China

Deeley mentions China several times in the play. In Act Two, he says: "You know what they'd do to me in China if they found me in a white dinner jacket. They'd bloodywell kill me. You know what they're like over there." The white dinner jacket seems to be a sign of imperialism (think of all the white jackets in Casablanca, for example-- although of course that is North Africa, another imperial stronghold for much of the 20th century).

Britain has had long-standing colonial and economic stakes in China, and British-Chinese relations in the late 1960s and early 1970s were extremely volatile. Tensions centered around the British refusal to support China's inclusion in the UN, China's occupation of Tibet, and particularly unrest in Hong Kong, which was a British colonial possession at that point. Riots erupted in 1967 between Chinese communist anti-colonial guerrilla forces and British troops. In 1972, a year after Old Times premiered, Britain and China would agree to exchange ambassadors to re-establish diplomatic relations, and in 1984 the two governments agreed to return Hong Kong to Chinese rule in 1997.

Here's the Wikipedia article for a broad overview:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong_1967_riots

This is a fascinating article from The Atlantic in 1967 reporting on Hong Kong:

http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/67nov/hk1167.htm

Here's a brief clip from the History Channel about the riots:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dghiq9u2MSU