I hope my question is fairly self explanatory but on a personal note I'm very curious about the last part of my question. Just how popular were these riots? From what I've gathered the rioters seemed to be pro PRC which runs counter to what I've seen these days in the news with many Hong Kongers and Macanese hating the mainland and wanting independence. So were these rioters a fringe group? Or has the general opinion of the mainland changed over the past several decades? Or is it something else entirely?
Hope I can get some great responses! Thanks!
Although quite a number of Hong Kongers supported Mao, PRC and Communism during the time, the riot was almost universally opposed. The mass-bombing and arson killed far more innocent civilians than their main targets: policemen "yellow-skinned dogs" and British colonists "white-skinned pigs".
Note that the population in HK was 600,000 in 1945 and by 1967 it bloated to near 4 million. Most Hong Kongers were refugees from China having moved in during the previous two decades. The majority of them still see Hong Kong as an asylum and hope to move back to Mainland once China gets stable and prosperous. Some put their hope on Mao and the CCP and hence the pro PRC movement. At that time the racism was also rampant and Britons enjoyed much privileges in Hong Kong, leftist papers further fueled up the hate.
Hong Kongers only lose their hope and expectation in China further down the Cultural Revolution. Newly-arrived refugees talked about the horror in China which usually contrasts to the official reports from pro-Beijing media.