The Occurrence And Resolution Of The Crisis In Sino-British Relations During The "Cultural Revolution"

On August 22,1967,there was a violent foreign-related incident in Beijing,in which the rebellious masses set fire to the office of British Charge d’affaires in China.The incident took place in the early stage of the Cultural Revolution when the Red Guard movement was raging and spread overseas.From the "January seizure of power" in Shanghai in 1967 to the outbreak of the "June 7th Incident" in Hong Kong,the conflict between China and Britain around the withdrawal of the British representative office in Shanghai,especially the issue of violent confrontation in Hong Kong,has intensified,and finally the most serious foreign-related incident in the diplomatic history of the People’s Republic of China occurred.The next day after the incident,the senior leadership of the Communist Party of China had realized the seriousness of the incident and began to take measures to try to calm the development of the situation.After several years of negotiations,Zhou Enlai,on behalf of the Chinese government,formally apologized to the British side for the incident in 1971,and funded the repair of the burned house of the British agency.The Chinese and British governments properly handled the expropriation of the British agency in Shanghai at the same time,respectively lifted the restrictions on the London Chinese Charge d’affaires and the Beijing British Charge d’Affaires,and respectively released the Reuters reporter Gray in Beijing and the left-wing media in Hong Kong.Finally,the Chinese and British governments signed a joint communiqu é on the exchange of ambassadors in 1972,and the bilateral relations finally came out of the trough and ushered in the normalization of diplomatic relations.