The time in 1970 when the Post dove into deadly cross-border abductions from Hong Kong’s Deep Bay oyster beds
- Off Pak Nai, 3 members of the Tsang family and up to 5 others were abducted and forced aboard a Chinese fishing junk
- A month later, Chinese authorities in Shea Hau arrested 4 miliamen for the abduction and subsequent murders of the 3 Tsang family members
“Police are investigating the reported abduction of about eight men from an oyster bed in Deep Bay,” reported the South China Morning Post on September 2, 1970. “Fishermen reported that at about 5.30pm yesterday a fishing junk anchored near an oyster bed at Pak Nai. They said that about 20 men from the junk then boarded two sampans, sailed closer to the oyster bed and forced the eight men working there to accompany them back to the junk [and] it sailed off towards China.”
On October 9, the Post reported that a government spokesman said the circumstances surrounding the death of the “three members of the Tsang family were being thoroughly investigated”.
“Mr Tsang Ngau was shot dead on the junk while being abducted across Deep Bay on September 1. His elder son, Bing-nam, was shot, beaten up, and disembowelled. The younger son, Cho-hing, was severely beaten and died a day later. Four farm hands who were abducted together with the Tsang family were released on Tuesday [October 6].”
On October 19, the Post reported that “news of the arrest of four militiamen by the Chinese authorities in Shea Hau for the murder of Mr Tsang Ngau and his two sons has caught local communists on the wrong foot.
“Not only have they not published any news of the arrests […] but they say the information is false. A local communist newspaper […] last night denounced the news as ‘a typical British imperialist trick’.
“‘We do not believe our militiamen have been arrested,’ it added.
“It is obvious that local leftists are concealing the news from their own rank-and-file for fear that an official admission will cause shock and disillusionment.”
