Geoffrey Somers

Recalls the painless shift from colony to SAR 20 years ago — a painlessness ignored by the rest of the world

With the 20th anniversary of the return of Hong Kong less than two months away, this is the right time to express the firm belief that China has never been given anything approaching the international credit and praise it so richly deserved in 1997. Beijing made the almost unbelievably generous decision to reconstitute the former colony into a special administrative region endowed with a raft of privileges. What it cleverly termed “One Country, Two Systems” not only maintained Hong Kong’s pulsing economy without missing a beat, it enabled all of us to continue to enjoy Hong Kong’s vibrant lifestyle, with our 7 millionplus inhabitants retaining so many of the freedoms they had long taken for granted.

Thanks mainly to the wisdom of paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, the sovereignty of the territory was restored to its rightful place as part of the motherland while Hong Kong itself was given a new lease of life for the next 50 years.

What other government across the globe has been faintly as magnanimous as China in being so painstakingly conscious of and considerate to so many people caught up in, so to speak, such a whimsical caprice of history — the return to China of what London had claimed was the “most lustrous pearl in the British Crown”.

With the date for the handover finalized, Beijing ensured that the change would be as painless as possible, smoothing the way for Hong Kong big businesses to have a still larger share of the export trade from its fast-expanding economic colossus in the neighboring regions.

The remarkably tolerant administration in Beijing unhesitatingly consulted Hong Kong community leaders on the composition of the SAR’s Basic Law that The author is a former chief information officer of the Hong Kong government and editor of several Englishlanguage publications before and after his government service. would set out the details of how the territory would be administered for those 50 years.

China laid down only two main conditions for its role in this half-century spell — the central government would be responsible for Hong Kong’s defense and foreign relations. Indeed it was only common-sense practicality that these two very important subjects should become Beijing’s responsibility.

Nevertheless there was some disquiet among the population about the country stationing armed forces here. These critics blinded themselves to the fact that for almost all of the 157 years Hong Kong had been a colony it had housed quite a large British garrison plus serving as a Royal Navy base.

As of today unobtrusive People’s Liberation Army units have been stationed here for 20 years without incident. Ironically they occupy most of the former British bases, led off by the former waterside naval headquarters formerly known as HMS Tamar.

Going back 20 years do you recollect how the overseas media irresponsibly sprouted inflammatory headlines claiming that PLA tanks would be patrolling the streets of Central? As the July 1 handover ceremony grew nearer, increasing numbers of newspaper and TV reporters flocked here, virtually salivating as they counted the days until they could report when these wholly fictitious events would take place.

The Foreign Correspondents’ Club at the top of Ice House Street was jammed with visiting reporters and TV crews excitedly swapping “red hot rumors” about those terrible scenes that supposedly were about to unfold on our streets.

But, as we all know, no tanks appeared and absolutely nothing even faintly violent happened on the streets as the first units arrived to begin their new duties. The overseas media’s longawaited “street battles” were shown to be completely non-existent and purely a figment of their bloodthirsty imagination. Within a few days hundreds of these “newshounds” disgustedly tucked their tails between their legs and flew back to their bases, miserably disappointed that there had not been one incident. Few bothered to report that the most peaceful handover of territory since 1945 took place.

Moving on to a painful observation about the handover, it seems that it wasn’t simply the rest of the world that disregarded such an extraordinarily generous decision by Beijing; I question whether, deep in their hearts, the then occupants of Hong Kong truly appreciated the extremely considerate treatment they were accorded by China. Likewise I question whether today’s teens and 20s ever acknowledge the debt they owe the country for ensuring that the Hong Kong they would be born into would provide so many unexpected plusses and so few minuses.

What a pity that recently we have seen various youth movements stage demonstrations about Hong Kong’s “depressing future” based on illogical and misguided ideas and suppositions that totally lack a shred of reality.

The reality is that a benevolent China gave Hong Kong a 50-year “breathing space” so its population could gradually adjust to its new status as a special administrative region. We can also assume that another important reason behind Beijing’s logic was the hope that Hong Kong people will gradually take pride in their oncoming role in the shared development and prosperity of the People’s Republic of China.