A protester launches a trash can at riot police in the streets of Hong Kong in 1967.
Photographer: Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
What Hong Kong’s 1960s Chaos Could Teach City’s Besieged Leaders
After a ferry-ticket hike fueled mass riots, the colonial government made investments to quell tensions.
It was a 5-cent fare hike for Hong Kong’s iconic Star Ferry that set off the protests. Cars and buildings were set on fire. Riot police patrolled the streets. Tear gas was fired—and still the crowds kept coming.
That was Hong Kong in the spring of 1966. And the violence didn’t end there. A year later, leftists inspired by Mao Zedong’s Communist Party launched a series of riots and bombings that killed 51 people in the then-British colony.