Hong Kong residents shudder at what 1997 may bring
Text and photos by Fritz H. Pangemanan
The Jakarta Post reporter recently spent five days with ethnic Chinese families in Hong Kong to collect first-hand information on their hopes and fears about Hong Kong's impending reversion to China in 1997. Following are excerpts of Hong Kong residents' comments on unification.
HONG KONG (JP): Less than three years ahead, on July 1, 1997, Hong Kong will revert to Beijing's authority.
Everybody here -- from academic to economic players, from drivers to students -- all are talking about the reversion. But not all of them have been happy about the pending change since 1982, when Britain first announced its plan to return Hong Kong to China.
The reversion to China is, therefore, the number one issue during talks everywhere, from street food stalls and shopping centers to multi-story star-rated hotels here.
Two factors have made people in Hong Kong anxious about the Union Jack being formally lowered on June 30, 1997. It is, of course, a fact that Hong Kong residents and main-landers are now living widely different life styles, particularly in terms of cultural values. Another important factor is the uncertainty over the form of existence Hong Kong will take on after unification with Beijing.
Michael Wong Tak Wing, an executive of Hong Kong's Mindo Petroleum Co. Ltd., told The Jakarta Post: "People in Hong Kong are quite advanced in all sectors under the colonial administra tion. But once we talk about the reversion, we become worried because we are now totally different from our brothers in the mainland in the sense of identity and values."
It is understandable as the two Chinese communities have long gone their own way and done their own thing.
Free-market
It was as long ago as August 1842, on board the British ship, The Cornwalles, that China signed the Treaty of Nanjing in favor of the British after China's defeat in the first Anglo-Chinese War. With the treaty, China had to cede Hong Kong Island to the British government and open five ports, Guangzhou, Xiamen, Fuzhou, Ningbo and Shanghai, as treaty ports.
Later on Oct. 24, 1860, in the Convention of Beijing, China again signed an agreement with Britain (and France) to cede Kowloon Peninsula with some additional adjacent territories to the British government after the Opium Wars. Under the Nanjing and Beijing treaties, Britain enjoyed most-favored-nation treatment, especially in free trade activities, as granted by China to other nations, including the United States, Norway and Sweden.
Since then China's gonghong system -- a traditional monopoly of trade by a group of Chinese firms in China's provinces -- has given rise to public business entities.
Under the British administration, many ethnic Chinese here have relished in non-commune businesses. They believe more in free-market mechanisms than in the adoption of the gonghong system, a monopoly of trade which was merely an instrument of the central bureau in China.
For modern Hong Kong residents, who only know to work hard and compete with each other to earn a good life, business is business. Even bellboys and doormen always expect small tips, Michael says citing an illustrative example.
In many aspects, Hong Kong residents have adopted basic changes in values, Michael explains. And most of them even look down on main-landers in China as disadvantaged relatives.
Powerful main-landers on the other hand see the people of Hong Kong as brash upstarts who have no knowledge about their own ancestry and lack patriotism or nationality, he points out.
Why did this happen?
Chang Chung Ming, a newly graduated student at Leung Kau Kui High School in Tsuen Wan district, says that the Hong Kong textbooks on Chinese history do not seem to teach an objective version of what really happened even dozens of years ago in mainland China.
Citing an example, he said that the main textbooks available at his School of History and Administrative Affairs talk more about the British kingdom of the medieval era, including kings like Edward the Confessor, Henry and Richard, instead of discussing the Chinese dynasties.
"Many of my classmates should, therefore, take extra lessons on China's history and even on the language itself at evening classes," Chang said. Most Hong Kong residents use Cantonese in their daily conversation, he added.
"More embarrassing is that students learn about China from foreign authors instead of from the Chinese," he said.
"I would say the `biased' history in our modern education is a seed of our current reluctance to the 1997 reversion to China," he said.
Aware of the situation, Governor Christopher Patten pledged in his 1993 policy address before the Legislative Council (Legco) on Oct. 6 last year: "We shall spend over HK$300 million on improving the quality of the teaching of both Chinese and English language skills and an extra HK$600 million to modernize schools in the territory for the next five years."
Uncertainties
However, the modern life style, which constitutes the cultural identity of Hong Kong residents adopted under Britain's rule, is probably one of the most important aspects in terms of the general feeling of anxiety.
Supporting the British commitment to return Hong Kong to China, Deng Xiaoping proclaimed a new popular principle: "one country, two systems". The tenet will be exclusively dedicated to Hong Kong, which is specifically designated to become a new burgeoning enclave after unification. Deng has vowed that Hong Kong will be granted a high degree of autonomy after its reversion to the mainland and be allowed to preserve its current life style and capitalist system for at least 50 years into the future.
But many Hong Kong residents raise their eyebrows at Beijing's promises. They don't seem to trust in them.
They have a lot of reason for being pessimistic.
The Tiananmen Square massacre in June 1989 is an undeniable reason for people here to be worried about China's commitment to the enclave. "But so far, nobody here will be so heroic to proclaim the Tiananmen tragedy as the root of uncertainties toward the unification," Michael says.
As far as they are concerned, China does not seem to have made enough efforts to restore their confidence after the Tiananmen tragedy. Instead the incident continues to intimidate people and social organizations who tend to blow the tragedy out of proportion.
Frank Ng Tai Keung, a multilingual guide resident in Kowloon, who lived in Beijing for over 20 years, said some social movement founders in Hong Kong seem to have been blacklisted by China's authorities.
"One of them is Hong Kong's prominent lawyer Martin Lee, who some years ago led a movement to demand clarification of the Tiananmen tragedy from the Beijing authorities," he said.
In the business sector, the case of Jimmy Lai, the owner of a large chain of Jordano multi-stores in Hong Kong and China, is another example of the sensitive cases, which have increased Hong Kong residents' nervousness about unification.
Lai, who also owns the outspoken publication, Next Magazine, recently wrote a scathing, open letter to Li Peng, accusing him of being a fool and an idiot, Frank said.
"You know, immediately afterwards Beijing closed some of his stores in China without any notice," Frank added. Lai was clearly intimidated and he reacted by protecting his business interests, not his statements.
Frederik Balfour, a business journalist of the Kowloon Bay- based Eastern Express magazine says that entrepreneurs from the small and medium-scale business sectors are in the worst position in terms of worrying about unification, partly due to an absence of relations with China.
Businessmen should, therefore, keep a low profile in the face of Beijing's authority, otherwise they could be considered persona-non-grata citizens, Balfour warned.
"Unlike small and medium-scale businessmen, the wealthiest Hong Kong businessmen are all really, really well connected with the mainland. They have good friends in high places. The mainland needs them. And you know, almost all prominent businessmen and tycoons here have been appointed special advisers to Beijing," he said.
"They have, therefore, nothing to worry about, because Beijing badly needs their positions and huge investments," Balfour said.
The small-scale businessmen and the have-nots are experiencing serious levels of anxiety when in comes to China. For them, China is like a sleeping giant, which is far too sensitive to any criticism.
In their minds the metaphor of China as a moody person looms large. "Anytime it can change its decision," Frank Ng says.
Citing an example, he said China has agreed with the British government to set up a board of advisers. This "Preparatory Committee" is to prepare for the Special Administrative Region -- a shadow government -- which will work to facilitate the taking over of Hong Kong by 1997. The body is expected to start functioning at least three years before the deadline for unification.
"But China insisted on setting up the board two years earlier on the grounds that the Preparatory Committee is quite necessary to anticipate the fast growth of Hong Kong's economy," Frank said.
For many, the move clearly shows that China is not consistent with its own commitment.
The committee, which is designed to have more pro-Beijing activists, is now becoming an extended hand of China's central authority. "The committee is like a thorn in the current Hong Kong legislature's flesh under Governor Pattern's commands," he said.
While the countdown is going on toward 1997, the Hong Kong administration continues its conflicts with Beijing, among others over the construction of the 1,248-hectare (3,048-acre) Chek Lap Kok airport on Lantau Island and connected with Lam Chau Island. The two sides are disagreeing over the financing scheme for the HK$127-billion colossal infrastructure project, plus Chek Lap Kok airport, expected to be operational in 1997.
Beijing's papers recently reported that China's parliament has even urged that Hong Kong's legislature and two lower tiers of the government be abolished once Beijing takes over the crown colony in 1997. China's parliament also passed an amendment giving more power to the Preparatory Committee with the hope it can ensure a smoother way for China to assimilate Hong Kong.
The official Xinhua news agency also recently reported: "China has even issued a legal regulation to abolish Hong Kong's political structure based on Governor Chris Patten's reform package and will establish a new structure when the country regains sovereignty over Hong Kong in July 1997."
With that phenomenon, Hong Kong people are becoming more pessimistic than ever of Beijing's vow: "One country, two systems." They are afraid that China will do whatever it likes.