In 1860, the British and French troops forcibly landed in Tianjin, and then disregarded the Qing Dynasty's rule that "foreigners are not allowed to sit in sedans now, and their entourage must not exceed 20 people", blatantly sat in a palanquin and entered the capital with 2,000 soldiers.
When the former chancellor Su Shun reported the practices of the Anglo-French alliance to the Xianfeng Emperor, the Xianfeng Emperor took the case and said, "We will not allow him to come, how can they come?" But when he heard Su Shun's answer, the Xianfeng Emperor suddenly sat down on the ground, and Su Shun only replied with three words: Bring the soldiers!
132 years later, China and Britain had a very similar scene to that year, but this time the identity between China and Britain has undergone a drastic change.
Hong Kong's return
In October 1993, when Deng Xiaoping saw the plan for receiving Hong Kong handed over by Liu Huaqing, then vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, he only coldly said two sentences:
The army accepts Hong Kong's plan, no force plan, no; On 1 July 1997, Hong Kong had to take it back. If the British side delays, the People's Liberation Army will drive directly in and smash it to death with a hammer!
It is conceivable that at this moment, at 10 Downing Street in the United Kingdom, John Major, then British Prime Minister, and Patten, then Governor of Hong Kong, are engaged in such a dialogue:
John Major: "Regarding the return of Hong Kong, we can delay it, we don't cooperate, how do they come in?" ”
Patten: "Call in!" ”
Patten
What kind of difficulties have been encountered in Hong Kong's return to the motherland? What kind of excessive moves did the British make Deng Gong think of using force to solve it? Today, Brother Leng will take you to relive the fierce competition between China and britain before and after the return of Hong Kong.
On August 29, 1842, aboard the British ship Gao Huali on the Xiaguan River in Nanjing, the first treaty in China's modern history to lose power and humiliate the country was officially signed, and from this day, Hong Kong and the mainland began a 155-year state of separation. According to the "Treaty of Nanking", Hong Kong will not be able to return until 1997, but what few people know is that in fact, as early as 1949, Hong Kong had the opportunity to return to the embrace of the motherland, but at that time it was "stopped" by Chairman Mao.
Chairman Mao
On October 19, 1949, Shenzhen was liberated, and the 44th Division of the Chinese People's Liberation Army was only a river away from Hong Kong. Although Hong Kong has more than 30,000 troops, as well as a large number of air force and mechanized troops, at this time, the morale of our army is booming, and All aspects of Hong Kong's material needs rely on the mainland for supplies.
As long as Chairman Mao gave an order, our army could occupy Hong Kong within a few days, and even Ge Lianghong, who was then the governor of Hong Kong, had no confidence in defending Hong Kong, he wrote in his evacuation report to the British government:
Holding on to Hong Kong would be an impossible task, tantamount to hitting a pebble with a pebble and certainly paying very unnecessary casualties.
At the moment when Hong Kong was within reach, Chairman Mao suddenly issued a "strange" order: all troops should retreat and stop attacking Hong Kong.
Chairman Mao and Deng Xiaoping
Chairman Mao's order aroused the objections of many communist countries, who felt that our practice was a sign of submission to imperialism. However, Chairman Mao said: "Britain's military strength in Hong Kong is minimal, we have enough strength to occupy Hong Kong, but there was a treaty signed between China and Britain, the lease period is 99 years, and there are still 34 years to expire, so we are not ready to move it for the time being." ”
In fact, there is another important reason why Chairman Mao did not move Hong Kong. At that time, New China had just been founded, the new political power was unstable, and the Western countries headed by the United States were trying by all means to shake china's new political power, and even many countries threatened to impose a blockade and embargo on our country. Leaving Hong Kong in the hands of the British for the time being will not only break the alliance of interests between Britain and the United States, but also be more conducive to the development of Hong Kong.
In the early days of the founding of New China, Chairman Mao always maintained a calm and prudent attitude toward the Hong Kong issue, and repeatedly avoided talking about the Hong Kong issue on the grounds of "maintaining the status quo for the time being," "the time is not ripe," and "not having the conditions."
Although there is little talk about Hong Kong, Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou have been constantly concerned about the development of Hong Kong, as early as 1963, there was a huge water crisis in Hong Kong, and nearly 7 million Hong Kong citizens faced a situation where there was no water available. After learning of the specific situation, Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou immediately formulated the "Report on negotiations on the issue of water supply to Hong Kong" after discussion, and then the central government allocated more than 38 million yuan of special funds to introduce water from the East River into Hong Kong, completely solving the problem of Hong Kong's water difficulties.
Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou's move, which may seem a little strange, is actually extremely clever, not only expressing the motherland's concern for them to the citizens of Hong Kong, but also resolving the British diplomatic crisis to a certain extent.
On May 25, 1974, Chairman Mao spoke for the first time about the Hong Kong issue when he met with former British Prime Minister Heath: "Hong Kong has a lease period of 24 years, and I am afraid that we will all be gone." Then Chairman Mao pointed to Deng Xiaoping next to him and said, "This matter will be completed by their young people!" ”
Chairman Mao received Heath
Deng Xiaoping, who was sitting by the sidelines at the time, did not utter a word, and the expression on his face was unusually calm, but he firmly remembered this "task" given by Chairman Mao. In 1982, with Margaret Thatcher's second visit to China, Deng Xiaoping finally waited for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but deng Xiaoping did not expect that the negotiations would be so difficult.
On the morning of September 24, 1982, Deng Xiaoping arrived early in the Fujian Hall of the Great Hall of the People, where he not only had to meet an "Iron Lady" from Britain, but also to tear apart all the humiliations of China over the past century.
At about 9 a.m., with the arrival of Margaret Thatcher, the negotiations on Hong Kong's return to the motherland officially began. As soon as the talks began, Margaret Thatcher reiterated the three treaties signed by the British and Qing governments, and the tone was full of the meaning of not wanting to return Hong Kong, but what the British "Iron Lady" did not know was that the "small" leader sitting in front of her was Deng Xiaoping, who had the title of "steel company".
Deng Xiaoping and Margaret Thatcher
In the face of Thatcher's aggressiveness, Deng Xiaoping has been very calm, but his answer is very serious: "The question of sovereignty is not an issue that can be discussed, and now the time is ripe for China to take back Hong Kong in 1997." ”
It is worth mentioning that after the talks, When Margaret Thatcher left the Great Hall of the People, she accidentally fell on the steps, and there was a lot of discussion about this classic scene, and even some Western media said that the sharp-edged Margaret Thatcher was defeated by Deng Xiaoping, who hid a needle in the cotton, and became mentally confused.
A few days later, Deng Xiaoping and Margaret Thatcher met again, this time with a clearly meticulous preparation, and at the beginning of the talks she said unceremoniously: "If China insists on taking back Hong Kong, it will have a disastrous impact on Hong Kong." ”
Deng Xiaoping remained calm about Thatcher's slightly threatening tone, but then he uttered something that terrified Thatcher: "I want to tell my wife that the Chinese government has anticipated all the possibilities in making decisions, and that if there are serious fluctuations in Hong Kong in the next 15 years, then China may change the time and way to take back Hong Kong, even if there is a 'catastrophic impact', as you say, the Chinese government has the ability to face." ”
Although deng xiaoping and Margaret Thatcher's negotiations have not yielded a clear result, the two sides have reached a consensus on one issue, that is, from this moment on, China and the United Kingdom will formally hold consultations on Hong Kong.
Since Margaret Thatcher's return from a visit to China, the British government has repeatedly postponed negotiations. In desperation, in February 1983, China issued an ultimatum to britain: a unilateral draft of China's post-1997 Hong Kong policy had been completed. If the British side insisted on refusing to negotiate, China would announce the contents of the plan in September 1984.
Margaret Thatcher
After truly feeling China's determination to take back Hong Kong, Britain finally agreed to the demands of the negotiations. On July 12, 1983, representatives of China and the United Kingdom held negotiations in Beijing for the first time on the Hong Kong issue, but until the end of the fourth round of negotiations in late September, the two sides still did not reach any consensus.
In order to test China's attitude, former British Prime Minister Heath also went to see Deng Xiaoping, and in the course of the conversation, Deng Xiaoping's attitude was very resolute, and he also said: "If I don't solve the Hong Kong issue, then I am Li Hongzhang, and whoever doesn't solve this problem is Li Hongzhang!" ”
Deng Xiaoping
However, in the negotiations that followed, the British still tested our country's bottom line again and again. In April 1984, Sino-British negotiations entered the final stages. After the 14th round of negotiations, the British government actually put forward a request to "refuse China's stationing of troops in Hong Kong". The British representative stressed: The Chinese government's garrison will affect the stability and unity of Hong Kong, and may even cause funds to flee, you can completely put the troops in Shenzhen or Guangdong, as long as there is a problem, your troops can come at any time.
In order for the negotiations to continue, our representative said that he could consider not stationing troops, but did not make a clear commitment to Britain, but unexpectedly the Hong Kong media reported that the Chinese government had promised not to station troops in Hong Kong.
After seeing the relevant reports in the Hong Kong media, Deng Xiaoping was furious and then urgently received the Hong Kong delegation. From the moment he entered the room, Deng Xiaoping's expression was always very serious, and the first thing he said after he sat down was: "On the Hong Kong issue, no one else says anything except what I said to him." The "he" Deng Xiaoping said was Ji Pengfei, then director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council.
Ji Pengfei
On the issue of the Hong Kong garrison, Deng Xiaoping's attitude was very resolute, and he stressed in front of all the deputies and reporters: "The Hong Kong garrison must be upheld and no concessions must be made!" ”
On 19 December 1984, after 22 rounds of negotiations, the Sino-British Joint Declaration was finally signed in Beijing, and from that day on, Hong Kong officially entered a 13-year transition period.
In mid-October 1992, when the 14th Party Congress was held, Deng Xiaoping had resigned from all his party posts, but he was still concerned about the Hong Kong issue because it was a task entrusted by Chairman Mao. On the sidelines of the meeting, Deng Xiaoping deliberately asked Liu Huaqing, then vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, for a plan to accept Hong Kong, but when he opened the document, his whole expression suddenly became serious, and then he wrote two words on the document: Soft.
Liu
Looking at Liu Huaqing's puzzled expression, Deng Xiaoping explained: "In the plan, only the method of peaceful reception is prepared, not the method of receiving by force. Immediately afterward, Deng Xiaoping said with a very firm attitude: "On July 1, 1997, Hong Kong's sovereignty must return to China's hands, and if there is any delay on the Part of the British side, it will drive the troops in and smash them to death with a hammer." ”
At the beginning of 1993, the People's Liberation Army Garrison in Hong Kong was officially established in Hong Kong, and most of the members of this unit came from their own heroic units that had experienced hundreds of battles, including the Red Regiment in the Jinggangshan period, as well as the naval brigade that participated in the Battle of Wanshan Islands and the Battle of The Eighty-Six Seas, which can be said to be the elite of the elite.
The PLA garrison enters Hong Kong
On April 21, 1997, the Hong Kong Garrison dispatched three advance troops of 196 personnel to Hong Kong. At 23:50 on the evening of June 30, the Chinese and British troops officially held a handover ceremony at the Prince of Wales Barracks, and the head of the British Army saluted the commander of our army in Hong Kong, Lieutenant Colonel Tan Shan'ai: "Lieutenant Colonel Tan Shan'ai, all the soldiers of the Prince of Wales Barracks have now been prepared, please accept ..."
Tan Shan'ai replied in a thunderous voice: "On behalf of the Chinese People's Liberation Army garrison in Hong Kong, I will take over the military camp, you can be laid off, we will take up our posts." I wish you all a safe journey. ”
Handover of forces
At 23:59:55, the last soldier of the British army withdrew from the barracks, and at 00:00 on July 1, the tearful five-star red flag was raised at the same time at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre and the Prince of Wales Barracks.
On the day of the handover, it had been raining lightly over Hong Kong, and Qian Qichen, then minister of foreign affairs, stood in the rain and said: "I think that the descendants of Yanhuang all over the world should be boiling with blood for this rain, which has washed away the shame of China's face, and our country is moving towards a new future." ”
Qian Qichen
This male lion of China, which has experienced five thousand years of wind and rain in the east of the world, has a Chinese civilization that no country can understand, and in terms of national sovereignty, the blood and integrity of any Chinese are enough to make the whole world shake.
Not only Hong Kong, as long as it belongs to every inch of China's territory, no matter where it is now, he will one day return to the embrace of the motherland, which is not only the general trend of history, but also the expectation of all Chinese.