Hong Kong struggles for identity
As it prepares to return to Chinese rule after 150 years, Hong Kong struggles for a sense of identity.
Last weekend, an obscure press release was issued from China that went virtually unnoticed by the U.S. media.
And understandably so, given its turgid headline: "High-Speed Direct Internet Backbone Connecting Hong Kong and
Guangzhou."
But to those familiar with China's historic repatriation of Hong Kong, which officially begins Tuesday, the seemingly innocuous statement represents the future for the British territory. The Information Highway is pointing clearly in one direction--to the mainland.
Once the crown jewel of Western colonialism and a symbol of capitalistic values, Hong Kong is undergoing a crisis of identity. Despite official government and corporate statements that little will change around the Kowloon Peninsula in the near future, Hong Kong is struggling to stay relevant in the new world order.
"I am not so much concerned about what the Chinese government will do. I believe that business will go on as usual," Lee Kheng Joo, chief operating officer of Hong Kong ISP Supernet, said in an interview at the "Wired into Asia" conference earlier this year in San Jose, California. "What I am more concerned about is how the rest of the world will treat Hong Kong. For example, in the area of encryption, now that Hong Kong is part of China, I don't think the U.S. government will allow encryption to be ever sold to Hong Kong."
His concern is justified. Many in Hong Kong are looking increasingly toward high technology as a key to its successful reincarnation. Just as it has done with the textile industry, Hong Kong is trying to establish itself as a crucial player in China's technology plans to maintain its economic and social importance.
Hong Kong is banking on its expertise in financial services and its long-standing contacts with the West even after the transition. The territory will become a "special administrative region," a designation that will ostensibly allow Hong Kong to remain relatively independent of the mainland both economically and politically.
Yet such assurances are by no means certain in the post-Tiananmen Square era. And despite its political inclinations, Hong Kong cannot afford to stay too distant from China because of the mainland's economic strength.
      980K Supernet's Lee Kheng Joo on Hong Kong's future at the "Wired into Asia" conference. (February 20, 1997) |
Analysts, academics, and politicians in the United States have offered dire predictions of loss of civil liberties resulting from the sovereign transition--and, where the Internet is concerned, severe restrictions on what can and cannot be seen and sent. But just as many argue that China will dare not tamper excessively with Hong Kong for fear of undermining its own economic value.
"Overall, I think the Hong Kong-China reunion will be the economic equivalent to 1 + 1 = 3," said Gordon Bennett, director of the Asia Pacific Research Group. "While the world is focusing on the historical and political events of July 1, this giant economic embryo called China will have just acquired one of most functional, efficient, business capitals in history--Hong Kong. Make no mistake, China will be a superpower equivalent or greater than the United States in the not-so-distant future."
Interestingly enough, however, Hong Kong has found itself in the very position that it is trying to help U.S. companies avoid: that of an outsider. China is taking a decidedly free-market approach toward Hong Kong, putting it in direct competition with Shanghai for attention and resources as it continues to experiment with capitalistic economic models.
"Shanghai has been designated by the Chinese government to rival Hong Kong," said Brian Larsen, international trade specialist at the Commerce Department. "Will the squabbling and competition serve to weaken the basic foundation of the economy? Each may nibble away a different piece to get the best deal." 