As for its impact on the British, the change of regime in Beijing, firstly, terminated the
arrangements whereby the Malayan government had repatriated thousands of Chinese
suspected of harbouring communist sympathies and, secondly, confronted them with the
dilemma of diplomatic recognition. Convinced (not least by Hong Kong’s vulnerability) of
the necessity of recognition, British ministers realised that this decision might “make those
Chinese in Malaya who were still wavering come down against us” and also provide scope
for the PRC’s overseas consuls to whip up support for insurgency.