Hong Kong

The most stressful noncombat city in the world, [whose] 5.5 million inhabitants harness this energy for one end: making money…. The most exciting city you will ever visit…A rare mix of energy, variety, and 24-hour audiovisual stimulation….About ten percent of the private cars are Mercedes Benzes…The frenzy of consumption becomes even more volatile when mixed with superstition and a penchant for gambling…

The preceding description resonates with this occasional visitor to Hong Kong. This fascinating city characterized by the continuous noise of traffic, commerce, and construction, the endless variety of people and products, the beauty of its harbor, and its unique charm as a combination of British colonial rule and overwhelmingly Chinese culture remains one of my favorites.

In only one regard do I disagree with the guidebooks: Despite their frenetic urban pace and no-nonsense approach to human relationships, I have found the people in Hong Kong to be quite friendly. As long as you let them know that you realize how precious their time is to them, and assure them that you won’t take too much of that vital commodity, they will treat you with efficient courtesy.

History

When the guns fell silent after the first Opium War in 1842, Great Britain had wrested possession of the island of Hong Kong from the ailing Qing Dynasty. Kowloon Peninsula was added after another British victory in 1860, and the New Territories came as a “concession” in 1898, leased for 99 years. When the lease expired in 1997, all of what had become a British colony was returned to China, fulfilling a long-held dream of successive Chinese governments in the 20th century.

Would-be reformers and revolutionaries sought refuge in Hong Kong from Qing Dynasty secret police before the revolution of 1911. On the one hand, Chinese who were longing for a better government viewed the British colony as a model of clean, efficient administration, which it mostly was and still is. They admired the order which the British brought to all their domains, even down to the custom of lining up for buses, trains and ferries, a stark contrast to the mad rush common at transportation terminals on the mainland. British-style education offered not only excellent English, but advanced science and technology, as well as exposure to Western civilization and history. Hospitals introduced Western medicine. The courts were more or less fair and impartial, and torture was not used to extract confessions. All of these may have been features of life taken for granted in the West, but still lacking in China proper.

On the other hand, nationalists resented the arrogance and racism that the imperialists all too often evinced, and which sometimes led to violence against the majority Chinese residents. Nor did they like to see a foreign power occupying Chinese soil.

Hong Kong once again served as a safe haven for refugees when the Japanese attacked in the early months of the Sino-Japanese War. However, it, too, was attacked and taken soon after Pearl Harbor in 1942. Britain regained control in 1945, and held on to its prize possession in the East even after Mao’s victory in the civil war. Though the Communists did not recognize the validity of the “unequal treaties” that had ceded the territory to Britain, they did not want to pay the price to overturn the status quo by force.

During the Cold War, Hong Kong served as a window on China for Western “China watchers,” and a window on the West for otherwise-isolated China. The influx of hundreds of thousands of refugees during the civil war, and especially after 1949, taxed the colony’s resources, but provided a huge pool of cheap labor for its expanding manufacturing energies.

With the start of Deng Xiaoping’s sweeping modernization in 1978, Hong Kong jumped into the action with both feet. Soon its entrepreneurs were building factories and even roads all over southern China, especially in Guangzhou, from which most Hong Kong residents (or their forebears) came. A huge influx of capital and money-making savvy turned the city of ShenZhen, the first government-designated Special Economic Zone, into a manufacturing and commercial powerhouse just across the border from Hong Kong.

For a while, Hong Kong’s money and merchants dominated the new free market sector in China, but soon Shanghai and other rising economic centers competed with the British Colony head-to-head. Even the construction of one of the world’s finest airports in Hong Kong has not kept it from losing ground to Shanghai, which has lured vast amounts of capital and thousands of foreign companies into its sprawling new metropolis.

When the Britain returned its last colony to China in 1997, everyone wondered what a “one country, two systems” Hong Kong would look like. Ten years later, the situation is neither as bad as some had feared, nor as good as the Chinese government had promised. While the rulers in Beijing have allowed the free market to operate mostly unhindered, they have applied various sorts of pressure to stifle a free press and freely-elected government officials. Clearly, China intends to dictate important policy in Hong Kong, either directly or indirectly, through pro-China leaders.

Hong Kong retains enough freedom, however, to allow large demonstrations for democracy, though these, too, are coming under increased pressure. So far, it’s “self-censorship” in the press and on the street, and a modus vivendi between pro-democracy activists, Beijing operatives running the government, a relatively clean bureaucracy, and the mass of a-political citizens may be in the process of developing.

A great deal rides on how heavy-handed China proves to be in bringing this rambunctious region under control. The people of Taiwan are watching to see what “one country, two systems” really means in practice. It’s hard for Communists to allow even a little freedom of speech, the press, of assembly, and especially of elected officials to act as they see fit. They will need great self-control if they are to persuade skeptics that reversion to Chinese sovereignty really won’t entail the type of restrictions that they regularly impose upon residents of the Mainland.

Religion

Freedom of speech and assembly apply especially to religious believers. Hong Kong reflects China proper in its wide variety of faiths, with their meeting places, clergy, and faithful adherents.

Especially prominent, probably because of Britain’s former rule, are Hong Kong’s Christians, both Catholic and Protestant. Offering worship services in hundreds of churches, they also operate schools, hospitals, and a variety of social service centers. Because of its proximity to Mainland China, dozens of foreign-based Protestant and Catholic organizations have offices, and even headquarters, in Hong Kong. The Chinese Congress on World Evangelization (CCOWE), a fully-Chinese-run network of Protestants around the world– serves as just one example.

Despite stringent Chinese laws against such activity, most congregations in Hong Kong conduct some sort of evangelistic outreach in China, often coupled with financial aid or help with infrastructure (such as church buildings). Christian businesspeople, teachers, and doctors also maintain close ties to China, using their professions as a platform for spreading their faith. The Chinese government knows all of this of course, but usually turns a blind eye because of the financial benefit such people bring to China.

So, the question is: Who will influence whom? Will China clamp down enough to snuff out the freedoms that have made Hong Kong what it is? Or will this tiny region continue to offer China a vision of a different kind of society? Only time will tell.

Readings

• Fodor’s China
• Frommer’s China
• Hutchings, Graham. “Hong Kong,” in Modern China: A Guide to a Century of Change.
• Levin, Mike, and Chasan, Gail. Hong Kong: A Bantam Travel Guide. 1990.