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Crime flourishes in Hong-Kong both outside and inside the police force, An estimated 25,000 girls are engaged in prostitution,
Violent crime rose by 135% in 1968-72 and there are now .an officially estimated 80,000 triad gang members in Hong-Kong. The colony probably' has the worst hard drugs problem in the world, with an unofficially estimated 300,000 heroin addicts, i.e. 7% of the population, If this estimate is anything approaching the truth, it is preventable as Macao has only one-fifth of this level.
A
The British and Colonial governments have in the past used the average income level to answer criticisms of the living conditions in Hong-Kong. number of factors should also perhaps be borne in mind:
(1) Where there are poor social services, income is not necessarily
an accurate guide to the standard of living.
(11) Average income disguises great inequality, and the government
refuses to release statistics on income levels,
The
(iii) Little attention is paid to the very poor in Hong-Kong.
working population is looked after to the extent that they will remain "economically active.
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(iv) Past experience does not show a willingness to use government
surpluses for fundamental improvements in social conditions.
HONG-KONG, CHINA AND THE U.K.
It has been
There has been
The Chinese
Britain has retained Hong-Kong for three main reasons. highly profitable for British business and the British economy. no mass movement in the colony demanding an end to British rule. Government further claims that Hong-Kong is not properly a colony with the possibility of separate independence, but is an occupied area of China,
Hong-Kong now has an estimated £350-400m. in sterling balances in Britain. This is under half of what was held in 1972. Hong-Kong now only has to keep under 50% of its reserves in London; until recently it was 89%. Speculative money has also been able to leave London for the colony, and this was a possible factor in the 1967 devaluation. Hong-Kong's advantages have been a lack of exchange restrictions, a chance to speculate on the Macao gold market, for very high profits and very low taxation rates,
investment
The normal logic of imperialism, i.e, of a local bourgeoisie or nation- alist movement arising to' declare independence, has been thwarted because of China's position. China refuses to recognise the unequal treaties but it is unclear at present whether China will nevertheless claim the New Territories back, when the lease terminates at the end of 1997. On 8th March 1972, China reaffirmed its position to the UN Decolonisation Committee stating that Hong-Kong was not a colony awaiting independence but was a matter for China to settle; the UN Committee promptly took Hong-Kong off its list of colonial territories. Britain has never accepted the Chinese position, but in 1972 merely removed the word 'colony' from all official documents. China has said it would settle the issue "when conditions are ripe". (undefined). At present it probably has a lower priority than Taiwan or Macao. Hong-Kong, like Macao, recently sent delegates to the Chinese National People's Congress.
The Chinese position on Hong-Kong is based both on political and economic factors. China owns 17% of banking deposits in Hong-Kong, and before the Nixon- Mao initiative, long-Kong accounted for 40-50% of all China's foreign exchange. Although of economic use to China, Hong-Kong is probably not essential to China in economic terms, especially since the recent bilateral arrangements made with industrialised countries.
BRITISH GOVERNMENT POLICY.
Until recently successive British pavetoments live made no maven to being
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