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Question:
[24 FEBRUARY 1981 |
unl there is an early decision there will be a re- fuction of foreign investments into Hong Kong and there will be an outflow from Hong Kong of capital and expertise.
I want to look for a moment at the alternatives when a decision is reached. Is it to be a reversion to China of Hong Kong? If so, there will be immense problems of economic transference in handing over the great businesses in Hong Kong to a Communist régime where control would be so different. And there will be not merely the problems of the economic conditions but of the population. A large part of the population would not wish to pass into Communist China. A very large proportion of the population are British citizens with British passports. Where are they to go? These are problems on which we want the greatest investigation, consideration and advice.
The second alternative is that British occupation of Hong Kong should be maintained. When we con- sider that, we have to appreciate that China does not recognise Hong Kong as a British colony. It is their view that it is an integral part of China and that it will be taken back when the time is ripe ". I appreciate that recently there has been a statement from Peking that Britain and China, "must maintain the status quo to their mutual benefit". Clearly Hong Kong under its present administration is advantageous to China; first, because many external relations are conducted through Hong Kong and, secondly, because it is the means of acquiring foreign exchange with which to purchase goods.
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But I want to ask this: if Britain is to maintain its occupation of Hong Kong does status quo used by the Chinese mean that the present régime in Hong Kong is to be maintained? I want to suggest that the closest possible inquiry should be made to discover whether that is possible and whether it is desirable. Because of our relations with China, in Hong Kong there is no democratic self-government. If it had been a normal colony, its people would have had self-governing independence 20 years ago. But because of the relationship to China and the undemo- cratic system that there is in China conditions in Hong Kong deny the very beginnings of democratic self-government.
Let us just look at the administration. At the top there is a Governor with a legislative council and executive, and with advisory committees to make recommendations. Not one member of those bodies is an elected person; they are either civil servants or nominees of the Government, and perhaps it is inevit- able that in Hong Kong the nominees should be a privileged élite--businessmen and landlords--and that in the advisory committee they should be lawyers and professionals. It is impossible to describe the gulf between those who are responsible for the admin- istration of Hong Kong and the people themselves. All of those in the legislative council and the advisory committees are supporters of the Administration. No critics are permitted to enter them. There is nothing of the kind of democratic discussion which there is in the parliaments of democratic countries.
Below that top level is the urban council with 12 elected and 12 nominated persons. The franchise is ridiculously small, representing only 10 per cent. of the population, and the jurisdiction of the urban council is no greater than that of a parish council in
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this country. It is limited to recreation and culture and to very restricted aspects of health. I recognise there is now a proposal for district boards with a wider franchise. That will allow a marginal unofficial majority after 1982, the first occasion when there will ever have been an unofficial majority on any admin- istrative body. But that recognised, the whole structure of Hong Kong denies democracy in the determination of the status and conditions of life of the people.
Inevitably there has grown up in Hong Kong a large number of pressure groups demanding change; there are community associations, professional organisations, Christian committees, conservation associations and students' unions. The present Government of Hong Kong have just had an inquiry made by the Standing Committee on Pressure Groups. I have asked the noble Lord, Lord Trefgarne, for a copy of its report, but he has courteously replied that it is not possible. for me to see it because it is classified. Nevertheless it has been leaked and I have seen its contents, and large extracts have been published in this country in the New Statesman and in many papers in Hong Kong.
The report denounces the leading pressure groups, including the Hong Kong Christian Industrial Commit- tec, and calls for Government action, expressing fear of Communist infiltration ", a phrase which amuses me when Hong Kong is so much dependent on Com- munist China. It suggests that there is not only an absence of democracy in the Administration but an actual discouragement of democratic expression by the people. That is the heart of the problem-the gulf between the Administration and the people-and the Administration is manned by a distant privileged élite with no contact with the masses of the people. The people live in a different world. That applies not only to the governmental administration but to the judiciary. Hence we have the helplessness of so many of the bewildered people who are charged, and I have had particulars of many cases.
So much for the Administration. The political conditions are paralleled by the social conditions; the crowded conditions of this restricted island, made more difficult by the illegal immigrants from China and the boat people from Vietnam, mean great prób lems. There has been a very ambitious housing programme, with tall buildings in which thousands have been housed. I recognise that, but I am receiving reports of serious, sometimes inhuman, overcrowding in the small rooms of those great mansions, and there is now widespread recourse to ramshackle huts and squatters groups are growing.
The Government, to raise revenue, are now selling land at thousands of dollars per square foot, leading' to the eviction of people from their homes and small businesses. Speculators are buying and rents are increasing, so that neither people in their homes nor small businesses can possibly afford them. Taxation is low for the higher income brackets; but the salaries tax begins at a low level, so that even married labourers have to pay tax. There are no unemployment benefits, although the number of unemployed is growing and is now estimated at 200,000. Labour laws in Hong Kong have lagged behind international standards for 30 years, and even when laws are passed the departments lack the personnel to enforce them; the prohibition of child labour and safety regulations in industry and
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