ABSTRACT
In the 1960s, Hong Kong was in the midst of rapid economic restructuring. It was gaining a world-wide reputation as a manufacturing economy – plastic flowers and ornaments with ‘made in Hong Kong’ stamped on them became synonymous with the era of cheap, mass-produced goods. In addition, there were concerns about drug-smuggling and triad activity that ran alongside and were intertwined with the growing concerns about police corruption. A series of political issues and developments on the Mainland put the Hong Kong government in a difficult position. About 1,500 illegal immigrants from the Mainland were detected in a ‘normal’ year in the 1960s. Special Branch files also note the movement of a number of political subversives into Hong Kong both from Mainland China and from Taiwan. It was, illegal immigration from China that was to become the policing problem of 1962, prompting the establishment of the Anti-Illegal Immigration Branch.
