Remembering China's merchant navy heroes

'Nakedly racist action'

Shortly after the documents were made public, Kim Johnson, the Labour Party member for the constituency of Liverpool, Riverside, raised the issue in a parliamentary debate in July 2021, in which she said it was one "of deep concern to both the long-established Chinese community in Liverpool and constituents of Liverpool, Riverside, as well as many communities across the country", before giving details of what she called "one of the most nakedly racist actions ever undertaken by the British government… a shameful stain on our history".

"We know that about 2,000 seamen were deported, snatched from their homes and their loved ones and dumped unceremoniously on the shores of a homeland that many had left decades before. Their families were never told what was happening; they were never given a chance to object, or even a chance to say goodbye," she said.

"Most of the Chinese seamen's British wives and partners went to their graves never knowing the truth, left to believe that their husbands had abandoned them along with their children, suffering immeasurable trauma from the actions of the British government."

John Belchem, author of Before the Windrush: Race Relations in 20th Century Liverpool, told the BBC that for many years, Liverpool's Chinese residents were regarded as "absolutely model migrants". But when the country was looking to rebuild, literally and metaphorically, after World War II, there was no place for them in what he called "a terrible piece of ingratitude", so excuses were found to eject them en masse.

"They were respectful, well-behaved, believed in education, weren't violent, looked after their wives, looked after their children," he wrote.