Hong Kong: A snub Britain in tit-for-tat diplomacy
With Hong Kong now returned to China, one of the most momentous episodes in East Asian history has come to pass. In a series of articles beginning today, The Jakarta Post Asia correspondent Harvey Stockwin records some of the notable impressions gained around the time of the handover.
HONG KONG (JP): As Hong Kong approached the midnight moment on June 30, 1997, when the territory ceased to be British and became Chinese again, China's top leaders and even Hong Kong's own future leader effectively snubbed Britain at some of the farewell ceremonies.
As already reported by the Jakarta Post, Britain and China had been negotiating for well over a year on the manner in which the handover from British to Chinese sovereignty over Hong Kong should be consummated. The negotiations, protracted and at times bitter, continued right down to the last minute.
Judged by what was achieved, or not achieved, in those negotiations, there was a conspicuous lack of generosity on the Chinese side. This lack -- and the hostility that seemed to accompany it -- was obviously the result of the tremendous stress, within China, in the run-up to the handover, on the iniquity of the Opium Wars through which China lost Hong Kong in the first place. The Chinese Communist party line stress was all along entirely focussed on the evil of colonialism. This made it impossible to place all the ceremonial stress on the great and dynamic international city which Hong Kong has become.
The first snub at Monday's ceremonies was that Chinese President Jiang Zemin and Prime Minister Li Peng did not attend the farewell banquet on Monday evening, June 30th, which was to have been hosted by the Queen's representative, the Prince of Wales. Since the senior Chinese representative at the banquet was the Foreign Minister Qian Qichen, the banquet was hosted by British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, even though Prince Charles and British Prime Minister Tony Blair attended it, and in fact, in a strange reversal of protocol, entered the hall behind Cook.
However, prior to the banquet, Blair and Cook had a bilateral meeting with Jiang and Li at their hotel in Kowloon. Jiang invited the new British leader to visit Beijing and Blair accepted. This routine exchange was hailed by the British press as marking a "new beginning" in relations. Given the snubs, the tensions in the handover and the continuing problems in Sino- British ties, neither the visit nor the new beginning can be seen as a certainty. The same uncertainty dogs current plans for mutual Sino-American summits too.
The lack of true rapport was also illustrated by a meeting between President Jiang and Premier Li with Prince Charles after the farewell banquet and just before the handover ceremony. I never saw this meeting either reported and filmed on Hong Kong television. But the evening news in Beijing on the night of July 2nd showed the two delegations sitting across from one another. It was a most unusual diplomatic format since there was space but no table in between. It was simply not an arrangement made for exchanging or exuding diplomatic warmth.
As a result of the protracted Sino-British handover negotiations, the midnight handover ceremony itself was finally to a mere thirty minutes and will straddle the midnight moment. Ten persons took part. On the British side, Prince Charles, Blair, Cook, outgoing Governor Chris Patten and the Chief of British Defense Staff were the delegation. President Jiang, Premier Li, Qian, General Zhang Wannian and the incoming Chief Executive of Hong Kong, Tung Chee Hwa, joined them on the central dais.
Immediately after the handover, Prince Charles and Patten proceeded to the Royal yacht Britannia. Surprisingly, but as a further illustration of the handover chill in Sino-British ties, neither President Jiang nor Premier Li formally farewelled Prince Charles as he left the new convention center for the ship. That job was designated to Foreign Minister Qian. An unnamed Chinese Vice Foreign Minister was supposed to escort the Prince and the Governor to the ship but TV coverage failed to reveal his whereabouts or identity.
Earlier in the evening, Hong Kong itself snubbed the separate British farewell ceremony. As already reported, no agreement was possible on one complete overall handover ceremony. Hence the British decision to have a ceremony on their own. All along, it was known that no Chinese leaders would attend it.
But Tung, even though he had accepted an invitation, did not attend the farewell, ostensibly because he will be in Kowloon welcoming the arrival of the two top Chinese leaders. Since other Hong Kong dignitaries managed to welcome the Chinese leaders and make it back to the farewell, Tung's absence was also a snub.
It was certainly the first time in the history of Britain's decolonization in Asia -- and probably the world -- when the head of the successor regime failed to attend Britain's departure ceremony.
In all this, it was possible to see tit-for-tat diplomatic reflexes producing the snubs.
These slights almost certainly resulted from China's decision to use the post-midnight ceremony, at which Tung was sworn in as Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative region (HKSAR), to also swear in the Provisional Legislature which Beijing has selected to replace the one fully elected in 1995.
The British (and the Americans) have viewed the selected provisional council as a clear violation of the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration which stipulates that the HKSAR legislature should be constituted "through elections". There is also no clause in China's Basic Law for Hong Kong having a provisional legislature. As already reported, the provisional legislature's existence is likely to ensnare Hong Kong in a complex legal tangle.
Prime Minister Blair and Foreign Secretary Cook had earlier made it clear that they would not attend the swearing-in ceremony which started after the handover, at 1.15 a.m. on July 1st. Even before they announced this, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has also declined to attend the ceremony. As Britannia took Prince Charles off to a state visit to the Philippines, Blair left Hong Kong by a special flight leaving around 1 a.m., after a stay of a mere 14 hours in Hong Kong.
So it is likely that China's absence from what was originally supposed to be a royal banquet is a tit-for-tat for the Anglo- American absence from the swearing-in ceremonies. True to form, British Foreign Office spokesmen denied that there was any snub intended by China -- and succeeded in putting much of the huge press corps off the scent.
Yet another explanation of China's leaders actions is possible. The top Chinese leadership was clearly keen to limit their public exposure out of security worries. Overall security arrangements were supposed to be in the hands of the Hong Kong police, but Jiang and Li had many Beijing bodyguards with them from arrival to departure.
Whatever the precise cause-and-effect, the separate ceremonies and the mutual absences seem likely to get the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China off to a less than happy diplomatic start. But for Hong Kong people the main source of unhappiness, vocally expressed in phone-in radio shows, was that the midnight handover ceremony was to be in English and Mandarin only. It was changed at the last minute and totally excluded the language of the majority in Hong Kong, Cantonese.
Another source of Sino-British tension was the anxiety about the way in which the People's Liberation Army intended to take up its garrison duties on July 1st. The PLA plan was to arrive in armored personnel carriers (APC) -- the same vehicles which were to be seen during the Beijing Massacre in June 1989.
The British first diplomatically, and then publicly, suggested that this move exuded an unhelpful image. Predictably, the Chinese were not listening.
The whole sorry story of discord in Sino-British relations right up to the last moment was there for all to see as the brief handover ceremony ended at 12.14 a.m. and Prince Charles briefly came face-to-face with President Jiang Zemin. Both hesitated before shaking hands, seemingly uncertain that the other would be willing to do so.
Given the complex background if discordant diplomacy over the last 15 years, the mutual hesitation was entirely understandable.
Window: So it is likely that China's absence from what was originally supposed to be a royal banquet is a tit-for-tat for the Anglo-American absence from the swearing-in ceremonies.