8.
Evening Standard
ZEB 1957
AMONG THE
CHINA WATCHERS
A THOUSAND
THEORIES
HONGKONG, Tuesday.
H
ONG KONG, with its Chinese capitalist popu- lation of four million, an annual econo- mic growth rate of nine
and per cent,
booming business confidence despite the activities of the Red Guards next door, is now Britain's largest, richest, and last
loyal colony. There are signs that we have finally begun to realise its importance.
In the 120 years up to 1966, only one British Secre- tary of State ever came to Hongkong, and visits from backbench MPs. Journalists, and leading London business-
MADAME MAO:
Is she to blame?
BLOOM
men were rare events indeed. Yet in the last six months, the island has played host to 18 MPs, two Secretaries of State, and innumerable other visiting firemen
This week alone, VIP guests Included Princess Alexandra and Mr. Angus Ogilvy, Mr. Anthony Royle, MP, Mr. Charles Fletcher- Cooke, MP. Lord Shawcross, Field Marshal Sir Gerald Templer, Mr. Tony Hancock and Mr. Godfrey Winn, with the Commonwealth Secretary, Mr. Herbert Bowden, expected in the next few days.
The Interesting clandestine business that is currently flourishing in Hongkong China-watching.
18
The island is stiff with foreign diplomats and academic experts who spend their time monitoring Peking Radio broadcasts, study- ing
Communist newspapers, interviewing refugees. and generally sparing no efforts to
ོ མ ཤ བཞ?
པའི
Plse make this Jule wyn
and
decipher
events behind the Yellow Curtain.
The majority of China watchers, or sinologists as some of them like to be called, are, of course, the Americans. Despite the State Department's endeavours to have its Hong- kong activities conducted with discretion. the U.S. China watchers (estimated at 800) are the subject of endless jokes by the residents.
For example, on a recent TV quiz programme a contestant was played a recording of what sounded like a herd of buffaloes thundering over corrugated iron and asked to guess what the noise resembled.
Reply: "The tramp of the American vice-consuls walking to work in the morning."
Elaborate
There was some truth in the jest since the vast U.S. Consul- ate here does indeed loom larger than life size, and is comparable to a Californian jail with its barred windows, gaunt white- washed walls, all-night illumina- tions and armed-guard patrols. Moreover at almost every Hong- kong dinner party stories abound of commercial firms that are really fronts for the CIA, of huge electronic radio instal lations in the U.S. Information Service building, of elaborate underground filing and cross- reference systems in the consul- ate, and of large bribes paid to border infiltrators in return for information.
All this activity, which is duplicated on a smaller scale by several other foreign govern- ments and individuals, should at least be providing a coherent and informed picture of current events in China.
Not so. In an effort to give readers of the Evening Standard a close-to-the-spot report on the cultural revolution. I spent a lot of time last week talking to sino- logists froin America, India, Canada, Japan and Britain, and I can confidently report that the alleged splits in China are not to the split among du.
bi.cz
EVENING STANDARD. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 28 1907-7
After four days of picking the brains of high-powered international sinologists I can only conclude that if this is the outside world's listening post for China,
then the outside world might
just as well be deaf..
---JONATHAN AITKEN reports from Hongkong
pretation of events over the border was too fanciful or way out to lack the support of some experts.
"Mao nas won," "Mao has lost." The revolution is just be- ginning," The revolution was over last August," "The Red
Guards have united China's youth," "The Red Guards are almost irrelevant." "The struggle is one of national ideo- logies with world-wide ramifica- tions." It is a power struggle confined to the central council," "It was caused by economic dis- content," and "Madame Mao's menopause is the real root of it," were just a few of the con- flicting remarks of the oracles.
Perceptive
After four days of picking the brains of high-powered international sinologists I can only conclude that if Hongkong is the outside world's listening post for China, then the outside world might just as well be deaf.
The truth is that no one has substantial accurate knowledge of the causes, the course, or the effects of the cultural revolution. Indeed. the most perceptive of the China watchers are the first to admit this. Unanimity among my informants was achleved only on the following points:
-Most of the Red Guards are young and few of them wash.
2-China is in for several years
of economic troubles even if the disturbances stop imme- diately.
pek.
3-Mao Tse-tung can't control his supporters, let alone his opponents.
-The cause of China 4
has been seriously damaged throughout Asia.
Communism
5 down badly in Peking and Public services have broken
the city smells terribly.
As for the disagreements on virtually all other aspects of the revolution, one eminent sinologist has taken to handing out printed cards bearing the words: China Watchers of the World Unite-How else can we protect our jobs 7": while another, in more serious vein, observed: The China watchers here who speak the best dialects, write the best Mandarin, and have the deepest understanding of the Chinese character, have only one advantage.
"They know how little they really know."
in
There is one group of people the colony, however, who know enough about China to be decisive about their own per- sonal futures in Peking's orbit. They are the educated Hong- kong Chinese. who in increasing numbers are voting against Mao Tse-tung with their feet.
Last year 11,000 of them emi- grated to the United States, 10,000 to Canada and about 5000 to other countries.
Yet although some of the clever Chinese may be searching for exit routes, their loss is being off- set by the influx of exceptionally good young British businessmen.
or
Into the local merchant bank, the property companies and the great trading combines like Jar- dine Matheson Butterfield and Swire, is flowing from Britain a steady trickle of bright university graduates and ener- getic junior executives.
Having interviewed, wined and dined with a good many of them over the last few days, I reckon that an
average cross- section of the young commercial community here would knock spots off an equivalent sample from the City of London in terms of professionalism and dedication.
Perhaps because there is political risk attached to Hong- kong's future, the opportunities for aggressive capitalism are plentiful.
Bustling
a
For example, property deve- lopments in Hongkong make a steady 25 per cent on the origi- nal investment. Bustling stock- broking offices carry out exten- sive dealings for their clients on the International Exchanges of the world without capital gains. It all adds up to a healthy boom, with these new commer- cial colonials as its creators.
Obviously the glit could crumble away overnight if China threatens a take-over bid.
However, since Hongkong 1s Peking's primary source of foreign earnings (at present to the tune of £200 million a year) there will be no menacing moves from over the border for many years to come.
4631
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