Today's the dubious holiday celebrating hong kong's not-so-joyous return to Evil Communist China. Sophie reported big (500,000!) protests, with some people even burning the communist flag, and i listened to pro-Democracy guy Martin Lee on BBC news talking all about it on my way to work this morning.
Of course, if Britain had simply chosen to hand Hong Kong back to the true, legitimate rulers of China -- that is, the Republic of China (temporarily based in Taiwan) -- there'd be no griping about press or political freedoms, no need for "one country, two systems." Just keep the capitalism, political freedoms and traditional writing system, rename a couple of streets after Sun Yat-Sen and Chiang Kai-Shek, and that's it! Unfortunately, I wasn't consulted on the matter when Thatcher signed the Joint Declaration on Colluding with Funny Little Men in Mao Jackets in 1984, so it never came about. But perhaps it's for the best: imagine how much worse SARS would have been in Hong Kong if Beijing denied them access to the WHO, as they did to Taiwan. I wish I were in Hong Kong right now: I'd wave a ROC flag in front of some Red Army soldiers...
Posted by cce at July 1, 2003 12:51 PM | TrackBackGood for you Chris! I didn't know you have such an authentic point of view in Chinese political matters, but
the sad thing is that the current President in Taiwan doesn't even consider himself a Chinese.
Must check out a Hong Kong movie called "the eye" at Angelica.
JoJo
Posted by: JoJo at July 2, 2003 12:03 PM