TNAG-2329-FCO40-3373-Hong-Kong-contacts-with-academics-and-writers-1991 — Page 54

PART THREE:

3.1.

DRAFT

PATRIOTISM, PREDICTABILITY AND THE FIRST AUTONOMOUS SAR

This part of the paper is based on two practical questions which have taken root in my mind since I have been in Hong Kong. First, what is the "high degree of autonomy" intended to achieve? And, secondly, what ways can be found consistently with the terms of the Joint Declaration to bolster the high degree of autonomy which Hong Kong has been promised for 1997 and beyond?

the paper in three sections.

I approach these issues in this part of

A.

What is the purpose of autonomy?

B.

Chinese patriotism and "one country, two systems"

3.2.

C.

Promoting predictability between the CPG and the SAR.

My major concern is rooted in a belief that unless there is autonomy at the institutional and personal level, the autonomy of the HKSAR itself could be more apparent than real. Thus, I believe that autonomy has to run at two separate levels if it is to have any practical meaning for Hong Kong residents. First, the CPG has promised that the SAR will have a "high degree" of it, and that is what I call the macro level; secondly, a noticeable aspect of the territory's lifestyle has been that Hong Kong society operates in large measure "autonomously" from government. This, I call the micro. The labels are not particularly apt, but they'll have to do. The nexus between the two levels of autonomy provides the key to maintaining "present systems, human rights and lifestyle", to quote Sir Geoffrey Howe when he was British Foreign Secretary (see paragraph 2.1).

A. What is the Purpose of Autonomy?

The need is to find ways of protecting and fostering autonomous decision-taking for individuals and private concerns, both over their own affairs and in the exercise of their roles within institutions. This is an uncontroversial idea as it stands. In order to examine its prospects in both senses, however, one needs not only to see what is to be permitted in law by way of political and economic autonomy, but also to see how Hong Kong people and institutions can exercise that autonomy in practice. Thus, it is clear that " one country, two systems" is not just a concept to be applied from above: to be effective, it must be a reflection of a fact of life from below:-

"On the whole, the Chinese society of Hong Kong differs from

traditional and modern Chinese society in many essential ways: its high degree of modernisation, industrialisation and urbanisation; its dominance by market forces; the erosion of tradition; the adapted changes in the family and other primary and quasi-primary structures; the lack of a moralising elite and the dominance of an economic elite; the fluidity of society and the