Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 30, 1997, Winnipeg, Manitoba Brian Cole 6977044 focus Winnipeg free press m 4 a june 1997 i i expect Short term but just wait it out Hong Kong cant lose Hiang Waishek was preparing to take Hong said Arthur they had troops ready to March once the Flag was that stopped no one and Hong Kong didst fall to the chinese nationalists in 1945 or to the chinese communists in As a Hong mongers missed the great leap and the great famine that and the 10year chaos of the cultural revolt and All the other violent upheavals that have devastated the lives of Mainland chinese Over the past 50 Hong Kong became new York in a shimmering Mirage of capitalist Prosperity that looked like it had arrived in South China direct from and All because of Arthur Mays an Engineer in the British colonial was interned when the japanese seized Hong Kong in four years when Japan May was still in a prison and he had lost almost half his prewar he was a 97 Pound weakling but he knew where to find a British it would be two weeks before British forces arrived in Hong and meanwhile the Colony was up for chinese nationalist troops were eager to repossess Chi Nese territory and confident that the United states would not defend Britain colonial Rule in Hong so Arthur May slipped through the Fence of the prison evaded the demoralized japanese went to the Home of his aged parents and retrieved the British Flag he had hidden in a helped by a group of unarmed Indian troops who had also just freed May hoisted the Flag at the top of the the highest Point on Hong Kong other British a prisoners then set up a provision Al British authority in the old head quarters of the French Catholic missionaries and Chiang Kai seeks troops stayed where they its one thing to take a territory from the Defeated quite Gwynne Dyer to seize it from an on such Small things history Hong Kong stayed British for another and was transformed from a squalid seaport of half a million people to a City of million people 98 per cent chinese that has been described As Blade runner without the bad but now the extra Hal Century Arthur May bought for the old Hong Kong is at Midnight the remaining population of the British Empire will drop by 90 per when British governor Chris Patten formally hands Hong Kong Over to the representatives of the Peoples Republic of four centuries of British Imperial history come to an hardly anybody in Britain cares about that but they certainly care in Hong which is falling under the Rule of the largest remaining totalitarian state on the what does the future hold for the six million citizens of the ultimate capitalist City on the political front its pretty Clear Britain last minute attempt to bring a measure of democracy to the running of Hong Kong will be dismantled the moment the Peoples liberation army marches Beijing Doest want anybody in the rest of China getting ideas above their will have control of the the and the said Martin Leader of the democratic party and one of Hong Kongs leading human rights they will control the universities and the press Freedom will be the first and if there is no press no other Freedom is most Hong Kong chinese Are resigned to a future of being careful about what they and to already the governor Chris Patten will leave Hong Kong on the students dressed in ancient chinese costumes and headgear stand in contrast to Hong Kong colons once Lively Media have ceased All criticism of and if that As bad As it most people will put up with if there is another massacre on the scale of Tiana men of All bets Are but few people expect to see that around 10 per cent of Hong Kongs people have taken the precaution of acquiring some foreign citizenship mostly in aus or the since All these countries make generous provision for family reunification in their immigration probably around 20 to 25 per cent of Hong mongers could leave if they had that would account for the majority of those with the Money and the language skills to leave at because they dont care about the party or the they will not be deterred by considerations of the National and they Are very and the problem is not just corruption some people in Power dont want Hong Kong to we have worked out a three stage boasted Wang director of the Shanghai based development research in the first phase it would be not Hong that becomes chivas National Finan Cial Centre by the year in the second by Shanghai b it if Bei rings Appa Ratus of repression is mostly kept out Side Hong Kongs life should change relatively Little for most people in Hong at the the dominant concern about Beijing Rule in Hong Kong is not the tyranny of the communist but the monumental scale of its Cor according to a Survey of business opinion late last China ranks first in All Asia for ahead of the Philip and Hong Kong ranks dead together with Japan and now these two places Are being put Hong Kongs position As asias leading Centre for business and finance will not Long survive if the main Landers bring their habits with what we have in Hong Kong now is a culture of clean said Michael head of the inde pendent commission on i cannot see Why anybody would wish to destroy that that would Only undermine the Promise of one country two systems and under mine the Basic philosophy of keeping Hong Kong useful and helpful to Leung is whistling in the the once austere communist cadres who run China and their businessmen cronies Are corrupt precisely if there is another massacre on the scale of Tiana men of All bets Are but few people expect to see that again becomes asias regional financial and by it becomes a global financial Centre leaving Hong Kong far walk the streets of especially in the new Xudong financial District across the River from the old City Centre where 140 High Rise office buildings Are going up at and you grasp the seriousness of Shang Hais add the fact that people with roots interests in Shanghai the so called Shanghai now form the largest identifiable group in the politburo and upper ranks of the communist and you under stand Why even the richest people in Hong Kong Are quietly worried about for it int a question of civil enough Money can usually buy you All the civil rights you it is rather a question of business Cli Shanghai partisans in Beijing might deliberately let the rot spread in Hong Kong in order to cripple the for everyone under stands that there Are two claimants to the position of chivas commercial and financial and Only one can if this pattern of official corruption at Home and veiled hostility from Beijing does set then Hong Kongs near term future is we wont see a mass exodus unless there is massacre in the but the number of discouraged people who quietly leave Hong Kong each year could soon exceed the to who have been leaving annually during the first the bad but then the Good which is that Hong Kong is bound to be All right in the Long whatever the Short term setbacks due to manipulations by the Shanghai the Region stretching 100 Kilometres up the Pearl River from Hong Kong to Guangzhou Canton is bound to emerge As chivas business and financial capital in the Long its easy to be overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the immense build ing site that is Shanghai in but Shanghai is a Normal Metropolis on the scale of or it has around nine million people and its unlikely to grow even twice As big during the next few Hong Kong is the Southern Anchor of an Asye unnamed City on a different and hither to unseen the whole Pearl River from Guangzhou at its Apex to the coastal enclaves of Hong Kong and Macao at either Side of the Rivers is becoming a single huge City serving the immense Hin Terland of South it will be a megalopolis of up to 40 million peo As Many As the entire country of Spain or South South Korea and Hong Kong will be its Shanghai cannot compete with that no matter How much government help it by the time the rest of China the Hong Kong Guangzhou Axis will be firmly established As the worlds biggest Hong Kong people May have some rough times in the next few but they just have to in the they cannot Gwynne Dyer is a Londo based Independent doonesbury flashbacks by Garry Trudeau 1chkkzpmomout at the of Ive since things what off having Wical insure Lite not havin6fioop Sam what ;