aries. Three of the surviving five battalions of so-called Gurkhas were stationed in Hong Kong, as of 1973 (the other two being deployed in not dissimilar roles prop- ping up, respectively, the Sultan of Brunei and the dictator of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew).34 Little attempt has been made to conceal the fact that the 'Gurkhas' are stationed in Hong Kong to fight any rearguard holding operation in case of Chinese moves to terminate British rule. These impoverished Nepalese peasants are the key elements in Britain's strategy of "making Asians fight Asians" - to protect the interests of the bourgeoisie. It goes without saying that the Colony is indefensible militarily, and there is no evidence that either London or the Hong Kong Govern- ment seriously expects to be able to hold it. What is involved is simply a brief delaying operation while the Europeans and a few wealthy right-wing Chinese make their escape. But even this scenario is considered highly unlikely by most observers. The main role of the military is to appear "credible" - for a basically incredible purpose; while in fact hovering menacingly over the Colony's population.
The Economy
Hong Kong is one of the world's top 20 trading "nations". With little over 4 mil- lion inhabitants, it exports more than India, which has 140 times its population. In per capita terms, it is among the top ten traders in the world. The percentage of the total active population involved in manufacturing is the highest in the world, and the contribution of manufacturing output to gross domestic product places Hong Kong as no.2 in the world, behind only West Germany. Clearly one is dealing with an economy of major importance on a world scale.
But Hong Kong is not an independent territory. It is a colony of the United Kingdom. Its economy has not been run in the interests of the local inhabitants. Rather, Britain has exploited Hong Kong as a detached component of the UK. By denying basic political and social rights to the population of the Colony, London has actively overseen the maintenance of those conditions which would allow for high rates of exploitation, high levels of capital accumulation, and high profits. In return for providing the essential political cover for this operation, London was rewarded with a sizeable percentage of the profits from the whole operation. This sum was largely used to prop up the pound. Hong Kong, of course, had other uses for the British ruling class: it was an escape route for hot money from the ailing metropolis; it has also been a centre for British (and other) transnational opera- tions in Southeast Asia; and a key link in world-wide imperial activities, such as the banking-shipping-oil nexus detailed below.
A transferred economy
Whereas up until the Second World War Hong Kong functioned largely as an entrepôt, living off trading, banking, shipping and suchlike, after the War, and
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