3.3.
3.4.
3.5.
extent of social mobility; the self-select character of the immigrant-settlers; the high standard of living; the exposure to foreign influence; the rapidity of social change and its political and economic dependence. Its borrowed time, borrowed place' character, grossly magnified by the 1997 malaise, can in fact stand alone to differentiate Hong Kong sharply from China. The high degree of societal autonomy from the state and the more or less spontaneous development of society,are also an experience which modern China has yet to undergo.
Forfeiting this character, even with its negative side, would be a human tragedy. More specifically, if this came about as a result of wrongful PRC interference, I believe that it could legitimately be taken to indicate that China's own reform policy will not work.
In his speech to the Legislative Council in October 1990, the Governor said: -
"The extensive autonomy in many fields which Hong Kong
now enjoys is of long standing. Its continuation after 1997 is guaranteed in the Joint Declaration and provided
for in the Basic Law."
11
But is extensive autonomy actually "guaranteed"? Surely, the Joint Declaration is a 'guarantee" only if it can operate in practice as such. Thus, the efficacy of that guarantee cannot be "talked up" higher than it really is: And if it is deficient in some way, there is need to see how it can be bolstered lawfully. The effort has to be a practical one; if it is rhetorical, it simply won't work.
And it may be seen as pulling the wool over people's eyes.
4
The Governor said in his speech to Legco in October that "This will be the decade of greater freedom of choice". But will it? And whose? Positive attitudes towards autonomy can develop fully only if there is sufficient space within which people can exercise their own autonomy on a continuing basis. Making space available, and holding back encroachments on it, is the function of the law, including the Basic Law, and of administrative practice. Before law and administrative practice can offer effective protection, however, the practice of governance needs to allow two things: (1) sufficient openness in the system of government so people know what is happening: and (2) ways to ensure that the exercise of governmental decision-taking is susceptible to legal challenge and representative scrutiny wherever possible.
In
Reasonable people may differ on whether my prerequisites are apt. themselves, they are not controversial. Sir David Ford has written: -
"[The] indispensable foundation for [Hong Kong's] success has been