Part Five: Conclusions

5.0 Autonomy or Colony?

"The prosperity of Hong Kong depends on the hallmarks of capitalism that seem to be most easily guaranteed by open accountable governments - free trade; the sanctity of contracts and property rights; an intolerance of corruption; the right to criticise those placed in positions of power; and the free flow of information." Newsweek, June '96 :

C.H.Tung has decided his focus will be on housing, elderly and education. Patten's focus was on freedom, liberty and human rights. This is the difference between the incoming and outgoing administrations. The people of Hong Kong have experienced electoral reforms introduced by Patten only to have it wiped out by Tung and the provisional legislature.

In March '97, Tung Chee-hwa stated that the current concerns of the people of Hong Kong were "livelihood and welfare issues" rather than "political liberty". That certainly may have been correct. Prior to the Handover Hong Kong was a free, open, liberal and relatively democratic society. The Rule of Law held true, the laws were filtered through the Bill of Rights and the lawmakers were elected by the people at elections.

Tung Chee-hwa was not voted in by universal suffrage, therefore by definition he cannot be his own man. Like the provisional legislature, he was not elected, but selected; not a candidate but chosen. He has no public accountability in this way. The current 15-member Executive Council consists mainly of advisors with a strong leaning towards business. The issue is not whether Tung has integrity but whether he can stand up to the pressure from various bodies all interested in a slice of the wealth. It is interesting to note that the Chinese see the handover as Hong Kong returning to China, not Hong Kong returning to Hong Kong people.

One should not forget that despite Hong Kong's laissez-faire attitude to commerce has been regarded as a model, Hong Kong was also a colony, and run as such. There were little controls for minimum wages, factory conditions for workers, etc. The Taipans, or senior executives of the merchants regularly sat on the Legislative Council as well as other advisory bodies. Any assistance for the workers would result in higher taxes, which was not in the interest of the hongs. This was the case until the 1970's. To the hongs there was never any doubt that Hong Kong was "a borrowed place living on borrowed time".

Also, it was not in the interests of China to see a democratic system on its doorstep, a fact that would was made clear to the British Government of the day. China could after all, simply walk over the border and take Hong Kong back.

Hong Kong has been through many upheavals in its time and has been likened to a rubber ball; the harder it is thrown down, the harder it bounces back.The disbanding of the Legislative Council and the inauguration of the Beijing-backed provisional Council may mean that Hong Kong is set to return to colonial times.

It has been noted by many that Hong Kong must retain the following in order for it to continue to be successful:
- Freedom of speech and a free press
- Control over corruption and abuses of power
- An Independent judiciary
- Maintaining a high degree of autonomy
- Level playing field for local and foreign businesses
- Respect for the rule of law
- Prudent and fiscal monetary policies

Clearly there has been some immediate change already, much to the surprise of many, especially considering Jiang Zemin's speech of comfort. The changes so far have been:
- an illegal provisional legislature of appointed yes-men
- restrictions on free speech
- breaches of the Basic Law
- self censorship of the press
- labour rights scrapped
- business awarded for political sympathies.
A start full of worries for the future.

One would have thought that the Chinese could not afford to interfere too much in Hong Kong for fear that this may harm its confidence and damage the "goose that lays its golden egg". They do not appear to have taken much notice of this in the first month of their ownership. Hong Kong could become the principal international business and financial centre in Asia. In order do to so, it must retain its rule of law, to keep confidence in the business community.

The lack of rule of law, democracy and high levels of corruption will always make foreign investors nervous of investing in China. Hong Kong has to keep itself distant from that in order to maintain its high economic level.



Introduction |||| Part One |||| Part Two |||| Part Three |||| Part Four |||| Part Five |||| Appendices