Organizer: Ming K. Chan, University of Hong Kong
Chair: Roger Ames, University of Hawai'i, Honolulu
Discussant: Diana Lary, University of British Columbia
After 142 years of British colonial rule, Hong Kong was stipulated by the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration to become a Special Administrative Region of the PRC on July 1, 1997. China's policy toward Hong Kong is based on the concept of "One Country, Two Systems" which would allow the preservation of the existing legal, economic and social systems for fifty years. The political system, however, had to undergo fundamental and drastic changes in the transition to 1997. The processes of decolonization, localization, and democratization characterize the past decade of transition which also witnessed dramatic deterioration in Sino-British relations, especially following the 1989 Tiananmen Incident.
The London-Beijing discord impeded the British-sponsored pre-97 constitutional reform as well as the PRC-dominated Hong Kong Basic Law drafting process. The almost total breakdown in bilateral cooperation following Governor Patten's proposal for electoral reforms also led to Beijing's obstruction of Hong Kong's infrastructural projects that straddle 1997. Ming Chan's paper will delineate the shifting course of Sino-British politicking over Hong Kong's transition, with particular emphasis on the China factor and its United Front application to the local populace.
Hong Kong's transition to Chinese sovereignty is unfolding in a global environment which is undergoing major changes with the post-Cold War power realignment and economic interests assuming priority. Hong Kong's reintegration with the PRC is of international significance, with direct impact on the many interests of Hong Kong's external economic partners. The paper by James Tang will explore the global forces shaping Hong Kong's transition within the context of its interactions with China and the world.
The China factor is a major concern to the Hong Kong civil bureaucracy while the PRC's own civil service system is experiencing changes due to economic reform. In his comparative analysis of the two civil service systems, John P. Burns highlights the changing political and economic environments in Hong Kong and the Mainland with regard to the effective control by the CCP and the convergence of the two systems' management as well as the problem of cross-border corruption.
The emergence of party politics and electoral campaigns ushered in a new relationship between the community and the government. Due to Beijing's die-hard opposition, limited direct election was introduced only in 1991, and the 1995 elections will be the last under British auspices. Based on surveys with voters, Ian Scott's paper will compare the two elections with reference to the development of party politics and changing attitudes toward the wider political system.
As a whole, the four papers of this panel will offer a balanced view of the Sino-British politicking, local constitutional and administrative reforms as well as party and electoral politics in transitional Hong Kong as shaped by the China factor and the forces of global interests. Such an in-depth understanding of the key dimensions of political transformation will provide an informed baseline to articulate social and institutional changes and other sectorial experiences in the problematic countdown to 1997.
The Politics of Hong Kong's Transition
Ming K. Chan, University of Hong Kong
The 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration, which mandated Hong Kong's retrocession to Chinese sovereignty on July 1, 1997, ushered in the ongoing processes of decolonization, localization and, ideally, democratization. At the same time, the China factor, despite the PRC's much-heralded "One Country, Two Systems" formula for the future SAR, looms increasingly larger and closer to constitute direct interference with and serious obfuscation to British-sponsored reforms and infrastructural development.
Indeed, the China factor seemed to have underlined and often undermined the British-sponsored constitutional and administrative reforms, especially impeding the introduction of direct elections and full-scale representative government before 1997. Beijing's own Hong Kong Basic Law drafting process, supposedly a United Front exercise to win support for the power transfer, became a highly divisive and delegitimating experience exposing the illiberal, anti-democratic impulse of the PRC-local leftists-tycoons axis. Sino-British discord, which first emerged in the aftermath of Tiananmen, deteriorated into open hostility since Governor Patten's reversal of colonial appeasement of Beijing in his 1992 electoral proposals. The bilateral non-cooperation led to PRC obstruction of the new airport and container terminal projects as well as the setting up of "a second stove"-the SAR Preliminary Working Committee as a preemptive shadow government. The transition has become a tug of war for power and control of Hong Kong between London, Beijing and the local populace.
This paper will delineate the domestic political forces unleashed by the retrocession and their interactions with the departing colonial regime as sponsor of reform and with the China factor, leading to the climax of the 1989 pro-democracy movement-1991 direct election landslide. The realpolitik of the Basic Law, the post-Tiananmen Sino-British antagonism, and Beijing's aggressive assertion of sovereignty rights over Hong Kong's promised autonomy will be highlighted as the major dynamics shaping the political transformation of Hong Kong in this still unfolding crisis of 1997. This paper will be informed by interviews and exchanges with leading Hong Kong political figures as well as participatory experience with grassroots organs.
Global Changes and Hong Kong's Transition
James T. H. Tang, University of Hong Kong
Hong Kong's political change from a British dependent territory to Special Administrative Region under Chinese sovereignty is taking place at a time when the global environment is undergoing a major transformation. The emerging Post-Cold War international structures, fundamental changes in the world economy, the strengthening of transnational forces, and growing transnational concerns, and the rise of non-governmental international organizations have created a new global agenda. To what extent such widespread changes are affecting Hong Kong's transition? What is the impact of China's "take-over" of the territory for Hong Kong's position as a regional center of commerce, telecommunications and transportation? Will it be a matter of straight forward absorption, with China asserting its influences with little regard to outside concern? In other words, do international forces matter as far as Hong Kong's return to China is concerned? Will China's changing international position and relations with other countries affect the transition process? This paper is an attempt to examine Hong Kong's interactions with China and the global community and to explore whether global forces would shape the course of Hong Kong's transition.
Civil Service Systems in Transition: Hong Kong and China
John P. Burns, University of Hong Kong
The changing environments of Hong Kong and China are having a profound impact on civil service management in the two places. The changing political environment is paramount in Hong Kong while the changing economic environment is most significant in China.
The changing political environment in Hong Kong, the most significant components of which are the impending transfer of sovereignty over the territory and the emergence of more accountable government, are having both short- and long-term consequences. In the short-term, Hong Kong's transition to Chinese rule in 1997 has raised questions about the leadership of the civil service, its political control, political neutrality, and autonomy, and about such management issues as localization, compensation and pensions, and job security, areas that are ambiguously covered by the Basic Law. In the longer term, community-based pressure for more and better quality services and the territory's relatively fragile economic situation have encouraged the government to look for new ways to improve efficiency and accountability .
The changing economic environment in China, driven by the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) "open door policy" and drive to implement a market economy, have encouraged authorities to adopt new more market-oriented management methods for the civil service such as open and competitive recruitment and pay based on market mechanisms. These measures are designed to boost civil service morale and plug the drain of the most talented people into the quasi-private sector of the economy. Implementation of these measures will bring management of the Chinese civil service more in line with the methods used in market economies, such as those found in Hong Kong. Still, the CCP is striving to maintain its strong control over the civil service in the changed economic circumstances. The party is also striving to extend effective political control over the civil service in Hong Kong.
We can, then, speak of the convergence of Chinese and Hong Kong civil service management methods, within the framework of separate jurisdictions. The separate identity of the two services is likely to be undermined, however, by the reach of the CCP, on the one hand, and by the growth of cross-border corruption, on the other. The growing problem of corruption symbolizes an easier accommodation to the integration of China and Hong Kong than is commonly realized.
The paper is based on archival materials and interviews with civil service managers in China and Hong Kong.
Party Politics and Elections in Transitional Hong Kong
Ian Scott, Murdoch University
This paper will be based on a comparative study of the 1991 and 1995 elections in Hong Kong with particular reference to the relationship between elections and the role and development of political parties. It will draw on the results of extensive, face-to-face, survey research with voters in both elections and will seek to analyze changing perceptions and attitudes to political parties and the wider political system.