Commentary: Reflections on the Passing of Hong Kong to China

home / today's asian business strategy ezine / columns / asian business code words index (culture & etiquette in Japan, China, Korea) /

A monthly column from the Asia Pacific Management Forum

Reflections of the Passing of Hong Kong to China July 1997

commentary by Boye Lafayette de Mente

I was disappointed and disturbed by the advance media coverage of the return of Hong Kong to China; particularly by the media in the United States. It seemed to me that the correspondents, reporters and pundits all behaved like talk show hosts trying to use up their allocated time when they actually had nothing to say.
At best, most of the reporting and commentary only touched the surface of some of the more important issues, such as: Will China proper manage to keep Hong Kong isolated from the rest of the country?
If China is unable to contain Hong Kong in relative isolation, the former British colony could become the tail that wags China.
Nothing is so deadly to authoritarianism and the oppressive use of power as unrestricted communication and knowledge—things that are the foundation of Hong Kong's remarkable economy, and without which it would shrivel up and die.
The story now, I believe, is how rapidly China can continue its metamorphosis from a closed Communist state to an open, capitalistic society, and, in fact, become more like Hong Kong.
This process is well underway in the regions adjoining Hong Kong, but will the masters of the Communist Party in Beijing allow the rest of the people to change rapidly enough to meet their growing expectations? If not, China is in for more turbulent times.
I believe that the best thing that the people of Hong Kong can do to preserve and build on their precious freedoms and affluence is to do everything possible to see that every student, every teacher, every shop-keeper, every business person and every government official in China proper is connected to the outside world by computer and the Internet.
Boye Lafayette De Mente

Asian Business Code Words Index | Asia Pacific Management Forum | NTC/Contemporary Publishing Company |
© Boye Lafayette De Mente and the Asia Pacific Management Forum 1997