CBQ, Inc. (China Business Quotient) (fka CBQI)

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Hong Kong and China

One country, how many systems?
Aug 2nd 2001 / HONG KONG
From The Economist print edition

Relations between Beijing and Hong Kong are being tested

http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?Story_id=719594

At least justice is colour-blind

EVEN as Li Shaomin flew into Hong Kong from America this week, senior officials in the territory were still agonising over whether they should let him in. Less than a week earlier, Mr Li had been convicted by a court in China of spying for Taiwan and had been deported to the United States, of which he is a citizen. His arrival in Hong Kong, where he lives, was being touted by Hong Kong's media as one of the biggest tests since the end of British rule in 1997 of the “one country, two systems” principle by which the territory is now ruled.

Mr Li was eventually allowed to enter, after being detained for some five hours at the airport. It appeared to have been a close call. Could a man deported for spying return to the territory of the country whose secrets he had allegedly tried to steal? Some of China's supporters in Hong Kong, including newspapers loosely under Beijing's control, argued that Mr Li should not be allowed to return to the territory, where he works as an associate professor. Hong Kong and the mainland may have different legal systems, they said, but the “one country” idea should prevail in matters relating to state security.

Hong Kong officials insist they were not under any pressure from Beijing. But a senior civil servant who asked to remain anonymous admitted it was “a highly sensitive issue”. Ever indecisive, Hong Kong's chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa, apparently waited until Mr Li was on the ground before making up his mind.

It is possible that despite the concerns of his officials and the protestations of some pro-Beijing figures, Mr Tung sensed that China would not seriously object to the academic's return. Mr Li's conviction and deportation from China, after all, could well have been as much if not more to do with diplomatic manoeuvring between China and the United States as with any perceived threat to national security. No one has publicly suggested that Mr Li had anything more than “internal” publications about Taiwan of a kind commonly circulating among Chinese scholars.



“One country, two systems” has been through some trying times lately


But even if so, “one country, two systems” has been through trying times lately. Ten days before Mr Li's return, a ruling by Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal in effect granted right of abode in the territory to more than 2,200 children born in Hong Kong to parents from the mainland. China was incensed. A Chinese spokesman said the ruling appeared to go against a judgment on the right of abode made by the National People's Congress in 1999. Both China and the Hong Kong government are fearful that any easing of residency restrictions might unleash a potentially destabilising flood of immigrants into the territory.

Many in Hong Kong and abroad had attacked the 1999 judgment as a breach of Hong Kong's promised “high degree of autonomy” under Chinese rule. This time there were again concerns that the Hong Kong government would invite the NPC to overrule the Court of Final Appeal. But Mr Tung held his ground in the face of Beijing's mutterings. Again, as with the case of Mr Li, he probably calculated that Beijing would in the end understand the need to avoid causing further damage to Hong Kong's image. Hong Kong recently launched a campaign to promote itself as “Asia's world city” to ensure that investment continues flowing into its struggling economy. Image matters to Mr Tung.

One recent tactical error was his government's decision to propose legislation–eventually passed on July 11th after furious debate in the legislature—which included a clause saying that China had the power to sack Hong Kong's chief executive; this had been unclear before. Pro-democracy politicians accused Mr Tung of eroding Hong Kong's autonomy. Hackles were also raised by Mr Tung's harsh description of the Falun Gong spiritual movement as an “evil cult” and his decision to order officials to study anti-cult laws in other countries. But officials privately suggest this is little more than ritualistic denunciation aimed at easing Beijing's paranoia. “We are dealing with the Falun Gong by not dealing with the Falun Gong,” Hong Kong's top civil servant, Donald Tsang, remarked in June.

Even Martin Lee, the leader of Hong Kong's Democratic Party and one of the government's most strident critics, admits that despite the occasional setback Hong Kong enjoys much the same freedoms that it did under the British. He puts this down not to Mr Tung's skills but to what he says is the Chinese leadership's sense of self-confidence. “What if they don't feel confident any more?” he says. “We are at the mercy of Beijing through the chief puppet [Mr Tung]. That is the worrying thing”.