4454
र्प
hawth.
4.6
END
Analysis brings the inevitable conclusion that Hongkong's owth has been a result of its stability relative to the instability
China in her repeatedly impeded revolution, to which the imperialism that created Hongkong contributed so much. Sun Yat-sen himself regarded the colony as parasitic, and one of his favorite projects was the development of the harbor at Whampoa (in Greater Canton) to cut Hongkong out altogether as an entrepot. A united, stable China, if it does not recover Hongkong itself, will certainly proceed with this project.
The loudest current complaints of Hongkong's British status come from the Chungking element, which, one suspects, is using it as a lightning-rod to divert the attention of young patriots from more pressing internal problems. But all China wants Hongkong back, and it is only a matter of time before China will ask for it. A democratic coalition China devoted to internal reconstruction will be able to do more than make claims and appeals. Politically, it will eleminate the uncertainty that made the Hongkong enclave useful to different contending elements at different times. Economically, as has already been pointed out, there is bound to be a concerted effort to isolate Hongkong from the hinterland altogether unless Chinese sovereignty over it is restored by retrocession.
Qui)
(see T
At the moment, instability is once more the outstanding feature of the Chinese scene, and Hongkong is making a great play to recover on the basis of it. The new civil administration encourages immigrants and has stabilized currency. It is going to great pains to offer facilities for imports, exports, and other commercial enter- prise. The large-scale supply of rice to Hongkong while the surrounding countryside goes hungry and the British bid for control of the great Siamese rice source both have relevance to this picture.(6) The pre-Pearl Harbor situation has been restored in many respects, even to the return of the democratic Chinese publishing activity which now, as then, feels safer away from Kuomintang controls.
Nonetheless it is doubtful whether anyone in the future China will remember Hongkong's comeback with any joy. Even more than elsewhere, colonialism in Hongkong is living on borrowed time.
(6) Cf. Tsiang Ting-fu's protest to UNRRA, already quoted.
For British action on Siamese rice, See Edgar Snow's article in the Saturday Evening Post, January 12, 1946.
ა
nocs d
trèce
Lovie
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.