship is not afraid and directly rushes up to confront them.
Originally, this was just a tacit action of both sides, the British wanted to save respect, China was busy recovering Hong Kong, just watch them and don't let these warships break into the mainland's territorial waters.
When the British brushed enough of the sense of existence, they naturally left.
But unexpectedly, the accident still appeared.
Perhaps seeing that we had only sent one warship to confront them, the British were a little on top. Not only with the S-shaped channel, but also constantly entering the mainland territorial waters and high seas, making provocative moves.
Moreover, two warships were directly dispatched to sail in the direction of Hong Kong.
At that time, the British soldiers stationed in Hong Kong had not yet been withdrawn, which would be a big problem if the British warships outside the results of the negotiations between the two sides ran to Hong Kong in the name of withdrawal and appeared in the Hong Kong handover ceremony.
Therefore, the captain of the frigate Yibin, decisively ordered to accelerate the pursuit and intercept the two British warships.
At this time, the two British warships saw that the Yibin dared to pursue, and they were bigger and stronger, and they actually turned around and crashed directly into the Yibin ship.
Seeing that the bows of the two sides were getting closer and closer, they were about to collide together, and the officers and men on the Yibin ship were a little nervous, asking the captain if he wanted to avoid it, otherwise there would really be an impact, and our warship would suffer losses.
The captain of the Yibin ship said very calmly: "Crash and bump, see who is afraid of whom!" ”
In this tense atmosphere, the British warship finally chose to change direction and staggered the oncoming Yibin ship.
Facts have proved that they look arrogant and domineering, but in fact they are really arrogant and inward-looking, and they do not dare to make any diplomatic incidents on the eve of Hong Kong's return to the motherland.
The reason is actually very simple, by the end of June 1997, Hong Kong's return to the motherland has long been the trend of the times.
Not to mention that the country has identified this matter, even the British themselves have accepted this result.
Under such a popular trend, the British could not risk going to war with China and forcibly preventing Hong Kong's return by force.
And since it is impossible to prevent Hong Kong's return, it is better to be more atmospheric.
If any diplomatic incident were really made before the return ceremony, it would only make Britain laugh at the international community, which would be contrary to their fundamental purpose of sending a fleet into the South China Sea to prove that Britain is still a world power.
Therefore, whether it was the captain of the Yibin frigate who was assigned to carry out the task, or the top brass of the mainland, they had long been clear about the British idea of punching the swollen face and being fat, and naturally they were not afraid to make trouble.
This unexpected "collision" incident made the officers and men of the Yibin frigate terrified.
Similarly, the officers and men on the British warships were not comfortable. They had come to provoke China and show off their force.
As a result, we did not accept the move at the beginning, and only sent a warship to "confront" the 34 British warships, which even if the British won, could not prove the strength of their navy.
A large-scale confrontation was impossible, and the British wanted to take advantage of their large ships and small ships to scare the Yibin ship.
If you can scare the Yibin ship away, then it will be considered a task of provoking China and proving that its navy is still strong.
As a result, the officers and men on the Yibin frigate were not afraid to collide with them at all.
In this way, in fact, the British realized that no matter which direction they were blocking, their plan to find a "field" for britain through this confrontation was frustrated.
Coupled with the fact that it is getting closer and closer to July 1, and the world's targets are looking at Hong Kong, if britain continues to stir up trouble in the South China Sea, it will not be a show of force, but a laugh.
So, shortly after the Yibin and the British warship nearly collided, the British fleet returned to its base in Southeast Asia.
The frigate Yibin also completed its mission and successfully returned.
IV. Conclusion
There is a saying in the international diplomatic arena that "what is not obtained on the ordinary battlefield cannot be obtained at the negotiating table." ”
This statement, on the other hand, is also reasonable most of the time, that is, if a country cannot get the benefits it wants through negotiations, then half of it will not get it on the battlefield.
Because in the process of negotiation, both sides must have taken into account their own strength, if you are strong enough to make the other party afraid, then the benefits you want can naturally be obtained at the negotiating table.
But if your national strength is not enough to make the other party pay attention, then it means that people are not afraid of you at all. Even if you start a war, others are still not afraid of you.
When China and Britain began negotiations in 1982, the results of all negotiations were based on their respective strengths.
If the British really had the confidence that they could rely on 34 warships to prevent the mainland from taking back Hong Kong by force, as early as 1982, when the Hong Kong negotiations were held, Margaret Thatcher would not have been angry because of Deng Gong's words.
By 1997, China's economic and military strength had risen to the next level. On the contrary, Britain's international status and influence have declined year by year.
Against the backdrop of this kind of force disappearing one after another, it is obviously a fool's dream to try to intimidate the mainland through military intimidation.
Similarly, when his comprehensive national strength was weak, he wanted to tell the world by stepping on the knee of the Chinese navy that the British fleet was still a "giant", which was obviously delusional.
Britain, a country that has been the world hegemon for more than 100 years, always has a sense of arrogance in its bones, and feels that it still has the opportunity to become a world power again.
But in fact, with the development of science and technology and the progress of other countries, Britain, subject to its own size and population, has slowly become a regional power, no longer the status of a world power.
In the final analysis, there is nothing, there is no, you can't say that I have had, or that I will have in the future, as if I had it now.
Countries, like people, are down-to-earth and the most important.
EDIT: Weeds
Editor-in-Charge: Thalia