China, Britain, & Hong Kong   Term Paper ID:27176 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Discusses the history of Hong Kong & of Sino-British relations over the colony. Examines the plans for & projections about the handover of Hong Kong in 1997.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Discusses the history of Hong Kong & of Sino-British relations over the colony. Examines the plans for & projections about the handover of Hong Kong in 1997. Paper Introduction: INTRODUCTION In 1997, the status of Hong Kong will change. Hong Kong has been one of two Chinese areas -- the other being Macao -- under the control of foreign powers. The Chinese see these as "problems left over from history," and they were the result of imperialist aggression and incompetence on the part of Chinese rulers in the nineteenth century. Hong Kong has been under British control as the result of three treaties with the Chinese from the last century, but in the mid-1980s China concluded formal agreements with Britain for the return of Hong Kong in 1997. The Hong Kong area, fearful of being returned to Red Chinese dominion, has been given a high degree of autonomy in the agreement with Britain, and it will be considered a "special administrative region" of China. From the standpoint of the Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. Kaplan, Sobin, and Service (198 ) note that partof the complexity in sorting out what changes were made and why stems fromthe fact that key decisions were and are made in secret by a small numberof people. Hong Kong and China: For Better or For Worse. The United States is thelargest foreign investor in the colony of Hong Kong (McGurn, 1992, 7). In 1941 the Japanese invaded Hong Kong and occupied it until the endof World War II, at which time colonial rule was restored (Hennessy, 1969,14 -143). Trade with Hong Kong and with Western countries has revived in Chinaan interest in law and politics, the former stimulated by the need forChinese lawyers to negotiate with foreign firms and both motivated by theneed for competent international negotiators to handle the legal andpolitical aspects of China's resumption of sovereignty over Hong Kong(Mackerras and Yorke, 1991, 223). In 1991, 18 out of 6 memberswere directly elected. About 98%of the population of 5,812, (199 est.) are Chinese, and most havetheir family origins in Kwangtung province. Communist armies reached the frontier in 1949 after theirvictory in the Chinese civil war, but no attempt was made to invade HongKong at that time, though the Chinese government did repeatedly declarethat the treaties governing Hong Kong had been imposed by force and werenot binding (Miner, 1993). 3) In 1898 China was compelled to lease an additional 365 squaremiles to Great Britain for a period of 99 years, a region called the NewTerritories. The U.K. About 5 , Hong Kongresidents emigrate each year, mostly to North America or Australia, eitherbecause they are seeking better economic opportunities or because they arefearful of their future under Chinese Communist rule now that Hong Kong isbeing returned to Chinese sovereignty. The first nine years of education are free, universal, andcompulsory, and almost all students complete two further years of secondaryeducation. Hong Kong has been oneof two Chinese areas -- the other being Macao -- under the control offoreign powers. The colony has become the largest banking center in thePacific region, after Tokyo, and financial services now generate 19 percentof the gross domestic product (GDP), almost as much as manufacturing.Agriculture and fishing account for only .3 percent of the GDP. Hong Kong:Oxford University Press, 1984.Chesneaux, Jean, Francoise Le Barbier, Marie-Claire Bergere, China from the 1911 Revolution to Liberation. However, oncethe U.S. Overseas companies setting up in Hong Kong generally eitherregister the overseas company with the local authorities or form a locallyincorporated subsidiary which can be legally distinct from the overseascompany. The primary result of this was that Chine for the firsttime felt she was an equal among the powers. The effort to change Chinese society began beforethe Revolution, with the efforts of the Communists first to attract peopleto their cause and second to make that cause understandable as a forcewhich would empower the people and lead them to revolution. The People's Republic of China The Chinese Revolution in 1949 altered the structure of mainlandChinese society both in the immediate by shifting from the previous regimeto a Communist system and in the long term in efforts to alter the degreeto which Chinese traditions would be followed or changed. TheHong Kong area, fearful of being returned to Red Chinese dominion, has beengiven a high degree of autonomy in the agreement with Britain, and it willbe considered a "special administrative region" of China. (ed.) Hong Kong: In Search of a Future. The CCP believed that a strong state couldusher in strong economic development. China's Crisis, China's Hope. Leading exports today includetextiles and clothing, electronics, clocks and watches, domesticappliances, and plastics. Aneditorial in the People's Daily in the PRC in 1963 offered the followingrationale for the Chinese policy toward Hong Kong: At the time the People's Republic of China was inaugurated, our government declared that it would examine the treaties concluded by previous Chinese governments with foreign governments, treaties that had been left over by history. Tourismis a big industry in Hong Kong, and over 5 million tourists visited in1989, contributing about 7 percent of the GDP (Academic AmericanEncyclopedia, online edition, 1993). was thus sympathetic to Chinese aspirations for a restoration ofits territorial integrity. Hong Kong Hong Kong has one of the highest population densities in the world--5,412 persons per square kilometer (or 14, 5 per square mile). New York: Harper & Row, 198 .Kit-ching, Chan Lau. From the beginning, in spite of its nationalistic, revolutionary, andanti-imperialist policy, the People's Republic of China (PRC) has had animportant stake in maintaining the prosperity of Hong Kong, since itacquires about 4 percent of its foreign exchange through its annual tradewith Hong Kong. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.McGurn, William. Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 199 .Mackerras, Colin and Amanda Yorke. 7 ). The Red Chinese, as noted, did not press aclaim, though they did express the view that the original agreement was notenforceable and that Hong Kong should be returned to China in due course(Wesley-Smith, 198 , 162). History Britain seized Hong Kong to secure a base for the opium tradersexpelled from Canton (Guangzhou) at a time when it was only a barren rockoccupied by a few communities of fishermen. . He declared at that time that the inhabitants of theTerritory were to be given a fuller and more responsible share in themanagement of their own affairs, and to this end he would establish aMunicipal Council and transfer to it important governmental functions.This statement committed the British to changing the constitution of HongKong and also defined the direction, scope, and procedure of the reform tobe undertaken. Some traditional institutions persisted in spite of Communistefforts to stamp them out, while other areas of the society were changedcompletely. HongKong had considerable success in exporting manufactures to Europe and NorthAmerican, and this attracted substantial investment by American andJapanese firms beginning in the 195 s. And although the city state has survived and prospered greatly for over thirty years, concern about its legal and political future has recently become widespread and has begun to have some influence on current economic decisions (Youngson, 1984, 1-2). City on the Rocks: Hong Kong's U&ncertain Future. New York: Pantheon books, 1977.Ching, Frank. 2) Britain again defeated China in the Arrow War form 1858 to 186 ,and China then agreed to cede the southern part of the Kowloon Province,about 3.5 square miles, with the Treaty of Peking. S. China was not happy with the abolition ofBritish extraterritoriality alone and wanted the return of the NewTerritories, probably as the first step leading to the eventualretrocession of Hong Kong. Six-month visas are generally granted to intendingresidents with employment. . The Red Chinese made their unhappiness over Hong Kongknown and then went about building their own society without consideringthe fate of Hong Kong at that time. President Roosevelt would havesided with the Nationalist Chinese, since for him Hong Kong had become asymbol of old-fashioned and unwanted British imperialism. Washington, D.C.: Ethics & Public Policy Center, 1992.Rafferty, Kevin. The Kuomintang had a high profile, and it was prepared to air its views on all mattes concerning the relations between Hong Kong and China (Tsang, 1988, 5 ).The British successfully countered the Kuomintang propaganda, however, anddid so in a way that served to promote the interests of the newconstitution. In the economic sphere, measures were taken to bring the hyperinflation of the late Nationalist era under control and stabilize credit and commodity markets (Kaplan, Sobin, and Service: p. and Great Britain agreed to the final abolition ofextraterritoriality in China early in 1943. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 199 .Cheng, Joseph Y. What Britain did do was shape its message to beclear and to show a response to various Chinese overtures both when Britainwas in difficult circumstances because of the war and when Britain wasexhibiting a more traditional expression of national power. China, Britain and Hong Kong 1845-1945. Commercial development soonattracted thousands of migrants from the mainland, an inflow of immigrantsthat has continued ever since, particularly at times when China has beenconvulsed by war or internal disorder. Service, Encyclopedia of China Today. Hong Kong has been separated from China only by the artifice ofpolitical arrangements and was entirely free to pursue its own economicpolicies (subject to British approval) for a century before it was occupiedby Japanese troops in 1941. The democratic-stylegovernment in Hong Kong has already inspired certain Chinese intellectualsto consider the value of transporting it as a model to China (Binyan, 199 ,11 ). Most Chinese are Buddhists or Taoists, with smaller numbers ofChristians and Muslims among them. Red China, as noted, did not invade in 1949 asmany had feared, and after that date the people of China were busyredeveloping their own society and economy. China at the time wasresentful of Britain's rapid defeat in the face of the Japanese in Asia andher weak performance in Europe. After theRevolution, efforts at changing society were undertaken in a moremethodical and all-inclusive manner, and many traditional institutions wereeither dismantled, prohibited, or downgraded in the effort to modernize andto bring about a new political and social attitude on the part of thepeople. Since1949, the PRC has considered Hong Kong to be Chinese territory to berecovered, but there was no attempt to implement that goal until 1982. The British were adamant in their refusal toreturn Hong Kong to Chinese control. The issue is to what degree did Britain make use ofpropaganda techniques to retain control of Hong Kong, and in the sense thatthe term was used in the war and alter in the cold War, Britain did littleto engage in propaganda. There are only minimal governmentcontrols or disclosure requirements on businesses. There are three universities, two polytechnics, and severalother post- secondary institutions in Hong Kong. . These differentsectors in society also wanted change in society and were working to thatend right up to and through the Revolution (Chesneaux, Le Barbier, andBergere, 1977: pp. Sobin, John S. However, this outflow is more thancounterbalanced by legal and illegal immigration from China, so thepopulation is increasing. After 1949, when the traditional entrepot trade with China declined,businessmen from Shanghai who were fleeing from the Communists, localentrepreneurs, and the old British trading houses set up many newindustries, making use of the cheap labor of the mass of refugees. One political party was now in power, and this fact wasremarkable in itself. 347-348). One-third of China'simports and exports still pass through the port. Chinese politics as instituted in 1949 had certain goals, and theissue is quite complex. What is sure is that the British legacy will have arole in the outcome. Hong Kong also provides an outlet for Chinese politicaldissidents and serves to reduce political tension within China as well asoffering indirect contacts, such as mail and trade, with Taiwan. The British administration of HongKong was established in three stages: 1) Britain defeated China in the Opium War from 1838-1842, and Chinathen agreed to cede the island of Hong Kong to Great Britain in the Treatyof Nanking. . After World War II, the ChineseCommunist government was less interested in the return of the territories,at least at that time. For his apart,Chiang Kai-Shek remained convinced of the need to recover all leasedterritories. These are the questions raised today bythe two sides in the debate, with some feeling that anything that bringsChina closer to the rest of the world will have a salutary effect overtime, while others believe that Chinese leaders are so set in their waysthat they will do anything and abrogate any agreement to maintain theirpower and to impose their ideas on everyone under their sway. The Chinese Nationalist party saw the three treaties under which theUnited Kingdom established its rule over Hong Kong as "unequal treaties,"and one of the goals of the Nationalist party was to overturn such treatiesand recover Chinese territories lost to foreign countries. In 1982 negotiationscommenced on Hong Kong's future, and in 1984 China and Britain signed ajoint declaration under which China would resume sovereignty over the wholecolony in 1997, promising to grant Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy andto allow capitalism and the inhabitants' life-style to continue undisturbedfor 5 years. Will this mean changes in Red China, orwill Red China change Hong Kong? INTRODUCTION In 1997, the status of Hong Kong will change. many of these treaties concluded in the past either have lost their validity, or have been abrogated or have been replaced by new ones. At one point it was rumored that the British and Chineseforces were racing each other to take over from the Japanese. & Wu, Yuan-Li. There is no compulsory union membership in HongKong, and there is minimal red tape for granting a registration forworkplaces. At the end of World War II, China was represented by the Kuomintanggovernment under Chiang Kai-Shek, and China had entered the allied campduring the war. In practice, the PRC has toleratedHong Kong's having a limited international status similar, to a certainextent, to that of a state (Chiu, 1987, 5-6). Many of the upheavals inChinese society did affect Hong Kong if only by creating a fear that theinternal disorder in Red China would spill over into Hong Kong. Negotiations between Britain and theRepublic of China remained deadlocked over the issue of the return of theleased territories of Kowloon, the New Territories. The British came to HongKong in the last century and have administered it with varying degrees ofcontrol eve since. Hong Kong has worked for many years to attract investors and hascreated a very favorable environment for new investment and new businesses,including foreign-owned businesses. The allies, and especiallythe United States, humored this sense of quality to keep up China's morale.The allies needed China to tie down the Japanese while they were engaged ina life and death struggle against their enemies in Europe, and as a resultthe U.S. did not respond at thattime, and in late 1949 the Nationalist government moved to Taiwan, afterwhich the United Kingdom withdrew its recognition of the Nationalistgovernment. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.Wesley-Smith, Peter. There are no minimal capitalization requirements for aprivate company. Roosevelt andChiang Kai-Shek indeed agreed that post-war Hong Kong should be aninternationalized port under Chinese sovereignty, but Churchill adamantlyrefused to contemplate the surrender of the territory. The Chinese see these as "problems left over fromhistory," and they were the result of imperialist aggression andincompetence on the part of Chinese rulers in the nineteenth century. The matter was now in the hands ofthe People's Republic of China under communist rule (Chiu, 1987, 4-5). The onetime this did occur was in 1967, when there were serious riots in Hong Konginspired by the Cultural Revolution in China, but apart from this theChinese government left the colony undisturbed, most likely because up to4 percent of China's foreign exchange earnings are derived from trade andcommercial transactions with the colony of Hong Kong. In 199 there were also morethan 55, Vietnamese refugees confined in camps and awaiting eitherresettlement overseas or repatriation to Vietnam. Hong Kong and the British Immediately after the war, Sir Mark Young returned to take over hisinterrupted governorship of Hong Kong and to restore civil government tothat region. The Nationalist Chinese before had made more ofan issue of the Hong Kong situation, and in 1943 the British stated thatthey did not contemplate any "modification of sovereignty" in the FarEastern territories under British rule. It was challenged strongly by the government of Chiang Kai-Shek,the government that eventually ended up separated from mainland China andin power only on Taiwan. China has followed different modelsof development during the history of the present system in trying to copewith the problems encountered: "The stated goal of each strategy has beensocialist development and the ultimate transition to communism" (Strayer:p. The return of the British to Hong Kong coincided with the high tideof Kuomintang activities in the colony, which presented a special problemfor those seeking constitutional reform: Young's assessment of Kuomintang influence in the local Chinese community caused considerable concern when it was presented to the Colonial Office. we have always held that, when conditions are ripe, they should be settled peacefully through negotiations and that, pending a settlement, the status quo should be maintained (Chiu, 1987, 5).At the same time, the PRC made it clear that it would not tolerate HongKong becoming an independent state. The strategy undertaken was known as "self-reliance" asthe industrial development, which has been substantial since 1949, wasfinanced by China herself. The Cambrisdge Handbook of Contemporary China. The CCP made a number of innovations that laid thebasis for future changes: First was the restoration of unity and order. In 199 , China promulgated a Basic Law (constitution) forthe Hong Kong Special Administrative Region after 1997, providing that one-third of the members of the legislature will be directly elected, and thatthe chief executive (appointed by the Chinese government) will have greaterpowers than the existing British governor. CONCLUSION The legacy of British rule is apparent everywhere in Hong Kong, andin the long run this rule has been beneficial to the region and willfinally benefit the Chinese people as a whole. Financial statements donot have to be filed if a U.S. the Future of Hong Kong: Toward1997 and Beyond. and Great Britain had entered the war against Japan in 1941, theRepublic of China under the leadership of Chiang Kai-Shek became an ally.The two Western countries entered into negotiations with the Republic ofChina over the possible abolition of their extraterritorial and otherspecial rights (such as concessions, inland navigation, stationing troops,and similar agreements) in China. HongKong has been under British control as the result of three treaties withthe Chinese from the last century, but in the mid-198 s China concludedformal agreements with Britain for the return of Hong Kong in 1997. Unlike in other Britishcolonies, Hong Kong's system of government has never been developed into aparliamentary democracy, largely out of deference to the wishes of China.Until 1985 the Legislative Council consisted entirely of civil servants andmembers appointed by the governor, and after 1985 some members wereselected by a form of indirect election. It is this treaty which expires in 1997 (Chiu, 1987, 1). The Chinese droppedthe issue for expedience but made it clear that the matter would bereopened. English is the principal language ofgovernment in Hong Kong, but the normal medium of communication isCantonese. During this period, the policy of the United States was to make Chinaa strong and stabilizing force in East Asia once Japan was defeated, andthe U.S. company is a wholly-owned subsidiary ofanother company. New York:The Asia Society, 1985.Chiu, Hungdah, Jao, Y.C. New York:Viking Press, 1989.Tsang, Steve Yui-Sang. Perfidious Albion: The Abandonment of Hong Kong 1997. Democracy Shelved. It is important to note that the desire to change Chinese society wasnot the Communist Party's alone, and the success of the party came aboutbecause it joined forces with movements outside it that had similar goals,notably the peasant movement which started at the same time as the CCP andfor many of the same reasons and which was guided by the CCP, the nationalmovement, the workers' movement, and the student movement. The long termchange included modernization of the economy and a shift in the way theeconomy was controlled. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 198 .----------------------- 18 This territory wasoriginally sought by Britain because of its magnificent natural harbor,Victoria Harbour, and during the 19th century it was the main entrepot(trade center) for Western commerce with China. In fact, theNationalist government was not strong enough to press its claims, and inany case the Chinese had vowed to press their claim by diplomaticnegotiation and not by force. Unequal Treaty 1898-1997. Chinese politics ismulti-dimensional and from the first involved such dimensions as leadershipconflict, policy conflict, the evolution of political institutions,shifting relations between state and society, and ideological debate. The statement further committed the government toconsulting fully all sections of the local community and to settling thegoverning principle for a liberal reform before the end of 1946 (Tsang,1988, 32). Red China and Hong Kong For the most part, the events in Red China were only news reports tothe people of Hong Kong. From thestandpoint of the Chinese, return of Hong Kong to their control has been animportant issue of nationalism and sovereignty. When Red China emerged after the war, thequestions asked was how long would this giant tolerate a capitalist economyon its doorstep: The rise of China, the diminishing of Britain, and the deep disfavor into which colonialism fell after the Second World War combined to make the position of Hong Kong look extremely uncertain. Whenthe Communists came to power, it was after years of political and militarystruggle. ReferencesAmerican Academic Encyclopedia, online edition, Grolier Electronic Publishing, Danbury, Connecticut, 1993.Binyan, Liu. China's political system is a closed system, and history itselfis shaped by official doctrine and decision-making. As a propaganda device, it was not veryspecific, but it did rally the British people to the cause. The phrase that wasused and that would be repeated in England and in the territories was"Hands off the British Empire," and this phrase expressed the Britishposition precisely and with more than a hint of a threat to any who mightwant to challenge British rule. Boston: Little, Brown, 1969.Kaplan, Fredric M., Julian M. Also permissible are partnerships and sole proprietorships(Higgins, de Bedin, and Delbyck, 1988, 14). The regime faced certain fundamental needs in 1949 that helpeddetermine what order would be taken in making changes in Chinese society,and the most pressing need was for economic development and particularlyindustrialization. The British alleviated this problem by becomingmore successful in the European theater by 1943. Franklin Roosevelt mediated with the Chinese,who announced that if Great Britain returned the New Territories to China,China would designate Hong Kong as a free port to preserve part of theinterests of British nationals there. 4 3). Only timewill tell for sure. In recent years many production processes havebeen relocated to China to take advantage of cheaper labor there, so thatHong Kong firms today employ more than twice as many people in China as inHong Kong. In the military sphere, this meant ridding the landscape of private armies and confiscating private supplies of weapons. In the end, the British retained control with relative easeas the Kuomintang government was shunted off to Taiwan and as the RedChinese took over China but did so in a way that showed it had too manyimmediate problems to look for the return of Hong Kong anytime in theforeseeable future. The population also containssome 6 , Europeans and Americans, 57, Filipinos (mostly domesticservants), and 3 , Indians and Pakistanis. Half-Crown Colony. This control was challenged at various points in thiscentury. It was in fact one of the primary reasons for theRevolution itself. Westport, Conn.: Quorum Books, 1987.Hennessy, James Pope. Ever since, the Republic of China has not been in a positionto negotiate the Hong Kong question. The question of theretrocession of Hong Kong had not disappeared, but with the revival ofcivil war in China, the KMT did not have the force to regain theterritories, and the communists, who did have the power, would not claim it(Kit-Ching, 199 , 17). Further progress before 1997 is constrained by theneed to agree with the Basic Law (Miners, 1993). If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.