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Hong Kong Marks 10-Year Hand-Over Anniversary |
HenryTo
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 Posted: Sat Jun 30, 2007 11:53 pm Post subject: Hong Kong Marks 10-Year Hand-Over Anniversary |
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An important milestone for both HKers and Chinese alike. Note that July 1, 1997 also marked the day before the official beginning of the 1997 Asian Crisis as the Thai Baht was devalued on July 2nd:
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Hong Kong marks hand-over anniversary
By WILLIAM FOREMAN, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 7 minutes ago
HONG KONG - Hong Kong's red flag was raised into a cloudy blue sky Sunday as the former British colony marked the 10th anniversary of its hand-over to China and bid farewell to a rocky decade of financial woes, disease outbreaks and economic recovery.
The next 10 years could be just as challenging for the bustling city on southern China's coast. Hong Kong will likely grapple with democratic reform and face growing competition from other Asian cities threatening its position as a global business capital.
"The competition ahead is fierce. We are not only competing with neighboring cities, but with cities around the world," said Hong Kong leader Donald Tsang, a bow tie-wearing veteran civil servant who was sworn in Sunday for a second term.
A few hundred people stood near Hong Kong's harbor to watch the ceremony attended by dignitaries. The crowd erupted with cheers when four helicopters carrying Hong Kong and Chinese flags flew over the area.
"We're here to celebrate Hong Kong's birthday," said 12-year-old Jenny Kwok.
Shouting "Power to the people," a small band of protesters tried to march on the flag-raising ceremony, but they were blocked a few yards away by police. The group, led by radical lawmaker Leung Kwok-hung, tried to burn an effigy of what they said was the "butcherous" Chinese leadership, and police doused them all with fire extinguishers.
About an hour later, Chinese President Hu Jintao gave Tsang his blessings and praised Hong Kong for getting through a turbulent decade. He also said Hong Kong's "democracy is growing in an orderly way," but he didn't clearly state when the city should have full democracy.
Hu planned to leave Hong Kong before pro-democracy groups hold an annual street protest in the afternoon. Although the city has one of Asia's most prosperous and well-educated societies, Hong Kongers still can't directly elect their leader and entire legislature.
Tsang was selected by an 800-seat election committee dominated by Beijing loyalists. Only half of the 60-seat legislature is directly elected, and the other members are picked by professional and special interest groups.
Although Beijing has promised that Hong Kong will eventually get full democracy, the Communist leadership has yet to say when it will happen. The British also denied the city full democracy during their 156 years of ruling the territory on China's southern coast.
Since Hong Kong returned to China, the city has been governed under a "one country, two systems" formula. The arrangement has allowed the territory to keep its capitalist economy, British-style legal system, free press and civil liberties.
For the most part, Beijing has honored its promise to let Hong Kong enjoy a wide-degree of autonomy. But critics say the media commonly practice self censorship, and Chinese officials indulge in behind-the-scenes meddling.
In many ways, Hong Kong has grown closer to the motherland — which has been vital in helping the city recover from the Asian financial crisis that erupted one day after the 1997 hand-over.
Hong Kong has become tightly linked to the mainland's galloping economy and has positioned itself as a key entry point to the Chinese market. Hong Kong companies are heavily invested in southern China's booming Pearl River Delta region, employing more than 10 million factory workers.
China has also given Hong Kong's economy a big boost by allowing more mainlanders to visit the city. Hong Kong's hotels, shopping malls and restaurants have become addicted to the big-spending tourists. Last month, about 1.2 mainlanders visited, a 16 percent increase from the same period last year, the Tourism Board said.
The tourists helped pull the economy out of recession caused by the 2003 outbreak of SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome. The disease killed 299 people here and devastated the tourism industry.
Although the mainland makes a great partner in many ways, it's also a fierce competitor.
The red-hot stock market in Shanghai is competing with Hong Kong for Chinese companies seeking new stock listings. And Shanghai's port surpassed Hong Kong's this year as the world's second busiest behind Singapore. Another port in Shenzhen is expected to overtake Hong Kong next year.
Still, Hong Kong is famous for reinventing itself and meeting challenges. It may have to rely on those talents more than ever in the next 10 years. |
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Hong Kong Marks 10-Year Hand-Over Anniversary Replies |
rffrydr
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HenryTo
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rffrydr
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| Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2007 10:03 am Post subject: |
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I was there: saw the great march of smiling synchronized Red Army soldiers come to town. Thought it would fade quicker to Shanghai and Senzhen but those common-law financial provisions have proven useful.
The mark of change is a stain:
| Quote: | SECTION: FT REPORT - HONG KONG; Pg. 5
LENGTH: 783 words
HEADLINE: City blighted by residue of factories' might POLLUTION
BYLINE: By SKY CANAVES and TOM MITCHELL
DATELINE: HONG KONG
BODY:
Unfortunately for Hong Kong, May 14 was an utterly ordinary day. Tourists milling at one of the territory's most famous lookout points - the Victoria Peak viewing terrace near the terminus of the Peak Tram - gazed down on a city bathed in heavy smog.
A picture map, snapped on one of Hong Kong's rare clear days, depicted what they should have been able to see: the territory's famous harbour, now resembling a river after numerous land reclamations; the Tsim Sha Tsui peninsula; and the Kowloon hills beyond.
But as tourists struggled to match the map to the view, only the harbour below and a few tall buildings in Tsim Sha Tsui could be made out through the haze. The Kowloon hills had disappeared completely.
Turning their backs on the pollution, Chinese tourists posed for photos beside the picture map. And when they were finished, a French couple focused their camcorder on the image, as a proxy for the view they could not see.
The invisible view has become increasingly commonplace in Hong Kong, which now experiences twice as much haze as it did a decade ago. Last year the city's observatory recorded 1,258 hours of reduced visibility, more than double the 581 hours of 1996.
The severity of the haze is in large part determined by the conditions that historically made Hong Kong so ideal for the sea-faring trade. Reliable southerly winds from October to April provided easy passage for ships coming from the west and heading up the China coast towards Japan.
From November to April a cold front blows in from the north, facilitating the return voyage. The sheltered harbour provided a favourable spot for rest and trade with China's interior.
A hundred years ago the winter monsoons brought little more than a sprinkling of Gobi desert dust to Hong Kong. But today they bring much more from sources closer to home.
Across the border, China's Pearl River delta region has crammed a century's worth of industrialisation into twenty years, transforming sleepy villages into 24-hour manufacturing zones.
The worst of Hong Kong's pollution can be traced to Foshan, a city of 6m about 150km northwest of Hong Kong. Known as the ceramics capital of south China, Foshan is often featured on regional air quality maps at the centre of the darkest circle of pollution. Its coal-burning kilns spew out huge quantities of sooty waste and chemical compounds such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide.
These pollutants are carried to Hong Kong by the northerlies that prevail from October to April, resulting in much worse pollution during the winter months.
After the air stream reverses course in the spring and summer, reciprocal winds could be counted on to bring some respite from the winter haze. But this is no longer guaranteed, as the smog of May 14 showed.
"In the past few years there has been a fundamental change- that is the probability of haze in the case of winds coming in from the northeast or southeast," said CY Lam, director of the Hong Kong Observatory. "We could see haze coming from clearly identified sources in western Taiwan. The particulate matter could come from many directions."
Hong Kong's vehicles and coal-burning power plants also generate a fair share of pollution within the city, which is then exacerbated by local wind patterns and what is known as "land-sea breeze circulation". As concrete-clad urban areas heat up, pollutants rise and disperse over the ocean, only to be carried back into the city by cooler sea breezes.
"When onshore wind comes it actually brings more polluted air instead of a very nice ocean breeze," says Alexis Lau, a professor and expert on atmospheric science at Hong Kong'sUniversity of Science and Technology.
The problem is compounded by the rapid spread of cities across the Pearl River delta to accommodate a burgeoning population of 45m. "Increased heat due to urbanisation strengthens the land-sea breeze circulation and makes it more difficult for outside winds to penetrate, so it is more difficult for the pollution to disperse," says Mr Lau.
Hong Kong's government has yet to develop a comprehensive solution to tackle the air quality issues that affect tourists and residents alike. Cross-border collaboration with the mainland has proceeded slowly, even though there are more than 50,000 Hong Kong-invested factories across the border.
Five years ago, the two governments pledged emissions reductions by 2010 according to mainland China's air quality standards, which are in many cases more stringent than Hong Kong's. But it appears unlikely that the targets will be met on time.
"If the reduction is actually happening we should be able to see the sky improving," said Mr Lau. "This is not the case yet."
Additional reporting byTom Mitchell |
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