One country, two systems

No country has ever tried to dwell on two systems -- socialist and capitalist -- at the same time. This is why we need to stand united and work together. We set sail into the unknown with a helmsman who has, in a few short months, shown adroitness in taking us through the shoals. We shall be heading into deeper waters in the months and years ahead. There are challenges ahead. Great challenges. None greater than making one country, two systems work. Much of this promise of "one country, two systems" is enshrined in the Basic Law. But no written law, drafted in all sincerity and good intentions, can encompass or envisage the unforeseen.

We, the people of Hong Kong, the administration, the chief executive and people and leaders in Beijing will be tested to the utmost. For the simple fact is that there is no precedent for "one country, two systems". In that challenge lies our greatest opportunity for the lack of precedent allows full play to our initiative, our skills, our daring. It is up to us to seize the opportunity with wisdom, patience and extreme sensitivity. Sensitive to the needs of China, patient in explaining Hong Kong's needs and Hong Kong's way of doing things, wise in the Chinese way of doing things.

We have a lot going for us, China and Hong Kong. We are now jointly embarked on an exciting journey with the baggage of history finally jettisoned. The shame of 156 years has been wiped out. China is not the weak, tottering state of the Qing Dynasty and Hong Kong is not the squalid, pirate-infested haven of yesteryear. Both are dynamic economies fusing into one. Hopefully Hong Kong today, its very first day as the Special Administrative Region, will see the dark clouds of its long-standing confidence problem begin to waft away. Hong Kong and China, as one indivisible whole, will move in tandem toward a new millennium in which this one country will take its place as the center of the economic world. The two systems will enable us to overcome obstacles and exploit all that is good from the East and West to build a better world for all.

-- The Hong Kong Standard