ABSTRACT
The party institution operating under the name of Xinhua–Hong Kong was established in 1946. Although it gave the appearance of a press organ dispatching news releases from the Xinhua Headquarters in Yan'an, Xinhua–Hong Kong was actually an office of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Southern Bureau stationed in Hong Kong for public relations and activities. Fang Fang, secretary of the Southern Bureau, had his office in Hong Kong. The supreme responsible person on Hong Kong–Macao work then was none other than Zhou Enlai. Zhou was in charge of general policy and guiding principle, but it was Mao Zedong who had the final say. During the Cultural Revolution, tremendous changes occurred in party work in Hong Kong, presenting a very abnormal situation. Briefly speaking, at the end of 1966, the "rebels" supporting the Cultural Revolution, led by Lin Biao and Jiang Qing, first seized control of the Foreign Affairs Office (FAO) and later had it dissolved.
