Hong Kong defies both fact and logic...

Press, 29 July 1977, Page 13

Hong Kong defies both fact and logic...

By

DENNIS BLOODWORTH,

“Observer,” London

It is a fact that Britain's 99-year lease on the New Territories of Hong Kong will expire in only two more decades. It is a logical development that Peking should reclaim most of the 404 square miles that make up this colonial anomallv.

But the roar end dust in the streets as machines rip out the stony heart of Hong Kong for an ambitious new underground railway seem to express defiance of both the fact and the logic. The multi-million-dollar mass rapid transport system is the immediate eyecatcher, but the entire enclave is undergoing costly cosmetic surgery. A road tunnel is to be

driven under the Peak that dominates Hong Kong island to link up with the cross-harbour tunnel. A mile-long bridge has been mooted to join the mainland to the archipelago’s biggest island. Lantau, where a second international airport may be built. Highways are being cut through the obstinate rock of the New Territories, new railway lines are being laid, mountains levelled, bays filled in, and new satellite towns raised to rehouse hundreds of thousands. Are these just the last flings of the forlorn? To the Chinese leaders, the treaties whereby Britain acquired Hong Kong were imposed under

duress; they have no validity and they are not even listed among the official international accords that China recognises. In principle, therefore, the Chinese can demand the surrender of the

entire enclave at any time, not just part of it in 1997. But the Chinese have declared that the question should be settled only “when conditions are ripe.” Uneasy capitalists may look for a quick return within five years on any investment they risk today, but in order not to

frighten these money-spin-ners in Hong Kong further, the Communists have already refused an offer from Lisbon to hand back to China the neighbouring Portuguese enclave of Macao.

The Communists and the Hong Kong administration have settled down to a more relaxed and permissive relationship since the ideologically prudish “Gang of Four,” led by the radical Madame Mao, fell into disgrace in China. The regime of Chairman Hua Kuo-feng has quietly subordinated revolutionary

prejudices to a pragmatic programme for the longterm development of the People’s Republic into a major modern state. As the more sanguine Hong Kong officials point out, that not only augurs

greater political stability across the border, but also means that for an indefinite period China will badly need the £1 billion ($1.7 billion) — up to 40 per cent of Peking’s annual foreign exchange earnings — that it makes out of the free-for-all British market-place. The Chinese themselves

have meanwhile become major investors and entrepreneurs in Hong Kong, where their interests include 13 banks and the control of companies whose projects range from shipbuilding and machine-tool-making to marketing Chinese petrol, paintings, or pianos. However, it is hard to believe at times that this prodigal “pearl of the orient” so beloved of tourists is not — even now — a painful pinch of grit to the close, proletarian Chinese oyster. In China, rice and cooking oil are rationed, for example; in Hong Kong, one reads of “a glorious-sounding repast” which began with foie de canard au poivre

vert flown in direct from Perigord. Admittedly, the first applies to 900 million people, the second refers to 24 privileged diners; nevertheless, values are totally different — even when they comically reflect each other, as if in a distorting mirror.

In c 1 a s s-conscious China, men scan the pictorial magazines carefully for indications as to who is on the way up in “The Party” and who is on the way down. In what order do the captions to the group photographs list the personalities? Have any of their titles been dropped? Who is on the right and who is on the left of the Chairman? Whose photo has been touched up,

whose is unflattering, and whose has been cut out altogether? In post-Mao reproductions of pictures taken when Mao still lived, for instance, the notorious "Gang of Four” have been ingeniously excised and the gap they have left has been neatly closed; they are now non-persons.

In class-conscious Hong Kong, the Hong Kong

“Tatler,” like its counterpart in London, is also concerned with life at the top and — above all — good, reliable party men: men to be seen at this cocktail party, that champagne party, the other “romantic party,” and even “a super party.” — O.F.N.S. Copyright.