Hong Kong has no say at handover ceremony

In the sixth part of his current series on Hong Kong as it reverts to Chinese sovereignty, our Asia correspondent Harvey Stockwin reports on the likely format, and inner meaning, of the handover ceremony as British sovereignty ends and Chinese sovereignty begins.

HONG KONG (JP): Symbolizing its continuing de facto colonial status, Hong Kong will have no say at the ceremony on June 30 when it ceases to be British and becomes part of One China.

Hong Kong's position as a dependency becomes apparent as the broad outline of the handover ceremony, over which Britain and China have been diplomatically haggling for more than twelve months, is made available, in advance of the final details being agreed.

As was to be expected, the brief ceremony so far decided is notable for strict equality between the departing and incoming sovereign powers.

The handover ceremony will take place at an imposing just- completed extension to the Hong Kong Convention Center on the Wanchai waterfront on Hong Kong island. The extension looks set to have a similar architectural impact on Hong Kong harbor as the opera house has had on Sydney harbor in Australia.

Both China and Britain will have their respective military bands at the ceremony which will play a salute to the respective delegations as they arrive, at about thirty minutes before midnight on June 30. This is the moment when Britain's 1898 lease expires on the New Territories, which make up the greater part of Hong Kong's territory.

Under the Sino-British Joint Declaration signed in 1984, London also agreed to surrender at the same time Hong Kong island and a part of Kowloon peninsula which it had annexed in perpetuity in 1842 and 1860.

Prince Charles will speak for Britain after which the British military band will play the British national anthem, just before midnight. On the stroke of midnight the British and the current Hong Kong flags will descend and the Chinese and future Hong Kong flags will go up.

After midnight, the Chinese military band will play the Chinese anthem followed by a speech by China's President Jiang Zemin.

Then Prince Charles and the last British Governor Chris Patten will board the royal yacht Brittania and depart, symbolizing the complete end to British sovereignty. But Prime Minister Tony Blair as a guest of China and Hong Kong will not have to leave immediately unless he chooses to do so.

One interesting source of Sino-British disagreement was the initial British suggestion that the handover should take place in the open, as has been the case when Britain left most of its colonies. The Chinese rejected this for reasons that are not known -- but probably out of fear for the unpredictable way in which a huge crowd might react.

It is a measure of the failure of the Chinese and the British to see eye-to-eye on the ceremonial question that both nations will be having their own separate ceremonies before and after the handover ceremony. Earlier in the evening Britains will stage their own separate farewell. After the handover, the Chinese will stage their own separate ceremony at which the new Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa, and other officials of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) of China, will be sworn in. Tung will initially attend the midnight-straddling ceremony as a part of China's delegation.

The total absence of any Hong Kong voice or role in the handover ceremony, while regrettable, comes as no surprise. A way could have been found to allow Hong Kong some role other than that of physical host. But it would have required a political imagination which has been sadly lacking as Britain and China squabbled endlessly over questions of sovereignty.

First and last, the absence symbolizes the fact that the colony of Hong Kong merely passes from British to Chinese control, and will not enjoy the right of self-determination.

The first move made by China when it joined the United Nations in 1971 was to remove Hong Kong and Macau from the consideration of the UN Decolonization Committee on the grounds that both territories were inalienable parts of China which would return to the motherland when the time was ripe.

But the absence of a Hong Kong voice at the handover is also a worrying reminder of China's somewhat restricted vision of the concept of "autonomy".

This will be perfectly illustrated at the Chinese ceremony after midnight, when China will hand the Hong Kong Land Fund (one of Hong Kong's financial reserve accounts) back to Hong Kong.

Currently the account stands in Hong Kong's name. But China is insisting that Britain take control of the account, hand it to China, which will then hand it to "autonomous" Hong Kong.

The convoluted gesture amply illustrates the Chinese view of "autonomy" -- as something bequeathed or withdrawn by the central government, not an inalienable right in itself.

Right from the start of the transition process after the signing of the Joint Declaration in 1984, Britain hoped to at least give Hong Kong a voice in its own future. But the Chinese vigorously denied any possibility of a "three-legged stool" and always insisted that any Hong Kong personnel could only speak as members of British delegations.

For the purpose of negotiation over the transfer of power, the Chinese side often insisted that the British government in London had control over matters which had in fact already passed to the Hong Kong government, as with the Land Fund.

So the fact that Beijing was outwardly promising Hong Kong "a high degree of autonomy" was always set against the fact that China refused to consider tripartite negotiations between Britain, China and the already highly autonomous Hong Kong government, albeit one under ultimate British control.

Given the fact that Hong Kong will be officially silent around midnight on June 30, that British royalty are not allowed to indulge in flights of oratory, and that President Jiang Zemin's speech will have been carefully vetted by the Standing Committee of the politburo of the Chinese Communist Party, one thing is clear. The last ceremony of decolonization by Britain in Asia will not be graced with the passionate words like those with which Jawaharlal Nehru imbued the midnight hour in India on August 15, 1947.