When the economy is in a mess, it will be even harder for Hong Kong to bargain with Beijing for greater autonomy through drafting the Basic Law.
The over-reaction in support of the Beijing student movement have also posed some dangers. To solicit donations for a democracy fund, a certain organization intended to call upon depositors of China-funded banks to withdraw ten dollars each from their accounts and deposit the same in the "Democracy Fund" in the Hong Kong Bank. It even tried to ask the leftist newspapers to publicize the message. Had the plan worked, long queues of people waiting to make withdrawals would bound to have appeared outside China-funded banks. The public at large might have suspected that something had gone wrong with these banks and bank runs might have ensued. Should the situation deteriorate, it might have led to series of bank runs. Once this happens, the economy of Hong Kong will be ruined beyond recovery in the first place. Secondly, this will undermine the relationship between Hong Kong and Beijing. In case this is viewed as a plot to uproot China-funded banks, the feeling of distrust will further worsen the situation in Hong Kong.
Another related development is that a group of students gathered
Sir 7.K. PAC, LI Ka-shing and
in Central openly urged Henry FOK, CHENG Yue-tung to make clear their stands regarding the pro-democracy movement and to contribute to the "Democracy Fund". Subordinates of FOK, PAU and CHENG told the students that their bosses were out of town while
LI met
hundreds of students in the lower lobby of the China Building, in front of a large crowd of on-lookers. Under such pressure, LI indicated explicitly his support for the pro-democracy movement.
This, however, is exactly the tactics employed by the mainland in its political campaigns whereby a person is forced to make his stand by the crowd who have come to his house.
Hong Kong is a capitalist society with freedom of belief. Nobody is attacked by name under political pressure of the masses, nor is there a practice to force anyone to part with his money. If a certain millionaire is to be besieged or to face sit-in protests just because he refuses to support a political campaign financially, the free social structure of Hong Kong will collapse at once and human rights will have no safeguard whatsoever. Being a just cause, asking for donation for the democracy fund will surely be supported by the majority. But the support
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