Canton–Hong Kong strike

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Canton–Hong Kong strike
Hanyu Pinyin
Shěng Gǎng Dà Bàgōng
Wade–GilesShêng3 Kang3 Ta4 Pa4-kung1
Yue: Cantonese
Yale RomanizationSáang góng daaih bah gūng
JyutpingSaang2 gong2 daai6 baa6 gung1

The Canton–Hong Kong strike was a

May 30 Movement shooting incidents in which Chinese protesters were fired upon by Sikh detachments of the Shanghai Municipal Police in Shanghai
.

Incident

On May 30, 1925, Sikh detachments of the Shanghai Municipal Police opened fire on a crowd of Chinese demonstrators at the Shanghai International Settlement. At least nine demonstrators were killed, and many others wounded.[1] Escalating the incident, on June 23, 1925, a heated demonstration in Shameen Island took place which resulted in the Shakee Massacre.[2][citation needed] Troops under foreign command, perceiving shots being fired at them, killed more than fifty Chinese protesters and wounded almost two hundred more.[1]

Strike

Prominent Chinese citizens in

Anglo-French Settlement in Shameen.[1] Anti-British pamphlets were passed around in Hong Kong. Rumours also spread that the colonial government planned to poison the colony's water supplies.[1] Guangdong offered free train passage to Hong Kong. In the first week of protest, more than 50,000 Chinese citizens left Hong Kong. Food prices soared. The colony was a ghost town by July. By the end of July, some 250,000 Chinese left for Guangdong.[1] The worst of the strike was over by 1926.[1]

Government and economy

The

Sir Reginald Stubbs and Colonial Secretary Claud Severn, were replaced in 1925 as a consequence of the crisis, under criticism from James Jamieson, the British Consul General in Canton.[3] Jamieson claimed the two were out of touch and out of date, unable to converse in Chinese and were ignorant of the political situation in China.[4]
: 98 

An anti-British boycott continued for several more months.[1] The economy was paralysed and Hong Kong's total trade fell by 50%, shipping diminished by 40%, and rents decreased by 60%, which lasted until the end of the boycott.[2]

In literature

The Canton–Hong Kong strike plays a prominent part in André Malraux's first novel, The Conquerors (1928).[citation needed]

See also

References