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In 1952, during the Portuguese occupation of Macau, there were violent clashes with China, and even gun battles.
Portugal's provocation caused 32 PLA casualties, and although we have always had a tolerant attitude towards the Macau side, in the face of their malicious injury, Chairman Mao directly ordered the PLA to fight back, so that Portugal could see our determination.
Why did the Portuguese government, which colonized Macao, provoke the PLA, what was the result of the PLA's counterattack, and how was this serious conflict finally resolved?
Click on it and walk into the Portuguese provocation in 52 years together.
Portugal and Macau
In fact, the origin of Portugal and Macao should start from the Ming Dynasty, Portugal is located in Europe, there was almost no communication with the mainland before the Ming Dynasty, and then with the rise of Europe in the 16th century, various world navigation routes were opened, Portugal seized this opportunity, and became one of the famous maritime powers at that time.
With the rise of trade in the world, Portugal occupied the Strait of Malacca, and countries around the world began to engage in trade activities, China as a large country in the East, Portugal in the world navigation trade naturally also noticed us, the Ming Dynasty was not a weak country at that time, Portugal did not dare to directly fight each other, but with the Ming Dynasty to negotiate cooperation.
However, at that time, China was in the feudal era, and the sea ban policy was implemented, so it was not interested in the trade of the Ming Dynasty, but for the sake of the sincerity of the Portuguese, the Ming Dynasty still allowed them to operate in the area of Macao, and they could have a small range of business activities.
The Portuguese ambitions did not stop there, they bribed the local officials in Macau, while observing the control of the imperial court in Macau, and with the decline of the late Ming Dynasty, they stayed in Macau for a long time with their strong ships and cannons, but their status was not compliant at that time.
For the next 100 years, the Portuguese government tried its best to occupy Macao, but it was unsuccessful until 1887, with the decline of the Qing government, the Portuguese government found an opportunity to occupy Macau "above board", that is, to sign a contract with the Qing government.
The Portuguese government forced the Qing government to sign the Sino-Portuguese Treaty of Lisbon with them, which was regarded as nominally obtaining the right to administer Macao, so Portugal began its colonial policy in Macao, making Macao an important transit point for Portugal's foreign trade.
In modern times, China was in the midst of wars, warlords, wars of aggression, and civil wars between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party. During this period, Macao was peaceful under the administration of the Portuguese government, but colonization was colonization after all, and the people of Macao were eager to return to the embrace of the motherland.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, we did not recognize all the unreasonable treaties signed before, and even the previous "Sino-Portuguese Lisbon Treaty" was not recognized, that is, New China could take back Macao at any time.
With regard to the issue of Hong Kong and Macao, our party has decided to handle it cautiously, because after all, these areas are problems left over from history, and unlike the liberation process of other parts of China, at that time, New China was in ruins, and all parts of the country were waiting for construction, and in addition the international situation at the beginning of the birth of New China was not good, so we had neither the energy nor the need to rush to recover these two areas.
Of course, the postponement of the resumption of Macao does not mean that we do not pay attention to Macao, and our party hopes to recover Macao through peaceful means, and this requires negotiations at a suitable opportunity, and the two sides will try to live in peace as much as possible before that.
On November 15, 1949, China and Portugal signed an agreement, which stipulated that China and Portugal could each set up five guard posts at the junction, with a neutral zone in between, with a Trojan horse as the dividing line, and at the same time stipulating that neither side could enter the neutral zone.
These agreements were effective at first, and the posts on both sides were operating normally, and there was no contradiction for the time being, but the Portuguese never gave up their ambitions for Macau, and when they saw that China was facing a crisis, their ambitions were exposed.
With the outbreak of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, the mainland mobilized the strength of the whole country to fight against the United States, and we sent a large number of troops to the Korean War, and 1952 was also an important moment for us on the Korean battlefield.
Regarding the war between China and Portugal, it starts on July 15, 1952, when a Portuguese black soldier walked to the neutral zone, but directly took off his pants to pee.
The black soldier didn't understand what the PLA was laughing at, and mistakenly thought that it was humiliating them, perhaps because China had given them the impression that they were being bullied, and the Portuguese soldier thought that humiliating him was an unacceptable thing, so he became angry directly, and even dared to cross the cordon and try to attack our soldiers with guns, constantly saying cursed words in his mouth, and spitting on our army.
It was a trivial matter, this soldier actually took out a gun to threaten our army, of course, the PLA was not afraid of his intimidation, and issued a warning to him, after letting him retreat to the cordon, in order to let the Portuguese soldiers retreat, the PLA also took out a grenade and threw it into the open area as a warning.
However, no one expected that this small contradiction would lead to a serious conflict.
Sino-Portuguese conflict
Portugal maliciously provoked, the PLA was forced to return fire, and violent clashes broke out between the two sides.
After this clash, the Portuguese soldiers seemed to think that the Chinese soldiers did not dare to fight back, and they even made even more excessive moves, and a Portuguese soldier actually pushed forward the Trojan horse of the demarcation line agreed between China and Portugal, which was not only a breach of the agreement, but also a manifestation of Macau's desire to encroach on mainland territory.
After their behavior was discovered by the Chinese soldiers, the Chinese soldiers immediately spoke out to stop them, but the Portuguese actually confronted our soldiers and even pointed their guns at us. On the night of the clashes, the Portuguese soldiers aimed their guns at our party and opened fire on the residential buildings within the cordon.
In the early morning of the third day of the conflict, the Portuguese army was even more frantically provocative, directly to the mainland border outpost, and knocked down our national flag, among which two soldiers went to hang the national flag, but were hit by Portuguese shells and unfortunately died.
Portugal's provocation has reached this point, and we can't say anything about it if we continue to tolerate it, but Macao cannot handle it casually, and the PLA is even more known for its strict discipline, so the PLA hastened to report this matter to the central government, and the central government's attitude towards the provocative behavior of the Portuguese side is that it will not let it go, especially after learning that they have opened fire on nearby residential areas, they immediately ordered to eliminate this group of invaders.
The People's Liberation Army (PLA) had been honed in the war, and the Portuguese army was no match for the PLA, and in the face of a provocation by the Portuguese army, the PLA resolutely fought back.
In order to let Portugal see China's strength, but also let them learn a good lesson, the country sent 29 regiments to participate in the operation, the conflict between the two sides broke out, the strict discipline and superb combat ability of the People's Liberation Army, soon let the Portuguese soldiers be defeated, and after a while, don't fight and flee in all directions.
The Portuguese soldiers, who had just been invincible, were like rats crossing the street after the PLA counterattacked, and the PLA decided to catch up and let them see how powerful the Chinese army was. This time we not only repelled the Portuguese attack, but also shattered their pride and made them realize the difference in quality.
In this clash the PLA suffered 32 casualties, while the Portuguese side killed 2 and injured many others. Portugal originally thought that they would be able to continue to take advantage of New China by relying on their toughness ability, but they did not know that the current China is no longer the poor and weak China of many years ago, and we will no longer be afraid of any external forces.
In the eyes of Portugal, this time they will only win, as they did more than half a century ago, but the attitude of the Chinese government did not surprise them, and they did not expect this, and for a time the two sides reached a stalemate.
Portugal is so provocative, of course, China is not only so simple as giving him a counterattack, they want to let them learn a long lesson, for Macau, in fact, they are largely dependent on the mainland, especially in terms of trade, so we decided to block the trade routes between the two sides in early August, and if Portugal wants to help Macau, it can only transport materials from Portugal, this back and forth, not to mention the long time it takes, and the transportation costs are also a lot of money.
After China's intervention, Macao's economy was directly affected, prices in Macao skyrocketed, and the Portuguese troops stationed in Macao were also panicked day and night, for fear that the People's Liberation Army would really take advantage of the opportunity to attack. The Portuguese army stationed in Macau is also a regular army, is it really afraid of the PLA?
Their fear is real, not to mention the PLA, even in terms of troops, the two sides are not equal, Portugal's garrison in Macao is only about 1,500 people, and even if most of the PLA is sent to the Korean battlefield, the troops we can send to Macao are several times that of Portugal, not to mention that the combat effectiveness of the PLA is much stronger than that of Portuguese soldiers.
Seeing that China has never softened its attitude, Portugal was unwilling to give in to China at first, and he even tried to put pressure on China at the national level so that the matter could be resolved smoothly.
Portugal's approach was to find Britain and the United States and try to use their influence to get China to compromise. In order to give itself an advantage in public opinion, the Portuguese side sent to lobby the British and American foreign ministers to even reverse black and white, ignoring all of their provocations, only saying that China provoked them first, and made this incident a "bullying" of them by China.
Final Solution
How will we respond if the Portuguese government distorts the facts and "pours dirt" on the Chinese government?
The relationship between Britain and the United States with China is not good, so they saw that there was an opportunity to strike at China, and quickly stood up. The British said they were in a military alliance with Portugal and that one side would certainly not sit idly by if one side was threatened.
In order to show its determination to "stand with" Portugal, Britain also froze Chinese assets left on Hong Kong Airlines, and even detained several staff members.
At the same time, the United States also began to send fleets to harass China, in fact, at the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, many people thought that we should not make the relationship between Britain and the United States so stiff, and that we should adopt a peaceful way to deal with the problem, but no matter what the circumstances, we cannot shake our determination to safeguard national sovereignty.
With the change of time, China still did not give in to Portugal, but the Portuguese government was a little unable to sit still, they found that the threat of Britain and the United States, the Chinese government was not afraid at all, and did not have any impact on China at all, seeing that Macao was about to be unable to hold on, the People's Liberation Army only needed to go one step further to directly take back Macao, and Portugal had no power to resist at all.
In response to the concessions made by the Portuguese side, China also realized that this might be an opportunity, and through this peace talks, it might be able to provide an opportunity for the smooth acceptance of Macao in the future, so we also agreed to the peace talks.
In fact, there are other voices in China regarding this peace talks, and some believe that we can take this opportunity to directly take back Macao and drive Portugal out in one fell swoop. Macao is China's territory, and it is reasonable for us to take back Macao, but some people believe that it is not time to take it back now, and this matter cannot be rushed, and some people advocate continuing to blockade Macao.
Regarding these controversies, Ye Shuai spoke: "Don't forget that there are still our compatriots there, if the soldiers meet, they are the ones who suffer." "In fact, we have given Portugal an attitude on this matter, and we still have to uphold the principle of tolerance and peace on the issue of Macau, after all, the majority of people in Macao are still Chinese."
During the negotiations with the Portuguese side, China put forward three demands according to the actual situation, the first is that Portugal guarantee that similar incidents will not happen again, the second is that Portugal apologize to the Chinese, and the third is that Portugal make economic compensation for this incident, especially for the PLA and its families killed and injured in the conflict.
The negotiations pointed out that Portugal still maintained a proud attitude, only agreed to the first article, and even threatened not to be afraid of a war with China, to which our army also resolutely responded: "China is not even afraid of the Americans on the Korean battlefield, let alone the Portuguese army." ”
The Portuguese side has not let go, and we will not give in, so the two sides have been in a stalemate for almost a month, during which there have been 17 negotiations, Portugal has been struggling to support, and I wanted to count on Britain and the United States to help him, but the British and Americans just talked about it, which put Portugal in a dilemma.
On August 23, 1952, under the pressure of China, the Portuguese government finally could not hold on, submitted an apology to China, and assumed all the responsibility for the conflict, and compensated 440 million yuan for economic losses.
The conflict between China and Portugal lasted for more than a month, and finally came to an end, this time China not only broke the inherent impression of China in the West, but also made Portugal see China's determination to protect national sovereignty, and also had an impact on the peaceful return of Macau.
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