In January 1948 the Hong Kong Chinese Training Unit (HKCTU) was formed by the Hong Kong ethnic Chinese who had served in the various artillery and coastal defence units during the Battle of Hong Kong in World War II, with the aim of recruiting and training Hong Kong ethnic Chinese soldiers to assist and support the British Garrison in Hong Kong. Hong Kong-born ethnic Chinese soldiers (British Dependent Territories Citizens) of the HKCTU pledged allegiance to the Monarch of the United Kingdom and were enlisted into the General Service Corps (GSC) of the British Regular Army and they wore the GSC capbadge. Members of the HKCTU were later frequently nicknamed, locally, in Cantonese Chinese, as "sui lui pao bing" () or "sui ngau" () in memory of their predecessors. Those enlisted before World War II were numbered HK1802xxx; those who joined after World War II, HK1826XXXX and HK1827xxxx.