Hong Kong, a coastal city in southern China, has evolved from a fishing village, salt production site, trading and military port into an international financial centre that enjoys the world's ninth highest GNP per capita,[1] and supports a third of foreign capital flows into China.
Prehistory
File:Chengchau rock.jpgRock carving on Cheung Chau. This 3000-year-old rock carving, discovered by geologists in 1970, is located on the east of the island, immediately below the Warwick Hotel. It consists of two groups of similar carved lines surrounding small depressions.
Archaeological findings suggest human activity in Hong Kong dates back over 5000 years. Bronze fishing and combat tools of Yuet people during bronze age have been excavated on Lantau Island and Lamma Island. Stone religious carvings on outlying islands and coastal areas have also been found, possibly related Che people in Neolithic. The latest findings dating from the Paleolithic suggest that Wong Tei Tung (黃地峒) is one of the most ancient settlements in Hong Kong.
The territory was incorporated into China during the Qin Dynasty (221 BC - 206 BC), and the area was firmly consolidated under Nam Yuet (203 BC - 111 BC.) Archaelogical evidence indicates that the population has increased since the Han Dynasty (206 BC - 220). In the 1950s, the tomb at Lei Cheng Uk from the Eastern Han Dynasty (25 – 220) was excavated and archaelogists began to investigate the possibility that salt production flourished in Hong Kong around 2000 years ago, although conclusive evidence has not been found.
During the Tang Dynasty, the Guangdong region flourished as an international trading center. The Tuen Mun region in what is now Hong Kong's New Territories served as a port, naval base, salt production centre and later, base for the exploitation of pearls. Lantau Island was also the salt production centre where the salt smugglers riots broke out against the government.
In 1276, during the Mongol invasion, the Southern Song Dynasty court moved to Fujian, then to Lantau Island and later to today's Kowloon City), but the child emperor, Zhao Bing, after being defeated in the Battle of Yamen, committed suicide by drowning with his officials. Tung Chung valley, named after a hero who gave up his life for the emperor,
is believed to have been a base for the court. Hau Wong, an official of the emperor is still worshipped in Hong Kong today.
However, during the Mongol period, Hong Kong saw its first population boom as Chinese refugees entered the area. Five families of Hau (Hou, 候), Tang (Deng, 鄧), Pang (Peng, 彭) and Liu (Liao, 廖) and Man (Wen, 文) were claimed to be among the earliest recorded familial settlers of Hong Kong. Despite the immigration and light development of agriculture, the area was still relatively barren and had to rely on salt, pearl and the fishery trades to produce income.
Early contacts with the West
File:Old hong kong.jpgThe waterfall where foreign ships got fresh water. Near the waterfall was a village called Hong Kong Village (香港村), which prompted foreigners to incorrectly name the island Hong Kong.
In the early sixteenth century during the Ming Dynasty, Portuguese merchants began trading in Southern China. At the same time, they invaded and built up military fortifications in Tuen Mun. Military clashes between China and Portugal ensued and the Portuguese were expelled.
In the mid-sixteenth century, the Maritime Prohibition (Haijin) came into effect. Designed to prevent contact with foreigners, it also restricted local sea activity, and villagers in Hong Kong coastal areas were ordered to move to the mainland. The British East India Company made the first sea venture to China in 1699, and Hong Kong's trade with British merchants grew rapidly thereafter. In 1711, the Company established a trading post in Canton (Guangzhou).
During the Qing Dynasty, Hong Kong was governed under Xin'an County (新安縣) and became one of the foremost military outposts for Imperial China.
After a series of Chinese defeats during the First Opium War (1839-1842) at the hands of Capt. Charles Elliot of the Royal Navy and Capt. Anthony Blaxland Stransham of the Royal Marines, Hong Kong Island was occupied by the British on January 20, 1841, and ceded in 1842 under the Treaty of Nanking, at which point in time the territory became a Crown Colony. The ostensible authority for the occupation was negotiated between Captain Elliot and the Governor of Kwangtung Province. The Convention of Chuenpeh was concluded but had not been recognized by the court of Qing Dynasty at Beijing.
At the time the population of the island was about 6000, mostly Tanka fishermen and Hakka charcoal burners in a number of small coastal villages.[1]. With the immediate influx of trade, the population quickly rose.
The Opium War was fought to liberalize trade to China. With a base in Hong Kong, British traders, opium dealers, and merchants launched the city which would become the 'free trade' nexus of the East. American opium traders and merchant bankers soon joined in the trade (See Russell family; Perkins family; Forbes family).
Britain was granted a perpetual lease on the Kowloon Peninsula under the 1860 Convention of Beijing, which formally ended hostilities in the Second Opium War (1856-1858). In 1862, Hong Kong's population was about 120,000.
In 1898, the United Kingdom, concerned that Hong Kong could not be defended unless surrounding areas were also under British control, executed a 99-year lease of the New Territories, significantly expanding the size of the Hong Kong colony. The lease would expire at midnight, on June 30, 1997.
Major events at that time including bubonic plague in 1890s. In the spring of 1894, about 100,000 dead were reported from Guangzhou. In May 1894, the disease erupted in Hong Kong's overcrowded Chinese quarter of Tai Ping Shan. At its height, the epidemic was killing 100 people per day in Hong Kong, and killed a total of 2,552 people that year. The disease was greatly detrimental to trade and produced a temporary exodus of 100,000 Chinese from the colony. Plague continued to be a problem in the territory for the next 30 years. 1,290 people died of the disease between 1898 and 1900.
On the outbreak of World War I in 1914, fear of a possible attack on the colony led to an exodus of 60,000 Chinese. Hong Kong's population boomed in the following decades' turmoil in China: from 530,000 in 1916 and 725,000 in 1925 to 1.6 million by 1941.
Japanese Occupation
File:Jap occupy hk.jpgJapanese soldiers marching along Queen's Road on Hong Kong Island in December 1941.
Hong Kong was occupied by Japanese from 25 December1941 to 15 August1945. The period, called '3 years and 8 months', almost halted the economy of Hong Kong.
The British, Canadians, Indians and the Hong Kong Volunteer Defense Forces resisted the Japanese invasion commanded by Sakai Takashi which started on December 8, 1941, eight hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Japanese achieved air superiority on the first day of battle and the defensive forces were outnumbered. The British and the Indians retreated from the Gin Drinker's Line and consequently from Kowloon under heavy aerial bombardment and artillery barrage. Fierce fighting continued on Hong Kong Island; the only reservoir was lost. Canadian Winnipeg Grenadiers fought at the crucial Wong Nai Chong Gap that secured the passage between downtown and the secluded southern parts of the island.
During the Japanese occupation, hyper-inflation and food rationing became the norm of daily lives. It became unlawful to own Hong Kong Dollars, which were replaced by the Japanese Military Yen, a currency without reserves issued by the Japanese Imperial Army administration. Some estimate that as many as 10,000 women were raped in the first few days after Hong Kong's capture and large number of suspected dissidents were executed. Philip Snow, a prominent historian of the period, said that the Japanese cut rations for civilians to conserve food for soldiers, usually to starvation levels and deported many to famine- and disease-ridden areas of the mainland. Most of the repatriated actually had come to Hong Kong just a few years earlier to flee the terror of the Second Sino-Japanese War in mainland China.
Skills and capital brought by refugees of Mainland China, especially from Shanghai, along with a vast pool of cheap labor helped revive the economy. At the same time, many foreign firms moved their offices from Shanghai to Hong Kong and Hong Kong evolved into one of the major manufacturing regions of China. Hong Kong's economy enjoyed unprecedented growth.
Large squatter camps developed throughout the territory. These posed a fire and health hazard, and it was in order to respond to the problem of housing the influx of refugees that the Hong Kong government began its policy of developing public housing. At first, conditions in public housing were very basic, with several families sharing communal cooking facilities. Now, more than 50% of Hong Kong's population lives in subsidised public housing.
1967 Riots
In May 1967, the labour movement under the influence of the Cultural Revolution in the PRC became violent. Riots followed in the next six months. A famous radio host, Lam Bun (林彬), who openly criticised the movement, was murdered. Leftist agitators in Hong Kong resorted to terrorist attacks by planting real and fake bombs around the city. After the Hong Kong government brought down the labour movement, the communists' web in Hong Kong was broken and the Hongkongers' view of the communists became negative. (Refer to Hong Kong 1967 riots)
1967-1990s
Hong Kong, 1978.
In 1974, Murray McLehose founded ICAC, the Independent Commission Against Corruption, in order to combat corruption within the police force. The extent of corruption was so widespread that a mass police petition took place resisting prosecutions. Despite early opposition to the ICAC by the police force, Hong Kong was quite successful in its anti-corruption efforts, eventually becoming one of the least corrupt societies in the world.
The 1970s also saw the extension of government subsidised education from six years to nine years and the creation of Hong Kong's country parks system.
The opening of the mainland Chinese market and rising salaries drove many manufacturers north. Hong Kong consolidated its position as a commercial and tourism centre in the South-East Asia region. High life expectancy, literacy, per-capita income and other socioeconomic measures attest to Hong Kong's achievements over the last four decades of the 20th Century.
In 1982, fifteen years before the lease on the New Territories would expire, the governments of the UK and the PRC began talks on the future of Hong Kong. The British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, hoped that the increasing openness of the PRC government and the economic reforms on the mainland would lead the PRC to agree to a continued British presence. On the contrary, not only did the PRC want to see the New Territories returned to Chinese control (with the PRC as the successor to Qing and the ROC) but it refused to recognise the Treaties under which Hong Kong Island and Kowloon had been ceded to Britain in perpetuity - which it regarded as unfair and unequal. The PRC did not recognise British sovereignty in Hong Kong, only its administration.
In fact, a decade earlier on November 8, 1972, the 27th United Nations General Assembly had adopted a resolution affirming PRC's stand and demands on the issue of Hong Kong. In a letter to the chairman of the UN Committee on Decolonization in March 1972, Huang Hua, the PRC permanent representative to the United Nations wrote that 'Hong Kong and Macau are parts of the Chinese territory occupied by the British and Portuguese authorities. To solve Hong Kong and Macau issues is completely within the sphere of the PRC's sovereign rights, as a successor to Qing and the ROC. It does not at all fall into the general category of the so-called "colony"'. He added that 'China will use peaceful means to resolve the Hong Kong and Macau issues when the conditions become ripe. The status quo will be kept until the settlement.'
Regardless of the competing claims for sovereignty, the PRC's 'paramount leader' Deng Xiaoping recognised that Hong Kong, with its free market economy, could not be assimilated into the People's Republic overnight and that any attempt to do so would not be in the interests of either. He advocated a far more pragmatic approach known as the One Country, Two Systems policy in which Hong Kong (as well as Macau, and proposed to Taiwan) would be able to retain their economic systems within the PRC.
On April 4, 1990, the Hong Kong Basic Law was officially accepted as the mini-constitution of the Hong Kong SAR after the handover. The pro-Beijing bloc welcomed the Basic Law, calling it the most democratic legal system to ever exist in the PRC. The pro-democratic bloc criticized it as not democratic enough.
In July 1992, Chris Patten was appointed as the last British Governor of Hong Kong. Patten had been Chairman of the Conservative Party in the UK until he lost his parliamentary seat in the general election earlier that year. He was the only professional politician to hold the post of Governor of Hong Kong, his predecessors having been from the diplomatic service. By contrast, Patten had little knowledge or experience about Hong Kong or China, and spoke neither Mandarin Chinese nor Cantonese.
Relations with the PRC government in Beijing became increasingly strained, as Patten introduced democratic reforms that increased the number of elected members in the Legislative Council. This caused considerable annoyance to the PRC, which saw this as a breach of the Basic Law. (See Politics of Hong Kong.)
On July 1, 1997 Hong Kong was handed over to the People's Republic of China by the United Kingdom. The old Legislative Council, elected under Chris Patten's reforms, was replaced by the Provisional Legislative Council elected by a selection committee whose members are appointed by the PRC government. Tung Chee Hwa, elected in December by a selection committee which members are appointed by the PRC government, assumed duty as the first Chief Executive of Hong Kong.
Some of the changes were purely symbolic:
All public offices now fly the flags of the PRC and the Hong Kong SAR. The Union Jack now flies only outside the British Consulate-General and other British premises.
Queen Elizabeth II's portrait disappeared from banknotes, postage stamps and public offices. As of 2005, many pre-1997 coins and some banknotes are still in circulation.
The 'Royal' title was dropped from almost all organisations that had been granted it, with the exception of the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club.
Legal references to the 'Crown' were replaced by references to the 'State', and barristers who had been appointed Queen's Counsel would now be known as Senior Counsel.
Public holidays changed, with the Queen's Official Birthday and other British-inspired occasions being replaced by PRC National Day and Hong Kong SAR Establishment Day.
All the red colour Post Boxes (Royal Mail, Queen Elizabeth II)'s totally diappeared in the streets of Hong Kong and replaced by the green colour Hong Kong Post.
In other respects, many things remained unchanged:
The new SAR remained a separate jurisdiction, continuing to use English common law.
The border with the mainland continued to be patrolled as before.
It remained a separate customs territory, with freer trade with the rest of the world than with the mainland. Thus Hong Kong remained a full and individual member of various international organizations, such as the IOC, APEC and WTO.
Hong Kong continues to negotiate and maintain its own aviation bilateral treaties with foreign countries and territories. Flights between Hong Kong and China mainland are treated as international flights (or more commonly known as inter-territorial flights in China mainland).
It retained most immigration controls to foreign countries, except politically related visa applications. Similarly, Hong Kong SAR passport holders had easier access to countries in Europe and North America, while mainland citizens did not. Citizens in mainland China can only apply for a visa to Hong Kong from the PRC Government; as before and after 1997. Many former colonial citizens can still use British National (Overseas) passports after 1997. (Main article: British nationality law)
English remained an official language (see Hong Kong Basic Law) and would still be taught in all schools. However, many (but not all) schools would now teach in Cantonese with textbooks written in Chinese, and in parallel to English. This has been quite controversial, since such a change may cause a decline in proficiency in English.
Electrical plugs (BS1363), TV transmissions (PAL-I) and many other technical standards from the United Kingdom are still utilised in Hong Kong. However, telephone companies ceased installing British StandardBS 6312 telephone sockets in Hong Kong. (Main article: Technical standards in colonial Hong Kong)
The former British way of drill, marching and words of command in English continued in all disciplinary services including all civil organizations. While the PLA soldiers of the Chinese Garrison in Hong Kong have their own type of drill movements and words of command in Mandarin Chinese.
All the British Crown statues like Queen Victoria, King George etc remained in various places unchanged.
Major events during transition
During the preparatory period for transition in 1997, major events include Tiananmen Square incident (or Tiananmen Square massacre as it's usually referred to in the eyes of the West), which deepened the fear over the Communist China's ruling and sparked the big flow of emigration.
On May 271989, around 1 million Hongkongers marched for "Love and democraticize our country."(愛國民主) and the march continued after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. But since then, Hongkongers were polarised into two groups, the pro-Beijing who supported the use of disclipinary actions and the pro-'democratic' who opposed it, which has became the major competing political groups and still affect today's political ecosystem.
Three months after a peaceful handover in July 1997, Hong Kong was dragged into the Asian Financial Crisis in which at one point the Stock Market fell by 22.8% within a week. Between summer 1997 and summer 1998, the Hang Seng Index of leading shares lost nearly two thirds of its value, leading to the government making the decision to intervene in the market by buying billions of dollars worth of shares. While this may have prevented the market from collapsing and staved off pressure for the Hong Kong dollar to be depegged from the US dollar, the move was widely criticised as it was perceived as undermining Hong Kong's status as a free market economy. In 1998, the real estate bubble burst, arguably due to the Asian financial crisis, but also partly due to the government's housing policy, as upon his inauguration as the Hong Kong SAR's first Chief Executive, Tung Chee Hwa had announced the goal of building 85,000 flats per year and of reducing the waiting time for public housing from seven years to three years. These factors combined to begin the most severe recession in Hong Kong since 1967, during which reduced government revenues coupled with rapidly increased government spending on infrastructure projects led to what was perceived to be a structural deficit and the rapid running down of fiscal reserves. In recent economic journals published, the Chinese intervention in the Hong Kong stock and current markets is being credited as a move that successfully curbed the further spread of the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997, and China's strong economic base and strong currency also enabled a quick recovery for the Hong Kong market.
In 2001, the Chief Secretary for the Administration, Anson Chan resigned and was replaced by the Financial Secretary Donald Tsang. Anson Chan was seen as a link with the previous colonial administration, and after her resignation she became a vocal critic of the government and supporter of the campaign for democracy.
The Tung Chee Hwa administration was also marked by anxiety about whether the rule of law and Hong Kong's autonomy would be respected by the local government and by central authorities. In 1999, Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal ruled that children born on the mainland would be entitled to right of abode in Hong Kong so long as either parent was a Hong Kong permanent resident; however, this decision led to the government seeking a reinterpretation of the Hong Kong Basic Law as a result of which the court's ruling was overturned. In 2004, before beginning a constitutional review, the Hong Kong government sought advice from the central government about what would be the acceptable pace of reform, and the central government ruled that full universal suffrage could not be introduced in 2007, the earliest date for such a move set out in the Basic Law, as it was necessary for democracy to be introduced gradually in a way which would not affect the stability of the SAR. In 2005, following Tung's mid-term resignation, there were disagreements over whether whoever replaced him would begin to serve a new term or would serve out the remainder of his predecessor's term. Anxious to avoid a long period of constitutional uncertainty while the matter was settled through Hong Kong's courts, the Hong Kong government pre-emptively sought an interpretation from the central government.
SARS outbreak and article 23
Amid the economic recession, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) broke out in February, 2003, when the first suspected case was recorded. From then until 23 June2003, when Hong Kong was taken off the World Health Organization's list of affected areas, the city was gripped by fear of contagion and panic through the epidemic. Schooling was halted while children stayed at home; economic activity was greatly disrupted when working mothers also stayed home to look after their children, restaurants were empty and tourism ground to a halt. The epidemic finally claimed 299 lives, the unemployment rate reached 7.9%, compared to 2.2% in 1997 and 4.4% in 2000.
At this time, Government proposed an anti-subversion law envisaged by Article 23 of the Hong Kong Basic Law, and many people feared that many of the proposals would erode freedom of the press, of religion and of association. The unpopularity of Chief Executive Tung Chee-Hwa and his administration, combined with the dissatisfaction about economy recession and the pandemic control, prompted an estimated 500,000 people to march on July 1, 2003, making it the largest since the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. The proposal fell after the several pro-government lawmakers withdrew their support to pass the bill. The resignation of Liberal Party chief James Tien from the Executive Council on July 6, 2003 caused the eventual withdrawal of the legislation and the break-up of the "ruling alliance" of the Chief Executive. The security secretary, Regina Ip who was heavily criticised for her arrogant and condescending handling of the proposed law was forced to resign.
There were many loud voices for the resignation of Tung Chee-hwa, a leader who was blessed by previous leader of the Communist Party of China, Jiang Zemin. Tung remained the office until March 10, 2005, 20 months after the Protest march against Article 23. The shuffle is widely associated with the change of leadership within the China Communist Party, where Hu Jin Tao assumed the Chairmanship of the Central Military Commission of People's Republic of China, becoming the supreme commander of the Chinese armed forces in September, 2004.
Tung's position was filled, after a by-election with only one qualifed candidate, by Donald Tsang, No. 2 ranking official, the Chief Secretary, a popular bow tie-wearing career civil servant who received a knighthood for his service during British colonial rule.
One of the notable impacts from Tung Chee-Hwa's government, however, is that it raised the concern on Hong Kong's political reform and petition for universal suffrage to avoid an unpopular leader taking the office. The territory's political reform is still a focus, but economic bounce-back and new leadership have apparently eased criticism of the government.
see also Politics of Hong Kong.
