Word: hong
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...ensure a smooth transition through the year 2000, a "joint liaison group" composed of 25 representatives from both China and Britain, will set up an office in Hong Kong in 1988. The treaty also stresses that the group cannot interfere directly in Hong Kong's affairs, thus tempering local fears that China may be tempted to tinker with the colony before it formally assumes sovereignty...
Although some sticking points remain, notably the fate of about 2.5 million residents of the colony entitled to hold Hong Kong British passports, any settlement at all was welcome after the rocky and rancorous negotiations. As the expiration date on the British lease approached, Hong Kong businesses planning 15-year loans and long-term projects grew increasingly uncomfortable. In September 1982, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, fresh from her triumph in the Falkland Islands, went to Peking and, somewhat injudiciously, declared that Britain would "stick by" its treaties regarding Hong Kong. For their part, the Chinese insisted that the issue...
...September 1983, the Chinese attempted their boldest gambit: either an agreement would be reached by September 1984, they insisted, or they would unilaterally announce their own plans for the community. Almost immediately, the Hong Kong dollar plunged. That crisis may, ironically, have rescued the talks. As one Chinese businessman points out: "In a month when the U.S. dollar rose from six Hong Kong dollars to 7.75, the Bank of China was the biggest loser...
...distinctly clouded. While presenting a confident face in public, many businessmen have already surreptitiously sent their funds and families abroad. And in response to a poll conducted by one Chinese-language newspaper, nearly 80% of the colony's residents admitted to doubts and reservations about their future freedom. "Hong Kong as it is is finished," pronounced a Chinese businessman with close ties to Peking. "Its ability to be profitable is there only because of present policies. When sovereign ty by the Chinese is proclaimed, these policies will have to be changed...
Chinese Leader Deng Xiaoping has often tried to soothe such worries with bromides to the effect that the people of Hong Kong should "put their hearts at ease." But his actions, contrary to his reassurances, have served merely to unsettle those hearts. Last May, after several Chinese officials had publicly declared that China would not station soldiers on Hong Kong soil, Deng suddenly summoned the Hong Kong press. After denouncing the claims of two of his associates as "hogwash," he instructed the astonished journalists, "You go and publish this bit of news. Troops will be stationed in Hong Kong...