As China turns inwards, Hong Kong’s international outlook fades
- Foreigners played a major role in forging modern Hong Kong, but with the emphasis now on integration with the mainland and a steady exodus of long-time residents, the city’s cosmopolitan character is now in question
At this time when there is so much focus on national security issues and more integration with the mainland, two recent events have brought home the historic role of foreigners, good and bad, in the creation of the city.
Much respected by other communities, the family-centric Harilelas are a latter-day reminder of the role of Indian merchants in the earliest times of modern Hong Kong. Indeed, even before the British had established themselves on the “barren rock” of Hong Kong, a Parsi trader from Mumbai, Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy (later Sir), had partnered with Jardine and Matheson in China trade.
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My identity problem as a Westerner and a long-time Hong Kong resident
Of course all these migrations were all products of British imperialism, but there is no point in denying the obvious: that Hong Kong was a tiny place until the British, in need of a free trade port – not a colony for settlement – and good harbour on the south China coast acquired it from the first Anglo-Chinese war. China’s ports were elsewhere – cities such as Quanzhou, Guangzhou, Shantou and Xiamen.
Hong Kong, with its tiny population, had to attract migrants, an advantage to both the Chinese and foreigners who came.
It was Hong Kong’s special foreign circumstances post-1948 that allowed it to become a major textile exporter, and to transform into an international finance economy from the late 1970s.
Maybe history itself is passing Hong Kong by, with no British empire, possibly dwindling Western connections, frictions between China and its southeast Asian and Japanese neighbours, fewer links to overseas Chinese in Asia, a China itself turning inward. But the more the government emphasises integration with the mainland, the less space there is for non-ethnic Chinese.
Only a mainland-appointed provincial leader can revive Hong Kong
The large south Asian and Filipino communities have long faced discrimination, official as well as informal. The efforts of the Equal Opportunities Commission to counter it are worthy but unlikely to make much progress so long as the government itself makes no effort to involve non-Chinese in advisory and policymaking roles, or provide effective enforcement of the legal rights of Asians in domestic helper and unskilled worker roles.
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It may not matter to those making big money or old colonial timers who blame Hong Kong problems on radical youth, if many feel a chill of fear as government listens intently to mainland voices seeking to limit debate and punish dissenting views. But it does matter that Hong Kong has in the recent past lost the presence of such writers and journalists as Ching Cheong, once a senior editor with Wen Wei Po and well-known commentator on local and Beijing affairs, and most recently, Steve Vines, English-language writer, broadcaster and entrepreneur whose 35 years in Hong Kong included presenting a regular RTHK programme. Both left out of fear for their freedom.
Liberal ideas and the rule of law are not for cherry-picking. You either have a system which is tolerant if sometimes messy, or you have one driven by an authoritarian ideology. You either have a system which revels in diversity, or you have another middling Chinese city like Quanzhou, once an international city glowingly described by travellers Ibn Battuta and Marco Polo.
The writing is on the schoolroom wall.
Philip Bowring is a Hong Kong-based journalist and commentator
