THE LA OUR PARTY
PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL
HO
KONG
INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT
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INTRODUCTION
Hong-Kong is the world's most important and powerful colony.
It is one
of the top twenty world's trading nations, With a population of over 4 million By 1968 it provided 21% of all manufactured people, it exports more than India. exports from the "developing" countries to the industrialised world; this was more than double the next country (India) and was equal to that for Mexico, S.
It is debatable whether Hong- Korea, Brazil, Argentina and Pakistan combined.
Kong can rightly be classified as a 'developing economy' 'in terms of its
Before its collapse in late 1973 the Hong- structural and sectional balance. Kong Stock Exchange experienced the third largest turnover in the world, and equalled those of W. Germany, France, Italy, Belgium and Holland combined.
But Last year Hong-Kong had the third highest GNP per capita in Asia.
The wealth of Hong-Kong is built on exploited this was extremely.maldistributed. ' cheap labour. Trade union rights are limited and political parties are banned. Whilst the Government has ensured the bare minimum social provisions to ensure the continuation of a workforce in the colony, it has and continues to act on the side of big business, which exercises economic and political power in Hong-Kong. Thus there is no minimum wage, no paid maternity leave, no limit on hours of work for males over 18, no pensions, no insurance provisions for widows with young children and no guaranteed free medical aid.
POLITICAL BACKGROUND
(a) History:
in
The present-day colony was acquired/three stages from China in the 19th century: i) The Island of Hong-Kong was acquired in perpetuity in 1842 afterthe 1st Opium War. ii) The Kowloon peninsula was granted in 1860 after British forces invaded Peking. iii) The New Territories were given in 1898 on
The lease terminates at the end of 1997. lease after the Sino-Japanese War.
New Territories comprise 370.5 of Hong-Kong's 403.8 square miles.
The
China maintains that this was imperial plunder granted by Unequal Treaties and has not recognised their validity.
The colony was not as important as Shanghai for British business until after 1945. The Japanese invasion, the Civil War and/6sequent Communist regime
Some of these 'refugees' were have all increased Hong-Kong's refugee problem. quite wealthy and transferred their assets from Shanghai and Canton to Hong-Kong in the late 1940's.
(b) Administrativa and Legal: Government; it appoints, the Governor, Secretary and major Civil Servants.
Formal power resides with the British the Colonial Secretary, the Financial The Governor has an Executive Council (Exco)
Exco consists of the Governor, Legco has the Governor, 12 appointees are almost exclusively
The Councils represent on
and a Legislative Council (Legco) to advise him. six officials and nine non-appointed officials. officials and 12 appointed non-officials.
The
from the business, legal and commercial circles. effective synthesis between an expatriate colonial regime and a local bourgeoisie (both Chinese and European). These Councils reflect where real power lies in
One local saying has it that "Hong-Kong Hong-Kong 1.e. in the business world.
Jardine Matheson and the Governor
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is run by the Jockey Club, the Hong-Kong Dank,
in that order."
The only semi-elected body in the colony is the local Urban Council. Since
34,000 1973 it has a very limited franchise to elect 12 of its 24 members. people are entitled to vote and at the last election 8,673 people voted out of on adult population of over 2 million. Its powers are very limited and even those concerned with housing and car park maintenance, have been recently removed.
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