British relations with China and USSR

Question 1

In 1967

Answer 1

The British embassy in Beijing into and set on fire and its staff physically assaulted .
In London, staff members came out of the Chinese embassy in Portland Place, shouting Mao’s name with sticks and matches, which they waved threateningly at the police.

Question 2

Hong Kong

Answer 2

China planned to use the Cultural revolution to make trouble for Britain over its continuing possession of Hong Kong.
In May 1967 Mao tried to turn a workers strike here into an anti-British demonstration.
Chinese terrorists were sent into the colony to create havoc and so provoke British retaliation.
British were conned into thinking that China was preparing to take Hong Kong by force.

Question 3

British relations with China

Answer 3

Improved throughout the 1970s.
2 main factors helped:
The USA’s abandonment of its support for Taiwan and its recognition of the PRC as the legitimate government of the whole of China.
This was followed by an official visit of President Nixon to Beijing in 1972. This marked the moment when East-West relations began to improve.
Heath visited office in 1974. He was the first major British politician to visit the PRC.
Labour government could prepare to build on Britain’s improved relations with the PRC.

Question 4

Soviet union

Answer 4

The British authorities had strong evidence to show that East European dissidents were being hunted down in Britain.
In 1978, Georgi Markov, an anti-soviet Bulgarian, was killed in London in London, in circumstances that strongly suggested he had been assassinated. .
Hardening Anglo-Soviet suspicion.