EDITORIAL: Wheel of history turns on HK
During the apocalyptic chaos of Mao Zedong’s (毛澤東) Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution, the bright lights of Hong Kong must have twinkled tantalizingly to many Chinese: a cool oasis within a barren desert of mass famine and societal collapse.
Almost every night, under the cover of darkness, desperate Chinese would quietly slip into the water at Shenzhen — then still a sleepy fishing village — to navigate a hazardous 4km swim to reach Hong Kong.
They became known as “freedom swimmers,” ordinary people who sought to flee the turmoil in China for a better life in capitalist Hong Kong.