The Hong Kong Reader

Passage to Chinese Sovereignty

Ming K. Chan, Gerard A. Postiglione

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9781315488356
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Peace & Global Development
• Index: Politics & International Relations

This paperback reader provides the student and general reader with easy access to the major issues of the Hong Kong transition crisis. Contributors include both editors, as well as Frank Ching, Berry F. Hsu, Reginald Yin-wang Kwok, Peter Kwong, Julian Y.M. Leung, Ronald Skeldon, Alvin Y. So, Yun-wing Sung, and James T.H. Tang - the majority of whom live and work in Hong Kong and experience the transition firsthand, personally and professionally.

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Introduction: Hong Kong’s Uneasy Passage to Chinese Sovereignty

Ming K. Chan and Gerard A. Postiglione

 

 

Hong Kong’s success is legendary. After a meager start as a British crown colony established on fishing villages of nearly barren rock in 1842—part of the spoils of victory from the Opium War—Hong Kong has become a cosmopolitan city-state of global significance. Though it ranks nintieth in terms of population, it is the world’s eighth largest trading economy, with a per capita income higher than some developed countries including Britain, its colonial master. With eighty-five of the world’s top one hundred banks, it is one of the five international financial centers. Hong Kong’s miracle economy has made it one of the Four Little Dragons of East Asia, a title shared with Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan. Finally, Hong Kong is the undisputed gateway to China, which is Hong Kong’s largest trading partner (Hong Kong is China’s second largest trading partner after Japan). Hong Kong serves as a powerful catalyst for the economic development of South China, where Hong Kong companies employ over three million workers in neighboring Guangdong Province alone. Thus, it is natural that most Hong Kong people see their future as inextricably linked to China’s economic growth and political modernization.

Hong Kong’s developmental experience is worth emulating. Yet, its free trade, market economy and open society have been in stark contrast to its lack of a full-scale, genuinely democratic form of government. In this sense, its prosperity and stability within the context of freedom without democracy have been the hallmarks of British colonialism—indeed, the colony is a remarkable case of borrowed place, on borrowed time, and with borrowed people.

In late 1984, Hong Kong was compelled to embark on its most dramatic historical change. The Sino-British Joint Declaration mandated the end of British rule and the resumption of sovereignty by China on July 1, 1997. The policy toward Hong Kong’s sovereignty retrocession is based on the” One Country, Two Systems” formula and has two principal objectives: China’s national reunification with Hong Kong, which would set the example for Macau and Taiwan, and the maintenance of Hong Kong’s stability and prosperity so that it would continue to contribute significantly to China’s economic reform and modernization.

The 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration promises to preserve Hong Kong’s existing legal, economic, and social systems and lifestyle for fifty years from July 1, 1997, when the colony is to become a Special Administration Region (SAR) of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Furthermore, this promise became enshrined in the SAR Basic Law which codified the constitutional framework that is to give effect to the promised “high degree of autonomy” with “Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong,” as well as to regulate central government-SAR relations. The Joint Declaration explicitly calls for the Hong Kong SAR legislature to be fully elected—a major departure from the (until 1985) totally appointed colonial legislature. As such, preparation for the future SAR political system necessitated the most drastic and fundamental change in Hong Kong’s colonial polity. These constitutional and electoral reforms triggered controversies and confrontations within the local community and between Britain and China. The resulting tensions and conflicts that have characterized the transformation of Hong Kong since the mid-1980s, unfolded under the ever looming “China factor.”

The China factor has become an overwhelming influence on life in Hong Kong. It is the single most dominant force shaping Hong Kong public affairs, government decision-making, and policy implementation as well as Hong Kong’s external links and global interactions. This situation gave impetus to the further development of Hong Kong’s new political culture. A growing civic awareness, political activism, and articulation of social value orientations began to have a decisive effect on the rising expectations and future perspectives of the Hong Kong people. Meanwhile, the increasingly close relationship between Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland in trade, manufacturing, investment, transportation, finance, skills and technology transfer created an intimate economic interdependence, even integration, between the two. In this respect, the China factor remains the principal force underwriting much of Hong Kong’s economic prosperity.

The China factor has also been the accelerator, stimulant, and even midwife to the processes of decolonization, localization, internationalization, and democratization which are still unfolding in the current transition. This has given rise to an identity awareness among the local populace, who have come to see themselves as Chinese nationals with aspirations for a more modern, post-colonial, Chinese community that is self-conscious of its heritage. In this sense, the China factor has promoted a fundamental change in Hong Kong’s polity and socio-cultural mentality. This could yield great opportunities and new dynamics for a challenging future for Hong Kong and China well into the next century.

This same China factor has also displayed its potential as a destabilizing force, as it periodically precipitates a crisis of confidence and highlights the imperfect nature of the transition. The core problem revolves around Sino-British discord and the transfer of power in the sunset years of British rule. Beijing’s intolerance of the rapid pace of local democratization has deepened mutual distrust between itself and a large segment of Hong Kong society. Thus, prospects for a smooth reintegration toward 1997 and beyond have begun to diminish. Furthermore, as the “One Country, Two Systems” formula will be be used to further the reunification with Taiwan, the challenge of Hong Kong’s sovereignty retrocession can have a major affect on prospects for cross-strait rapprochement. Finally, the China-Hong Kong integration experience will come to shape China’s relations with Hong Kong’s many global partners, including the U.S. and other industrial democracies.

As 1997 approaches, Hong Kong is facing many questions: Can the common law legal system remain anchored in Chinese culture given its alien roots? Can the education system be transformed from one kind of colonial socializing agency to another? Will Hong Kong’s complex relations with Beijing and London cease to be so precarious after 1997? By then, will more Hong Kong people still opt to migrate overseas, or will many of its reluctant exiles return from overseas out of economic need or due to newly gained confidence? Finally, will Hong Kong’s influence, through its economic links with Guangdong, further extend from the Pearl River Delta through Shanghai and right up to the outskirts of Beijing? Any meaningful answer hinges on one thing—Hong Kong’s autonomy as a PRC SAR until the mid-twenty-first century.

The central issue for Hong Kong’s future is autonomy. As a British colony Hong Kong has enjoyed a high degree of autonomy in its internal affairs. The Sino-British Joint Declaration and the Basic Law of the post-1997 SAR promise greater autonomy than was legally provided under the present British administration. The common anxiety among the people of Hong Kong has less to do with the future polity of Hong Kong, than with the turbulent politics, abuse of power, and suppression of civil liberties in China, where a one party dictatorship and totalitarian regime continue to rule with little reform in sight.

Although Hong Kong presents the PRC with an exciting challenge for the extension of its sovereignty toward the twenty-first century, it is not an entirely new challenge. The PRC has shown its ability to permit and contain various levels of regional autonomy since its establishment in 1949. It has almost half a century of experience with five autonomous provinces, including Xinjiang and Tibet. While major difficulties still exist, China has been able to maintain national unity in the face of strong separatist movements in a world that has seen the disintegration of many major countries, including the former Yugoslavia and the former Soviet Union. China is committed to maintain national sovereignty in a world where division of states is not uncommon, yet, it has chosen to extend considerable autonomy to its Special Economic Zones and the other “open cities.” While this autonomy is largely economic and not political, the result has, at times, strained center-regional relations within China, with implications for the reunification with Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.

The present collection of essays delineates many of the key dimensions of Hong Kong’s transition to Chinese sovereignty, with its profound global implications. In-depth analysis and insightful discussion are provided by the individual essays, each focusing on a specific area or addressing issues of basic concern from an interdisciplinary perspective.

The first three essays focus on political development and constitutional change. The essay by Ming K. Chan highlights the drafting process of the Hong Kong Basic Law that strained Beijing-Hong Kong relations. The undemocratic personnel and procedures adopted by Beijing in this very crucial united front operation not only derailed Hong Kong’s democratization but also delegitimized the PRC, especially after the 1989 Tiananmen crisis. The essay by James Tang and Frank Ching reviews the shaping of the Beijing-London-Hong Kong “Three Legged Stool” since the 1970s and the Sino-British negotiations mandating the 1997 retrocession. Many of the difficulties being experienced by the people of Hong Kong in the transition stem from this uneasy and unbalanced tripartite relationship with little weight given to Hong Kong’s own voice. Berry Hsu’s essay affords an expert discourse on the Basic Law’s impact on the common law legal culture and notions in Hong Kong. He pinpoints specific areas of concern that might eventually undermine the present independent judiciary and public trust in the entire legal system.

On the social front, there are four essays highlighting changes in both education and system as well as in overseas migration and settlement. The essay by Gerard Postiglione looks at the various aspects of the decolonization of education, and suggests three possible scenarios regarding the direction of future educational policy. He specifically emphasizes the role of education in the democratization and the nurturing of future political leaders for autonomy. In his essay Y.M. Leung sketches the convergent and divergent themes between the Hong Kong and the PRC education systems. He questions China’s tolerance of the future internationalization of the local school system. Ronald Skeldon’s essay offers a sweeping portrayal of the roots of Hong Kong emigration and its contemporary manifestations. He constructs an extensive statistical reference to illustrate the patterns of migratory traffic and its impact on Hong Kong society and its external links. Peter Kwong’s case study examines the metamorphosis of New York’s Chinese community under the influx of Hong Kong human and economic resources. The problems of “Dickensian” labor practices, organized crime, and new cultural style have characterized the new “Hong Kong town” phenomenon.

Finally, the last two essays chart the economic achievements of Hong Kong’s integration with China and the problems that lie ahead. The essay by Yun-wing Sung documents the very fruitful economic symbiosis between Hong Kong and neighboring Guangdong Province, creating the economic miracle of South China. However, the future prosperity of “Greater Hong Kong” is far from assured owing to volatile international factors and external economic forces. Such a sense of uncertainty is affirmed by the future scenarios in the chapter by Alvin Y. So and Reginald Yin-Wang Kwok.

As a whole, this volume of scholarly essays offers a wide-ranging vista illuminating the Sino-British politicking, constitution-making, legal and educational reforms as well.as economic outreach and migratory patterns in transitional Hong Kong as shaped by the China factor. Such an in-depth understanding of the key dimensions of Hong Kong’s transformation will provide an informed baseline for the articulation and appreciation of the great complexity of China’s reintegration efforts toward the twenty-first century.

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Democracy Derailed: Realpolitik in the Making of the Hong Kong Basic Law, 1985–1990

Ming K. Chan

I. Introduction

After some 140 years of political stasis as a British colony, Hong Kong found itself in 1982 on the verge of the most drastic political change in its history. In that year the Sino-British negotiations on the future of Hong Kong commenced. After a period of conflict, the parties signed an agreement on December 19, 1984, that restores China’s sovereignty over Hong Kong on July 1, 1997.¹

China’s policy toward Hong Kong is based on the concept of “One Country, Two Systems,” and is intended to achieve two objectives: the reunification of the country and economic modernization.² The slogan was launched in 1978 and was also intended to apply to Taiwan and Macao. The agreement with Britain promised the preservation of the existing legal, economic, and social systems of Hong Kong for fifty years from July 1,1997. The promises made in the Sino-British Joint Declaration were to be enshrined in a Basic Law for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), and included the promise of a “high degree of autonomy” for the SAR and “Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong.”³ In fact, the Joint Declaration explicitly called for the Hong Kong legislature to be fully elected after 1997. To most local people, this meant the Western-style democratic system of one-man–one-vote universal franchise leading to a directly elected legislature. However, to the Chinese authorities and local conservatives and pro-Beijing elements, it meant many types of electoral arrangements, not just universal franchise direct elections. This crucial difference between the two schools of thought eventually divided the local political scene and contributed much to the deterioration of the Beijing–Hong Kong–London relationship.

Less than a year after the conclusion of the agreement, the Chinese government announced in June 1985 the formation of the Basic Law Drafting Committee (BLDC) and the Basic Law Consultative Committee (BLCC).⁴ In December 1985, at the inaugural meeting of the BLCC, the Chinese announced a timetable for the drafting process. Under this timetable, there would be two rounds of drafting before the final document would be enacted and promulgated by the National People’s Congress (NPC) in 1990.⁵ This process would involve what was called “two ups and two downs,” that is, the draft would twice be handed down by the BLDC for consultation, and then it would go up to the NPC Standing Committee (NPC-SC) for discussion and decision. As the draft has developed, certain issues that proved to be the most contentious were dealt with in the last stages: that is, the protection of human rights, the high degr...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• The Contributors
• 1. Introduction: Hong Kong’s Uneasy Passage to Chinese Sovereignty
• 2. Democracy Derailed: Realpolitik in the Making of the Hong Kong Basic Law, 1985–1990
• 3. Balancing the Beijing-London-Hong Kong “Three-Legged Stool,” 1971–1986
• 4. Judicial Development of Hong Kong on the Eve of 1 July 1997
• 5. The Decolonization of Hong Kong Education
• 6. Education in Hong Kong and China: Toward Convergence?
• 7. Hong Kong in an International Migration System
• 8. New York Is Not Hong Kong: The Little Hong Kong That Never Was
• 9. Economic Integration of Hong Kong and Guangdong in the 1990s
• 10. Socioeconomic Center, Political Periphery: Hong Kong’s Uncertain Transition Toward the Twenty-first Century
• Index