AS THE MEDIA HOOPLA SUBSIDES, RESIDENTS HARBOR MIXED FEELINGS

SAR Hong Kong's business remains business

By Sam Ito

The Japan Times, July 22, 1997

HONG KONG ─ Three weeks after the handover of this former British colony to China, the city-state has a palpable business-as-usual ambience about it.

There is neither a sense of jubilation, nor fear of an imminent wave of repression sby its new ruler, the People's Republic of China.

The prevailing sense of normalcy has been brought about by years of design; London and Beijing have spent over a decade thrashing out the details of this unprecedented geopolitical power shift.

In addition, both Hong Kong and Beijing are apparently exercising restraint to avoid political acrimony; new Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa has told Hong Kong's people to "leave behind the baggage of Tiananmen," referring to the 1989 Beijing massacre that led to a sudden chill in trilateral relations among Beijing, London and Hong Kong.

"There has been no change in Hong Kong since the handover day, . . . but maybe there will he some change 10 years from now," said 27-year-old hotel worker Thomas Ng in a comment characteristic of remarks made to The Japan Times by local residents.

"The People's Liberation Army soldiers are now here, but none of us have seen any one of them since July 1, because they are not allowed to walk around in town in uniform," he said.

The former colony, now called the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is China's richest, and, in a sense, newest city.

It is also its most democratic due to reforms installed in recent years. On the surface, few things appear to have changed.

Beijing did not abolish the Hong Kong dollar, which is still the only legal currency, and the border with mainland China will remain closed to preventunauthorized immigrants from pouring in.

Beijing has, thus far, shown no desire to suppress the laisse-faire economic system and its free-port policy, elements that have helped the tiny region half the size of Tokyo grow into an economy one fourth the size of mainland Chinese economy.

The apparent absence of Chinese control here is stipulated in China's 1990 HKSAR Basic Law, enacted after years of negotiations with Britain.

China has given Hong Kong a "high degree of autonomy" and introduced a "one country, two systems" formula, a major factor in the smooth transfer.

Residents apparently harbor mixed feelings.

Many said they cannot yet conclude if they are happy to return to motherland China or unhappy due to the underlying fear of abuses by the Chinese Communist Party.

"We were alert at first," said Nicky Chan, a sales manager at a five-star hotel in Kowloon.

"But after one or two days, everything was as usual. Nothing had changed. We go to karaoke, go watch movies, and we go to work at our offices," he said.

Despite these residents' claims, there have been some key changes, including the disappearance of British emblems from everything from government offices to public trash bins in favor of the new HKSAR emblems, as well as perceived civil rights reversals enacted by the new legislature.

This legislature, the Provisional Legislative Council, has been contentious as it replaced the Legislative Council, or LEGCO.

However Chan asserted that "Hong Kong is a (former) colony; we are used to listening to what the government says. Most of us are not interested in politics and this will remain so as long as the Basic Law and its 50-year guarantee (of keeping Hong Kong's socioeconomic system intact) are observed."

Nevertheless, many have shown what they have thought of this guarantee — by emigrating to Canada, the U.S. and other nations with large overseas Chinese populations.

This pattern of emigration increased sharply after the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown on democracy activists, but peaked in 1992 when 66,000 left, according to a Hong Kong government source.

Shukan ST: Jan. 2・9, 2004

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