Word: hong
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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That, of course, is of paramount importance to both countries. While the Chinese dragon and the British lion have been warily circling each other, the world's third-largest financial center has responded to every shift in the bargaining like a sampan in a typhoon. As uncertainty over Hong Kong's future mounted, untold billions of dollars left the colony; foreign consulates have been flooded with visa applications from jittery locals, businessmen in particular. The value of the Hong Kong dollar fell 40% last year, as did the price of choice properties. The Hang Seng stock market index...
...British began the negotiations by conceding that their 99-year lease on the New Territories (constituting 90% of the colony) would elapse in 1997, yet contending that Hong Kong Island and Kowloon were theirs in perpetuity. China quickly squelched that claim. Then London demanded a continued British presence in a Chinese-owned Hong Kong after 1997. Peking said no to that too. With little progress being made, the Chinese delivered an ultimatum last fall: if no agreement was concluded by September 1984, they would unilaterally announce the terms of the colony's future. That got Britain's attention...
...danger of radically devaluing the precious capitalist gem they expected to acquire. After all, the 400-sq.-mi. enclave boasts exports greater than those of the entire People's Republic and supplies China with some 40% of its foreign exchange. Most important, perhaps, Peking hoped that by transforming Hong Kong into a semiautonomous special administrative zone without fuss, it could tempt Taiwan to enter into a similar arrangement...
...kind of terms that Howe outlined last week appear to do justice to both the wishes and the worries of China and Britain. Said the Foreign Secretary: "A preservation of all the rights and freedoms which the people of Hong Kong now enjoy'' would be entailed. The colony would keep its legal, educational and financial systems at least until the year 2047; residents would still be permitted to travel and trade freely; the Hong Kong dollar would remain convertible on the world currency markets. Although China would be in charge of defense and foreign affairs, Hong Kong would...
...desire to have no monitoring body during the transition period and China's demand for a commission that would operate as a kind of shadow government. According to Howe, the group would include five Chinese and five British representatives; it would meet in Peking, London and Hong Kong until 1988 and then establish its principal base in Hong Kong until 2000. It would try to ease the transition from British to Chinese rule both before and after 1997, and to ensure full compliance with the agreement by both sides. The group is meant to soothe the fears of Hong...