very different from China, and the deal reachedbetween the British and Chinese governmentsthrough tortuous negotiations in the 1980s,took explicit account of that difference.

China’s then leader, Deng Xiao-ping,devised the formula: “one country two systems”. China promised to leave HongKong’s system unchanged for 50 years, and bothcountries pledged, in a Joint Declaration, tomonitor the autonomy of Hong Kong and makesure what was promised is what comes to pass.

The challenge is deciding where the “onecountry” part stops and the “two systems” part starts. For most observers, the primary difference is the rule of law and the freedom ofthe press.

DEFENDING THE RULE OF LAWThe rule of law is something often taken forgranted in other well-developed societies but isa phrase of immense meaning to anyone inHong Kong.

It means that when you are robbed, you cantrust the police not to rob you, too. It meansthat you have rights, and if you believe thoserights have been denied or abused, that youhave a higher court to which to turn in search ofjustice. It means that the system of judges andcourts is kept separate from the political lead-ership of the day. It means a separation of pow-ers between the executive and the judicialbranches of government, so that a law courtcould rule against the government of the day infavour of an individual’s right – and that theindividual could believe in that legal system’scapability to do so.

JULY | AUGUST 2007

áConservationistsclashed with developersintent on changing theface of Victoria Harbour

The majorityChinesepopulation wasjoined by wavesof people fromShanghai andelsewhere whocame here toavoid the 1949victory ofCommunism onthe mainland

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HONG KONG

Uncle Thomas in Amsterdam had decided,in his late sixties, that it was time to travelto China. Seeking to avoid the ¤35 charge

for a China visa in the Netherlands, he thoughthe would go to Hong Kong and, in so doing, bein China for free.

“Because Hong Kong is part of China,right?” he said, trying to explain his outragewhen he discovered that he still had to get aChina visa from Hong Kong, and that a borderexists with customs and immigration controls,at which strict efforts to keep the relevant people on each side are made.

Of course Uncle Thomas is not alone in hisconfusion. In both Hong Kong and China,defining quite who should be on each side ofthe border remains one of the biggest puzzlesin post-handover Hong Kong.

Hong Kong exists under a new kind ofarrangement, for which there are no

precedents. It can only be understood bylooking at its own peculiar history and

character. The fact that it was a British

colony for 155 years is integral

to the formation of the place. (It’s true thatChina was technically in charge of Hong Kongbefore then, but it was a very different China –one riven by warlordism and remote emperors– unrecognisable from today’s economic powerhouse.)

IN SEARCH OF AN IDENTITYThe democratically elected representative for Hong Kong’s central district, Kam Nai-wai,is a born-and-bred Hong Konger, and proud ofit. “Most Hong Kong people feel they are HongKong residents rather than China residents.

“They want to identify they are Chinese,rather than governed by the Britain, but theyfeel that the government before 1997 was better than [that of] the Hong Kong SAR,” hesays, referring to Hong Kong’s new title as aSpecial Administrative Region. “Some feel thatthere’s a lot of the Beijing government interfer-ence with the SAR government.

“So sometimes we feel some confusion forour identity,” said Kam.

The vast majority Chinese, particularlyCantonese, population who have made HongKong their home for generations was joined bywaves of people from Shanghai and elsewhere,who arrived specifically to avoid the 1949 victory of Communism on the mainland.

That’s also part of what makes Hong Kong

A tale of two systemsSince 1997, the people of Hong Kong have lived through political restructuring, outbreaks of diseaseand economic crisis. VAUDINE ENGLAND looks at life in the Special Administrative Region

Handoverl On 1 July 1997, Hong Kong wasceremonially handed over from the British government to the Chinese government under a formula of “one country, two systems”,ending the British rule since 1841 and

ushering in a new Hong Kong SpecialAdministrative Region (HKSAR)administration.

Asian financial crisisl The Asian financial crisis that first broke out in Thailand in July 1997had a negative impact on Hong Kong, heralding a post-handover recession.

In order to bolster the economy, Tung Chee-hwa, Chief Executive of the HKSAR

government, announced a policyof building 85,000 homeseach year, which effectivelydampened the booming housing market.

Chicken slaughtering

l After more than a dozen people were infected with andsix people died of H5N1 bird flu virus in January 1998, theHKSAR Government destroyed about 1.3m domesticfowls. Critics said that live poultry from the mainlandshould have been banned much sooner.

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ON-ASIA/REUTERS

They want to have their babies in HongKong, rather than in China and, although noformal study has been done yet, the three rea-sons given for their choice are: avoiding theone-child policy in China; the better medicalcare in Hong Kong; and, the automatic residen-cy rights granted to any Chinese baby born inHong Kong. It’s the latter point that seemsparamount to mothers who want their child tohave a better chance of education, rights to freemedical care and public housing.

But surely mainland mothers could use aHong Kong hospital with no fuss? After all, it’sall one country isn’t it? Well, yes and no.

“We think this is unfair. We are the tax pay-ers in Hong Kong and are supposed to enjoy aquality service, but not them, not them,” saidElla, a pregnant Hong Kong mother who ledprotests against the mainland influx.

Hong Kong’s government needed to reactto this ‘crisis’ – in order to maintain credibilityat home. It is in the interests of Beijing leadersto keep the masses of Hong Kong happy, avoiddisruption to the all-important financial well-being, and to maintain the credibility of the‘one country, two systems’ formula – so that itmight one day be applied to Taiwan.

The Basic Law, which had been interpretedto give residency rights to Chinese born inHong Kong, is considered by both leadershipsas impossible to alter. One change could lead toa clamour for so many others that it would bethe proverbial Pandora’s Box. So depriving themainland mothers of residency rights for theirchildren was not the answer.

Instead, new regulations were introduced,needing no political debate or sanction, whichraised the prices for mainland births in Hong

Kong, and set up a queuing system that wouldalways put Hong Kong mothers first in line forcare. Complaints remain about the finer pointsof the solution, but the numbers of mainlandmothers coming to Hong Kong has droppedsignificantly.

Equally, when Hong Kong’s economy wasshaken by the birdflu and SARS epidemics andthe regional financial crisis of the late 1990s,China sought practical solutions – in the formof the Closer Economic Partnership Arrange-ment, and the new rules allowing mainlandersto visit more easily and so contribute to HongKong livelihoods with their spending.

THE BIG ISSUE – DEMOCRACYSuch approaches, however, are not possiblewhen it comes to the largest issue dividingHong Kong and China: democracy.

There can be little compromise betweenthe educated internationalist of Hong Kong,who views the right to vote as being as basic asclean water in the pipes, and the leadership inBeijing which appears determined to maintainits monopoly on power.

One of Hong Kong’s best-selling Chineselanguage newspapers, the Apple Daily, is editedby Jimmy Lai, in many ways an archetypal HongKonger. He is an overtly pro-democracy tycoonwho says his business loses money every day because pro-China businesses boycottadvertising in his publications.

“Democracy in today’s world is no longer apolitical idea, but is a moral imperative,” saidLai.

But the business and political elite maintainclose and friendly ties with the leadership inBeijing, either because they want promotion

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HONG KONG

But these rights can easily be eroded, eitherby carelessness or deliberate weakening. Whenthe Hong Kong government said that Legal Aid– the financial support available to an individualtoo poor to pay for a case – would be movedaway from politically neutral administration tothe supervision of a government appointee.Hong Kong’s Bar Association protested strong-ly, noting that such a move would raise “con-flicts of interest” and would indeed “endangerthe rule of law”.

Maintaining the freedom of the pressrequires the same level of vigilance on the partof Hong Kong people, and the record here ismore patchy.

THE DANGER WITHINLooking back on the first ten years of Chineserule over Hong Kong, analysts say the greatestdanger to Hong Kong comes from within.

The most oft-heard complaint is that mem-bers of Hong Kong’s political elite, so keen tocurry favour in Beijing for personal or businessadvancement, are willing to let Hong Kong’sdistinctiveness be eroded.

Residents are increasingly fed up with government plans to knock down old neigh-bourhoods or street markets, says political analyst Professor Ma Ngok, from the ChineseUniversity of Hong Kong.

“People feel it was easier for a normal per-son to set up business before 1997; it was freer,you could open a market stall on the street ifyou had to. Now the grievances are against bigbusiness, and this government is seen as work-ing for them. Tearing down old buildings fornew high-rises owned by tycoons is a sign ofthat,” said Professor Ma.

“Chief Executive Donald Tsang looks goodbut he also has an inclination toward big busi-ness, he needs their support. And big businessis in the hands of Beijing. If he upsets them,they’ll run to Beijing to complain,” he explains.

Looking back on colonial times now, themost commonly appreciated feeling from arange of Hong Kong people is that the Britishadministration was hands-off enough to let thebasic vibrancy of the culture thrive.

And while Hong Kong is touted as a havenof capitalism, it is also a regional leader in pro-viding public assistance.

BIRTH OF A CRISISThese benefits have led to large influxes ofpregnant mainland Chinese women to HongKong in recent years. It’s hardly cradle-to-grave welfare in Hong Kong, but it’s enough totempt mothers in China to risk their healthwith last-minute dashes to the emergencywards of Hong Kong’s hospitals.

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Anti-governmentdemonstrations

l On 1 July 2003, half a million people took to the streets to opposethe anti-subversion law proposedby the KHSAR Government in pursuance of the Article 23 of theBasic Law as well as many otherpost-handover social injustices.

SARS outbreakl SARS first broke out in some hospitals and communities in March 2003 resulting in nearly 300 deathsand further economic recession. This mainland-originatedvirus was subsequently passed to many parts of the world,prompting worldwide accusations of mismanagement.

Hong Kong’snew airportl Attending the first handover anniversary,Chinese President Jiang Zemin officiallyinaugurated the new Hong Kong InternationalAirport in July 1998, which resulted in chaoticscenes with much luggage missing.

NPC interprets Basic Law

l In 2000, the HKSAR government controversially asked China’s National People’sCongress to interpret the definition of right ofabode, which was criticised as violating the principle of Hong Kong people running HongKong. Since then, the NPC has interpreted the HKBasic Law on three occasions.

áJimmy Lai arrived inHong Kong in a smallboat from Guangdongprovince in China in histeens. He is now aclothing and publishingmagnate

“HongKong wasa Britishcolony.Now it's aChinesecolony.HongKong isalways acolony”

GETTY/PA/ON-ASIA

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HONG KONG

This basic democratic urge is now beingexpressed in myriad ways in Hong Kong, farmore than ever before – such as in the suddenand dramatic demonstrations that tried to savethe much-loved old Star Ferry pier from demo-lition last December.

The pier building was hardly a special archi-tectural landmark. But Hong Kong people hadsurged through it, often daily, for decades, andhad set their watches to the distinctive chimesfrom the clock tower. To them, it signified theirhome, their sense of belonging.

“I’m clear that people are very attached tomany things about Hong Kong but those who

make decisions about how the city looks don’tunderstand the depth of these feelings,” saidChristine Loh, former legislator and now leaderof an independent thinktank, Civic Exchange.

STRIKING A BALANCEAfter all the ups and downs of the past decade,it was the administrative and intellectual weak-ness of Tung Chee-hwa’s administration (1997-2005) that upset first Hong Kong’s people andthen the leaders in China, because they had toadmit they’d chosen the wrong man. Apartfrom that, it’s clear that the biggest problemswere the unexpected ones – disease, regionaleconomic weakness, and the failure of HongKong’s leaders to stand up to Beijing.

It seems healthier not to have a lot ofBritish civil servants running things. ButChina’s presence is probably as extensive, it’sjust more hidden. References are made to “theboys in Sheung Wan”, to refer to China’s liaisonoffices in Hong Kong where secretive officialsreport and watch everything.

But the sailing boats still race in the har-bour, country parks host thousands of walkersevery weekend, outlying islands are home tovaried and mixed communities of Chinese andvarious Westerners and the arts festival offersexcellent international acts every year..

Beyond the daily politicking and the stress-es of being in any massive modern city activelyengaged in trade and industry and populated byalmost 7m people, Hong Kong has become amore cherished home to many in the pastdecade.

Hong Kong people of Western extractionhave in some cases been here as long as theChinese, tracing their families back over manygenerations. Other such ‘foreigners’ also refuseto see themselves as expatriate having, likemany of the Chinese, lived here for many years.For people such as ship broker Tim Huxley, thehandover has only made Hong Kong moredesirable.

“Hong Kong is a better place to live. In 1997,I would not have made the decision to spendthe rest of my life here. In 2007, I can make thatdecision. Has handover changed our lifestyle?No. It’s still a great place for setting up and run-ning a business. And we don’t have squaddies[British soldiers] throwing up in Wanchai [a bardistrict].”

For a taxi driver who was proud to say hehad arrived in Hong Kong in the year of QueenElizabeth II’s coronation, his view was moretrenchant.

“Hong Kong was a British colony. Now it’s aChinese colony. Hong Kong is always a colony.

“But what matters is that Hong Kong keepsits rule of law, that it keeps the freedom of thepress, my freedom to tell you this.” n

from the powers-that-be or to expand theirbusiness in China.

The now retired bureaucrat, Lu Ping, whowas a major figure in the drafting of HongKong’s future, admitted recently that Chinahad perhaps paid too much attention to thetycoons and not enough to the ordinary people.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party survives,after lapses and divisions. And the new CivicParty took an important step, fielding a candidate for the job of chief executive. Know-ing the rules were such that their man, AlanLeong, could not win they ran anyway, todemonstrate the point.

Hong Kong broadcasting committee threatensfuture role for RTHKA committee on public service broad-casting in Hong Kong recommendedin March 2007 that a brand new public broadcaster for the Special Administrative Region be set up.

The proposal has called into question the future of RadioTelevision Hong Kong (RTHK), therespected public broadcaster,established in 1928.

Media freedom The committee said that the newbroadcaster – to be called the HongKong Public Broadcasting

Corporation – should be independent, and “exercise freedomof speech and of the press responsibly”. The board and its chair-man would be appointed by the HongKong Chief Executive, with the HongKong commerce minister, Joseph PWong, giving assurances that the government would not limit mediafreedom and free speech.

RTHK fearsBut there was anger in some circlesthat the committee did not consider astrengthened and revamped RTHK asHong Kong’s new independent publicbroadcaster.

The committee said that the future

of RTHK was beyond its terms of reference. The current status andstructure of RTHK as an arm of thegovernment was incompatible with anew role as an independent publicservice broadcaster, the report said.

Survival fight The South China Morning Post saidthat RTHK was facing a fight for survival as an institution of HongKong’s open society. “It is a fight thepublic broadcaster and its many supporters deserve to win,” it said.

A public consultation document isto be issued in the second half of2007 setting out the government’sviews on the way forward. n

áSupreme Court judgesattend a ceremony tomark the start of thenew legal year. Thecommon law systemcontinued after 1997

lVAUDINE ENGLAND reports onHong Kong for the BBC as wellas several newspapers. She’salso a writer and has lived inIndonesia, the Philippines and

Thailand. l Additional reporting by DAVID MA and LEWIS MACLEOD.The Chinese service will broadcast a special programming to mark the anniversary andJohnathan Dimbelby presents a two-part documentary on the English schedule. bbcworldservice.com

PA /GETTY/REUTERS

Implementation of CEPA l Beginning from 1 January, 2004, the Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement came into force in theform of preferential trade and tax treatmentsand almost unrestricted travel for mainlandersto Hong Kong, greatly boosting the local economy, especially the retail trades, and contributing to the recovery of the Hong Kongstock market.

Universal suffrage vowl On 25 March 2007, Donald Tsang won

asecond term as Chief Executive in thefirst contested leadership race sincehandover, pledging that he favoured an

open democratic system. It is believedthat pressures mount for him to find a

solution to the lack of universalsuffrage in Hong Kong.

Political reform vetoedl On 21 December 2005, Hong Kong legislatorsvoted against expanding the Legislative Councilby ten seats and doubling the size of the electioncommittee for not going far enough, which analysts predict may deepen China’s mistrust of apolitical reform.

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