Word: hong
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...made it clear that China is proud of itself these days. Said he: "The whole country has taken on a new look. .. Today our people are full of joy and pride." Noting the initialing only a week earlier of an agreement with Britain under which the Crown Colony of Hong Kong will be returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, Deng spoke of "peaceful reunification with Taiwan" as "an irresistible trend." He also addressed himself directly to the military. "In the seriously deteriorating international situation," he warned, "we must strengthen our national defense. All officers and men of the Chinese People...
...successors could easily reverse or rewrite it. China has proved to be singularly unpredictable in years past, with its violent and frequent pendulum swings from left to right. Clearly, the Communist nation has much to gain from protecting its capitalist jewel: the per capita gross domestic product of Hong Kong is 18 times that of China, and already the 400-sq.-mile colony supplies its colossal neighbor with up to 40% of its entire foreign-exchange earnings. Even those practical considerations, however, could be swept aside during a leftist backlash. In that event, noted a veteran China hand...
Such skepticism was voiced most angrily last week by Taiwan. The Chinese continue to hope that the breakaway Nationalists will one day follow Hong Kong's example and rejoin the mainland. At present that seems highly unlikely. In a vituperative denunciation of the agreement, Nationalist China's Premier Yu Kuohwa offered sanctuary to the people of Hong Kong, who, he said, were being forced "into a slave system of Communist totalitarianism...
...Hong Kong's residents also wondered how smoothly the world's most populous Communist state could manage a capitalist enclave, half of whose citizens are refugees from Communism. Instead of satisfying both sides, the much trumpeted "one country, two systems" solution might serve only to separate the two. As it is, the Westernized Chinese of the crown colony tend to look down on their less worldly counterparts in the Middle Kingdom. Such divisions may deepen when they become compatriots...
...December, and Thatcher will fly to Peking to complete the formalities, probably at year's end. It will then remain only for the Chinese to begin the arduous task of drafting and ratifying a new Basic Law to incorporate the joint declaration. Although in theory the residents of Hong Kong may challenge the terms of the treaty, in practice they can do nothing to change them. Instead, a people famous for their speculations and their love of gambling can only rely on Chinese good sense and good faith and start taking bets on their future. -By Pico Iyer...