Touching base : immigration control in 1970s Hong Kong

Abstract

The Touch Base Policy, whereby illegal immigrants from China would be granted residence if they succeeded in reaching the urban areas or repatriated if they failed to do so, was (re)introduced by the Hong Kong government in November 1974. It operated until October 1980 and was replaced with a strict repatriation policy. The original policy derived from an oral agreement between the colonial government and the Guangdong provincial authorities. This thesis examines how the policy was negotiated among the British, Chinese, and Hong Kong authorities; how the colonial government attempted to re-establish its own immigration control regime against Chinese immigration; and how the government stove to shape public discourse on Chinese immigrants locally and capitalised on pre-existing discriminatory sentiments in Hong Kong society to fuel exclusionism. The thesis argues that the colonial government stressed pragmatism in handling immigration from China in the 1970s, a politically sensitive subject in a politically sensitive time, and used public opinion to serve its own political agenda, as a result of the simultaneous constraints coming from the British and the Chinese governments. This versatile pragmatism came in different layers, including Sino-British diplomacy, Hong Kong-Chinese relations, local political calculation, and Hong Kong people’s choice. The Touch Base Policy was only a middle-course option to regulate Chinese immigration. It was a sweetener to persuade the Chinese government to reduce legal emigration to Hong Kong. Its abolition, backed by popular local support, successfully stabilised the population of the colony by ending the waves of Chinese illegal immigration. However, this also marked Hong Kong’s failure to regain control over Chinese legal immigration.