published by: China News Digest, Thursday, December 28, 1995

Hong Kong Under Pessimistic Mood

Written by: Keith Richburg

Source: Washington Post, December 26, 1995

Forwarded by: Daluo JIA

Adapted by: Jieru Chen

HONG KONG -- The prison sentence given to Wei Jingsheng, coupled with an earlier statement from a senior official questioning Hong Kong's social welfare spending, cast a gloomy shadow over the colony, as it was largely viewed as a warning - change is under way as the 1997 turnover is approaching.

People in Hong Kong are more worried than ever about preserving their freedoms and autonomy promised by Chinese government after the turnover. "The mood is quite gloomy here at the moment," said a Hong Kong official, "there's no sign of this feel-bad mood abating." Even Hong Kong's pro-Beijing officials indicate they are growing less optimistic about the future. "I see perhaps more problems, and the problems being more serious for this final 18 months than perhaps I had expected before," said Tsang Yok-sing, head of Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong, a pro-Beijing political party. "It's going to be a tough year." Hong Kong's immigration bureau has seen more people than ever applying for immigrant visas to Canada.

The Chinese government adopted different approaches, alternating between reassuring words and signs of tightened control in everything from the bill of rights to land reclamation to rate of social welfare spending. The most worrisome signs have come from China's "advisers" who have concluded a task of recommending to Beijing what local laws should be changed during the turnover.

The proposal for changing Hong Kong's bill of rights and invalidating it as the overriding law in the colony was immediately endorsed by the Beijing officials. Also included in the list are laws to grant Hong Kong government to suspend a broadcaster's licence and police to have more control over public gatherings.

The furor was not just over the bill of rights. Christopher Patten, the British colonial governor in Hong Kong, criticized the meddling of welfare spending as an example of attempts by China to 'interfere in Hong Kong's internal affairs before the transfer of power.'

Some Hong Kong officials suggested Beijing leaders have received quiet encouragement to interfere from pro-China businessmen whose economic interests are at stake. One example is to slow local government approval of land reclamation projects. The Chinese government does not seem to care about that. "They'are taking their advice from Hong Kong plutocrats who are either anti-welfare or want to suck up to China," legislator Martin Lee said. "In a sense, the danger is within. Hong Kong people now go to Beijing and invite them to interfere to their own advantage."

China has promised to name the chief executive by the fall of next year, and the choice is expeted to erase much of the confusion about Beijing's long- term intentions. "If they appoint a decent person who has the interests of Hong Kong at heart, and if they allow that person to have the same team of civil servants, we will have a figure who represents the future," said one Hong Kong official.