And so it is that the newspapers are full of stories describing what the world is like in Hong Kong 10 years after the British handed over their old colony to the Chinese Communists in Beijing. The general consensus is that the Beijing government has not made a basketcase of Hong Kong, much to the relief of many. It seems that what we have is a case of plus ca change, plus c'est la meme.
I stayed for six days in Hong Kong during my last break while I was in China. I actually went down to Guangzhou with a girl I knew after I left Zhouxian for good. We stayed there for several days before going to Shenzhen. I later went to Zhuhai and Macau on day trip while I stayed in Hong Kong.
I found Hong Kong to be a fast paced city which glittered with light and intensity. It would have been difficult for me to really make myself feel at home there though. It would have taken a long time to lay down roots and make my way in the world. I had few job skills at that time that would have been in demand which could not have been filled by locals. Housing, then as now, was also expensive.
Since that was 1992, the handover to Beijing was still five years into the future. Nevertheless, there was plenty of talk of Hong Kong denizens trying to secure visas to Canada, Britian, Australia, and the U.S. People just didn't know what was going to happen and many were effectively hedging their bets that Beijing was going to shut everything down - the media, speaking English, general rule of law in favor of cronyism and rule by the most politically connected, a reasonably efficient civil service, and so forth. Fortunately little of that has happened. There is a strong argument to be made that China has become more like Hong Kong rather than the other way around. Shanghai will surpass Hong Kong as China's busiest port this year and other coastal cities now look like Hong Kong.
I suppose the question to ask for the future is whether China will successfully reform itself from within before it wears Hong Kong down whether by accident or purpose. So far the Beijing government has played its cards well and has gotten everything is has wanted out of Hong Kong and there is no reason why from Beijing's standpoint why the status quo cannot continue. Look for Democracy or elections to be a long time coming.
Wizard
Posted by The Mighty Wizard at July 1, 2007 05:18 PM