John Cooper, a British writer who was living in Hong Kong at the time, spoke to San Po Kong's susceptibility to civil unrest:[7] Street upon street of tall dilapidated buildings vied with each other for the limited space available, hundreds upon hundreds of hostile citizens lived out their lives in human rabbit warrens, plenty of workers were available to start a riot, plenty of workers' organisations existed to support it, and plenty of students would come along to give it political backing.On 6 May, picketing workers clashed with management at Hong Kong Artificial Flower Works, and police were subsequently brought in to forcefully end the unrest.

For example, an editorial by Ta Kung Pao criticised ethnic Chinese policemen for "beating [their] compatriots", describing them as "disgraceful" and urging them to "quickly repent".

On the morning of that day, several pro-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) demonstrators marched around the city, carrying copies of Mao Zedong's Little Red Book and posters condemning the colonial government.

[7] The pro-CCP Hong Kong and Kowloon Federation of Trade Unions (FTU) was responsible for organising formal demonstrations against the colonial government.

The PRC government condemned what it called the "sanguinary brutality and fascist atrocities of the British imperialists" and listed five demands of the colonial government in Hong Kong:[12] The CCP Central Committee's newspaper, the People's Daily, praised the demonstrators' "dauntless mettle" and warned the colonial authorities of "going against the historical trend".

[13] Hong Kong's then governor, David Trench, became increasingly concerned that the demonstrations were a preliminary attempt by the PRC to take control of the colony.

[14] During the 1967 riots, the Struggle Committee led strikes in a number of industries, notably transportation, which reportedly involved up to 60,000 workers.

To fund the group's activities, the PRC government gave US$3.3 million to the Struggle Committee through the state-controlled All-China Federation of Trade Unions.

[4] The colonial authorities blamed the Struggle Committee for the bombings which took place during the 1967 riots, and the Hong Kong Bar Association designated the group as a terrorist organisation on 8 September.