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Hong Kong is becoming 'just another Chinese city'
December 22, 1998
By Edward Neilan
Special to World Tribune.com
HONG KONG--The thought had never before crossed my mind to write that
Hong Kong is becoming "just another Chinese city ."
But day -by- day, at a pace we couldn't have imagined at the time
of the 1997 July 1 handover, the image of the fabulous port city is being
eroded by subtle change that is making it more like "another Tianjin"
than the "pearl of the orient" that it used to be.
Putting Hong Kong under the microscope has become instantly fashionable
with the announcement by Washington's Heritage Foundation last month
that Singapore had now become No.1 in
terms of economic freedom, replacing Hong Kong which had previously held
that ranking.
Newsweek magazine, in its Asian edition, recently headlined
"Singapore vs. Hong Kong" on its cover. Leading newspapers in Hong Kong
(Population: 6.2 million; per capita wealth: US$23,000) and Singapore
(Population: 3 million; per capita wealth: US$27,000) picked up the lead
and presented several features and series on the competition.
Asiaweek magazine, owned by Time Inc., culminated a two-part series on
the Singapore-Hong Kong rivalry by identifying Asia's 40 most-livable
cities. Three Japanese cities led the list--Tokyo, Fukuoka,
Osaka--followed by (4) Singapore, (5) Taipei, Taiwan, (6) Georgetown,
Malaysia , and (7)
Hong Kong. The next-rated "Chinese" cities were (10) Beijing, (11) Macau,
and (12) Shanghai.
The Hong Kong's government's controversial intervention in in the
market was partly responsible for its toppling from the "most free"
category. Other insidious moves include a tightening self-censorship of
the press, notable effort to reduce expatriate salaries and even presence,
and a distinct switch of preference from the English language to Mandarin
and Cantonese in education.
The overall change is not directly on the orders of Communist Beijing,
which was once feared. But rather it is a looking-over-the-shoulder sense;
the Big Brother is watching syndrome. This is different from the
government's "parental" image in Singapore.
When I told old friend Neville de Silva, columnist of the Hong Kong
Standard, that I had just come from a week in Singapore, he bellowed "What
are you, some kind of masochist?"
And writer Nick Walker, who has lived in both places, said "There's
more buzz in Hong Kong than Singapore."
Such spirited competitiveness doesn't hide some selected stark facts
pointing to Hong Kong's
relative decline.
--Hong Kong's English-language South China Morning Post, for years the
most profitable newspaper in the world, last year saw a 48.8 percent
or US$53 million decline in profits. The other English-language paper, the
Standard, is on the ropes and up for sale. By contrast the Straits Times
and its sister papers Business Times and New Paper are booming in
Singapore.
While Hong Kong is officially downgrading the English language in
education, Singapore is stressing English.
Vijay Menon, Secretary-General of the region's premier communications
organization, Asian Media Information and Communications Center (AMIC),
located on an idyllic green campus in Singapore, told me "The future of the
press, and internet, in this multi-racial society is definitely tied to
the English-language."
--The remaining expatriates in the Hong Kong civil service are being
pressured to take pay cuts. This includes professors at Hong Kong
University, whose academic salaries are no longer the world's highest.
British young people who didn't need visas under British rule, are finding
renewal difficult. Fewer and fewer upscale waiter jobs are going to
expatriates. Next to go may be the 30,000 Filipina maids whose jobs
could be handles by Chinese from the mainland. In Singapore, expatriates
are welcomed in the drive for technological excellence.
--The outflow of expatriates is taking its toll on the trendy new Soho
area (South of Hollywood Road) where the Bistro Manchu (run by a lady from
Harbin in China's Heiloongjiang province), and a few Nepalese eateries run
by discharged Gurkhas from Britain's departed garrison) may survive. The
temporarily popular Yelts-Inn, a Russian pub, has a thinning clientele as
do a couple of Cuban restaurants.
Hong Kong's drift is toward being a service center for interior China
It is behind Taiwan and Singapore in high tech manufacturing. The latter
accounts for nearly 25 percent of Singapore's gross domestic product (GDP)
and only 9.9 percent of Hong Kong's.
The old Hong Kong, the international city that was given its
"difference" as a British colony, had is lifestyle guaranteed "for 50
years" by the Chinese Communists. But there will be a profound change
before 50 months, let alone 50 years.
It is not necessarily negative but just a fact: the outward identities
of Hong Kong and Shanghai
will merge and become more and more alike in the coming years.
Edward Neilan (eneilan@crisscross.com) is a veteran journalist, based in Tokyo, who covers East Asia and writes weekly for World Tribune.com.
December 22, 1998
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