MAR 28 '89 13:45 HK GOVT. SF
Kerrie MacPherson, The University of Hong Kong
Ms. MacPherson gabbled her way through a speech that As a result was obviously much too long for the time allowed.
Her
it was almost impossible to work out what she was saying. main point appeared to be that in considering how they should treat, and run Hong Kong, the PRC would refer to their own history and experience of municipal government, and that Shanghai appeared to be the most likely model.
Graham Johnson, University of British Columbia
1. Draw attention to personal nature of other contributions.
2. Said that the main task was to assess Hong Kong's chances
of continuing in the way apparently provided for in the Joint Declaration.
3. Summarised attitudes of the others, the lack of trust of the PRC of the political scientists, the lawyer's wariness of the legal provisions in the BL, and historian suggesting that the Shanghai precedent might affect developments.
4. Suggested that it was necessary to question the assumptions
of the others.
5. Referred to the experience of the last 10 years in S. China,
and suggested that one should also take into account developments there, Hong Kong's signficance to China's modernisation, which would give it clout in economic and political terms, the emergence of an economically powerful Cantonese heartland in Kwongtung and the strengthening of the border between Shenzhew SEZ and the rest of China,
6. Said that he was less pessimistic than the others, although
there are problems, and suggested that Hong Kong's future should be seen more in the context of the region as a whole.
Points from the floor
1. How to relate developments over the border to Hong Kong's
prospects?
2. T.L. Tsim raised the possibility of a swing left again in
China, and suggested that the PRC is in fact zig-zagging its way towards an unchanging socialist objective.
3. John Young mentioned the fear of communism acquired by at
least some Hong Kong people from visits to the mainland, asked how to react when it appeared that promises were not being kept, and stressed the need to maintain Hong Kong as a free society.
4. It was suggested from the floor that a command political system
is what people fear.