A Hundred Days in Hong Kong: A Matter of Haves, Have-Nots

Today marks the 100th day since the British handed this territory back to China, and Hong Kong has changed--for better and worse.

So far, there are few signs of the market chaos, political repression or economic interference from Beijing that doomsayers had predicted. The economy is humming, and protesters can still march. But amid the hearty reassurances that it’s business as usual, there are pointed reminders that it may not always be so.

On a corner of the busiest intersection of Hong Kong’s business district, rushing professionals in pinstripes who supposedly care only about making money pause to push dollar bills into Emily Lau’s donation box. Lau and dozens of other lawmakers who were elected under rules China disliked lost their seats when Hong Kong changed hands, and she’s determined to win hers back.

“It’s as if someone abolished the U.S. Congress,” she declares. “That’s not business as usual!

“People here are silent,” Lau said, but “I think they are quite worried about their freedoms and the rule of law. Don’t conclude too quickly that everything is fine here just because there have been no arrests.”

Even so, three quiet months after the hand-over, Hong Kong is indulging in wary celebration that the transition has been smooth so far--and that the recent changes to laws and courts have not yet meant a change in everyday life.

The calm also inspires self-examination. In the absence of China’s meddling, Hong Kong residents are realizing that the most immediate challenges come not from across the border but from within Hong Kong itself.

“Hong Kong’s conflict is shifting from pro-China groups versus democrats to the haves against the have-nots,” says Lee Cheuk-yan, a trade union leader who was appointed to the new legislature. New Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa “is not really tackling the problem of poverty. He’s setting himself up for big problems.”

In a place known for having both the largest number of Rolls-Royces per capita and the world’s most crowded housing, the tension between rich and poor is growing. Last week, employers capped workers’ raises at 6% while the area’s top bosses awarded themselves average bonuses of 30%.

“It is a bit hypocritical,” conceded Henry Tang, an industrialist and Cabinet member. “It is our top priority to alleviate those anxieties.”

Today’s anxieties are a sharp change from the top concerns of three months ago. When the Chinese army rolled across the border July 1 and mainland officials raised the red national flag over their newly recovered territory, they met a Hong Kong apprehensive that China would somehow meddle with the territory’s renowned moneymaking machinery, censor the media or crush dissent.

The new Hong Kong government’s first act under Chinese rule was to replace its elected legislature with a handpicked body and, in a flurry of predawn lawmaking, create levers for political control. But Beijing has been careful in the first 100 days to keep its hands off them.

“Seeing is believing,” Chinese Premier Li Peng told an auditorium full of international financiers at a World Bank meeting in Hong Kong last month. “Now that you are in Hong Kong, you can see with your own eyes that the Chinese government’s basic policies have been carried out in earnest.”

The bankers that week saw a healthy economy, especially compared to those of Hong Kong’s neighbors, which are in the grip of a currency crisis. They read critical, uncensored newspaper articles. They might have seen--just barely--a dozen demonstrators trying to make their way past hundreds of police officers to petition Chinese leaders.

They did not, however, see conference delegates from Taiwan or two human rights groups who were--for the first time--barred by the government from attending.

“This is part of the price of being one country,” said Christine Loh, an elected legislator who lost her seat July 1. “Diplomatic issues are part of Beijing’s purview. But for the most part, China is making a huge effort not to criticize or comment.”

Some analysts say that is because Hong Kong’s new leader, former shipping tycoon Tung, who calls himself “cautious and conservative,” has given Beijing nothing to disagree with during the three-month transition. China is also distracted with a leadership transition of its own.

“The Chinese leaders in charge of Hong Kong are still learning how this place works,” said Sonny Lo, a political scientist at Hong Kong University. “There’s no need to interfere in Hong Kong affairs at this juncture. But if Tung can’t handle Hong Kong’s problems, China will.”

In the first 100 days here, Tung has tried to show that he’s in charge. As incrementally and inevitably as pages being ripped from a daily calendar, Hong Kong’s new administration stripped away the fledgling rights and democratic reforms enacted during the last days of British rule.

Some of the changes are temporary: The appointed Provisional Legislature, for example, will be replaced in May by a partially elected one.

But in the meantime, the body has passed laws that take away the vote of nearly 2 million people who had been allowed to cast second ballots through their companies; it created election rules that will probably dilute the power of the popular Democratic Party. It froze labor laws, weakening trade union rights, and limited protests and the formation of political parties.

Tung defends the changes as a fresh start for a Hong Kong “finally the master of its own house.”

Martin Lee, leader of the Democratic Party, asserts that Tung is building on shaky ground. “There is no longer an institutional guarantee of our freedoms and way of life,” he said. “That’s the worrying thing.”

Tung’s 100th day on the job coincides with his first major policy speech since the hand-over. Eager to switch the focus from politics to pocketbooks, the avuncular leader has embraced the three issues closest to people’s hearts: housing, social security and education.

He is expected to announce a half-million-dollar voter registration drive--but not much else in the way of encouraging democratic participation.