HK ready for China's takeover<\/p>\n
In the eighth of his series on Hong Kong's transition from
\nBritish to Chinese sovereignty, our Asia correspondent Harvey
\nStockwin looks at some of the varied, less somber reactions to
\nthe changeover.<\/p>\n
HONG KONG (JP): As Hong Kong prepares to become again, and
\nforever, part of China, the Great Fixation on June 30, 1997 in
\nthis complex international city is finally coming to a head.<\/p>\n
There is massive hype but little if any hysteria.<\/p>\n
True as always to the commercial pragmatism which lies at the
\nheart of its astonishing growth, Hong Kong is being Hong Kong --
\ntrying very hard to make a profit out of the handover. Caps,
\nwatches, shirts, T-shirts, cups, hats, playing cards, postcards,
\nplus all manner of other goods are emblazoned with the June 30-
\nJuly 1, 1997 logos.<\/p>\n
A rumor went around that using the flag of the People's
\nRepublic of China on commercial products would soon be an offense
\nagainst the law. No problem. China's flag remains in place on
\nmany articles until midnight on Monday, when the plastic transfer
\nof China's flag will be peeled off, just in case.<\/p>\n
My personal prize for the biggest commercial scam in the
\nconsumer goods category goes to the gweilo (foreign devil) who
\nhas manufactured cans of \"colonial air\". The can is empty but the
\nlabel assures the buyer that if you inhale the contents, you will
\nacquire a stiff upper lip and quickly become arrogant.<\/p>\n
Beyond the rank commercialism, Hong Kong is a mixture of
\ncircus, casino and party. In varying degrees, it always is -- but
\nnow the tendency is pronounced.<\/p>\n
The circus aspect of the handover got going rather late -- a
\nreflection, perhaps, that feeling joyous was considered an
\nobligation rather than a duty. Too late it was realized that,
\nsince Hong Kong is an international city, it ought to attract
\nsome top personalities into the handover ring. World-famous
\ntenors Luciano Pavarotti and Placido Domingo were belatedly
\nsounded out, but it was too late. Of course, they are booked
\nyears in advance.<\/p>\n
I am told that Hong Kong is attracting some leading pop stars,
\nboth Chinese and Western, but since their world of weird and
\nirritating sounds is totally alien to this correspondent, I
\ncannot tell you who. But the mixed up Western-but-Chinese
\nidentity of Hong Kong was superbly illustrated by a poster that
\nhas been littering the walls near where I live. It hails the
\ngreatest pop concert in Hong Kong's and maybe the world's
\nhistory.<\/p>\n
In the middle of the poster there is a picture of a slightly
\nyounger Deng Xiaoping, China's former leader. Deng is waving his
\nhand grandly much in the manner of a ringmaster in control of the
\nshow, with his hand hovering near the name of a British pop star
\nBoy George. Almost without any doubt the name Boy George meant as
\nlittle to Deng as it means to me.<\/p>\n
The casino-like countenance of Hong Kong has been frequently
\non view of late -- and not just in the Stock Exchange. First
\nthere were, as carefully reported in the Times of India, the
\nstampedes after stamps, as postage stamps bearing the head of
\nQueen Elizabeth II quickly became an item of assumed stored
\nvalue, for all those feeling the compulsion to try and get rich
\nquickly. I am told that in China itself Queen Elizabeth II stamps
\nhave been anxiously sought as a colonial memento. But whether all
\nthose Hongkongers, who laid out thousands of dollars buying the
\nstamps in anticipation of a bull market, actually made a
\nfinancial killing remains to be seen.<\/p>\n
Then there were the record 110,000 persons that turned up
\nrecently for the last day of the races for this season. The
\njackpot for the triple trio betting selection had not been paid
\nout for weeks, and so had accrued to an unusual size. If someone
\nguessed the winners for three selected races on the last day they
\nstood to gain a little less than US 100 million. As it happened,
\nno one made the triple selection. The jackpot could not be held
\nover and so had to be awarded. A couple of hundred persons who
\nguessed right for two of the three races all became millionaires
\novernight -- even if they had only made a hundred dollar bet.<\/p>\n
But the greatest Hong Kong casino right now is the Stock
\nMarket itself. When the last British Governor Chris Patten
\narrived in 1992 the HKSE index stood at 5,200. Today it stands at
\na shade under a record high of 15,200. Patten, who modestly
\ndeclines to claim credit for this growth, can safely assert that
\nno other governor of this or any other colony had presided over
\nsuch a bull run.<\/p>\n
Mind you, rumor has it that China, currently flush with
\nforeign funds, and desperately anxious to avoid the loss of face
\nbrought about by a sudden drop in the index, has been quietly
\nbacking the market in advance of the handover. The get-rich mania
\nhas been most clearly on view in the trading of so-called \"red-
\nchips\". These are the shares of recently listed companies in
\nChina.<\/p>\n
In this, the get-rich mania in both China and Hong Kong again
\ncomes more clearly into view. When one China firm called Beijing
\nEnterprises put its shares on the market recently, the shares
\nwere oversubscribed by more than 1,200 times. A vast sum, between
\nHK$200 billion and HK$300 billion, was briefly tied up in the
\nsubscription -- so much, that had any financial crisis struck at
\nthe same time, the whole banking system would have been in
\njeopardy. No one seemed to worry about this. No one seemed to
\nworry about the questionable aspects of these share offerings.<\/p>\n
The prevailing ethos is -- Let the good times roll, until, of
\ncourse, there is an inevitable \"correction\". But right now part
\nof the Hong Kong mood is that many players in the casino have
\nkidded themselves, nor for the first or last time, that the HKSE
\nindex will go on rising forever.<\/p>\n
Of course, the ultra-optimistic business mood is backed up by
\nmany \"opinion polls\" which claim, in varying degrees, that a
\nclear majority of Hong Kong people are \"confident\" or \"very
\nconfident\" about the future. Since many of these polls are backed
\nby businessmen whose motives I distrust, or by academics whose
\nperspicacity I doubt, the results remind me that East Asians are
\nexceedingly prone to tell pollsters what they think the pollsters
\nwant to hear.<\/p>\n
But the more discerning polls by academics, who stay around
\nlong enough to check their own findings, clearly reveal the
\ndoubts and the anxieties that lurk just below the surface.<\/p>\n
One indication of this is that the most determined efforts at
\nmaking the handover into a party appear to be by the young
\nforeigners (mostly British and American) in the yuppie-dominated
\nLan Kwai Fong area of Hong Kong island near my office. They are
\nhelped by the fact that Hong Kong is currently enjoying a five-
\nor six-day holiday -- June 28, 29, 30, July 1 and 2, and for many
\nbusinesses July 3 too. They intend to make the most of it.<\/p>\n
But as I move around other districts of Hong Kong the partying
\nseems less obvious among Hong Kong Chinese. Indications earlier
\nthis year, for example, were that the China-led united front in
\nHong Kong was having a little difficulty organizing the required
\ndegree of enthusiasm for the Big Event, and the resumption of
\nChinese sovereignty.<\/p>\n
Two events are pretty certain to give everyone the party
\nspirit even if an element of Sino-British rivalry has crept into
\nthe show.<\/p>\n
On the last day of British sovereignty, June 30, there will be
\na 20-minute fireworks display in Hong Kong harbor, which promises
\nto be the best ever.<\/p>\n
On the first day of Chinese sovereignty, July 1, there will be
\nan hour long fireworks display worth about US$ 14 million, funded
\nby the businessmen who are already making it big in China's
\nmythical market.<\/p>\n
China's rule over Hong Kong is certain to start with a bang.<\/p>\n
Window A: Of course, the ultra-optimistic business mood is backed up by
\nmany \"opinion polls\" which claim, in varying degrees, that a
\nclear majority of Hong Kong people are \"confident\" or \"very
\nconfident\" about the future.<\/p>",
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