CONFIDENTIAL #B
13
Experiment demonstrating that China can handle more than
one economic systems
27.
China might have wished to use the SSEZ to
demonstrate that "one country, two systems" is a workable concept. However if there is anything to be learnt from the experience of the SSEZ, it is that this concept is workable only if there is a distinct boundary impeding the free movement of goods and people between the places under the different systems. It is presumably because of this
that the Chinese authorities decided to erect a fenced
frontier to the north of the SSEZ. Drawing from the
experience of the SSEZ, it is important for Hong Kong to maintain a high degree of autonomy and remain as a separate customs territory, as stated in the Sino-British Joint Declaration. This is probably the most important lesson that both China and Hong Kong can learn from the SSEZ experiment.
Resembling Hong Kong and reducing China's dependence on it
28.
One hope seems to be that the SSEZ can be developed to a level comparable to that of Hong Kong. This, it is felt, would greatly facilitate China's political task in regaining sovereignty over llong Kong after 1997. But the gap in terms of economic affluence that exists between Hong Kong and the SSEZ is very large. In 1984, Hong Kong's per capita GDP is estimated to have been US$5,900; about the same as that of Singapore and surpassed clearly in East Asia only by Japan. While comparable per capita GDP data are not available for the SSEZ, a very rough estimate suggests that Hong Kong's per capita GDP may be as much as ten times higher than that of
INGIDENTIAL
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