Congratulations Hong Kong
Hong Kong just celebrated its tenth year of joining The People’s Republic of China. It was on June 30, 1997 that Prince Charles literally handed over the city to China’s president, Jiang Zemin with one simple handshake and smile. The lively 10-year anniversary was celebrated with singers, dancers, brilliant performances, and all of China’s prominent leaders. I was sitting quietly in my room when my father called me over to watch the celebration on television with him. It was quite a sight. Many magazines have published special reports on this ten-year anniversary. Many of them analyze how Hong Kong has changed for better and for worse. In fact Hong Kong’s political, legal, and economic arenas are all very multidimensional and have grown to be both unruly and promising.
Politically, China likes to believe that it has held up its promise by allowing Hong Kong to genuinely be a part of the “one country, two systems” concept. The current Chief Executive of Hong Kong is Donald Tsang who was elected by with a 70% approval rating over his competitor, Alan Leong. However, despite this popularity, Tsang was still only elected by an 800 member committee that guaranteed his victory. This is because China, as expected, continues to play a significant role in Hong Kong’s political arena. One of the biggest promises that Mr. Tsang made during his debates with Mr. Leong was that of universal suffrage in elections for both the Legislative Council (LegCo) and the Chief Executive. Since the Joint Declaration between China and Great Britain was in place, Hong Kong’s government leaders have promoted democracy to China’s dismay. Despite China’s disapproval, election results have consistently leaned more towards the “pro-democracy” rather than the “pro-Beijing” side. However, a full representative democracy in Hong Kong has been developing slowly. This is especially detrimental because as the Economist puts it, “A representative government in Hong Kong would be the best monitor and guarantor of continued autonomy.”
Hong Kong’s judicial system continues to preserve its autonomy through its continued practice of common law. The court system allows judges and lawyers to refer to past court case decisions used in other countries with the common law system. The Court of Final Appeal (CFA) is the final deciding power in court cases. It was set up to replace Brtiain’s Privy Council. The solicitor general, Ian Wingfield, is a Briton, who clearly represents Britain’s judicial system’s continued influence in Hong Kong. The only worry with the current judicial system is that the government, especially that in Beijing, will assert more control over the legal system, suppressing the autonomy that judges and lawyers used to have when Great Britain was in control of the colony.
Hong Kong’s economy perhaps is the field in which Hong Kong seems to have maintained the most autonomy. Hong Kong continues to be a capitalist society and in 2005, the World Bank estimated that Hong Kong was the world’s 10th most affluent country based on GDP calculations. The GDP per capita of Hong Kong exceeds that of the UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan. Moreover, Hong Kong has been the first place in China where Western corporations have sought great investment. For example, no one can doubt that Hong Kong Disneyland has drawn tourists from all over the world since its opening in 2005. However, according to the Gini coefficient, which measures inequality within a nation, has risen in Hong Kong since 1981. In addition, Hong Kong’s economy has become increasingly linked to that of China’s. Over the years, since 1997, Hong Kong’s economy has been rocky. There have been periods of decline and prosperity. At the same time, China has maintained a stable increase over the years and the world is beginning to see China as the next economic superpower.
Some of the most pressing questions about Hong Kong’s fate are surprisingly not completely about Hong Kong anymore. Many question whether Taiwan will see Hong Kong as a good experiment as an autonomous Chinese colony and follow in its footsteps. Right now, there is no indication that Taiwan is anywhere near joining the People’s Republic. Other questions revolve around whether Hong Kong can influence China’s government and economy to be more free. Whatever the answers to these questions are, it will be interesting to see if they can be answered in the next ten years.