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TOTAL LICENSING
progress and the de- munist armies won the see-saw battles between
mocracy which they the parties, and after the historic “long march” Of course the U.S. super power and its allies
hoped to bring into of the Red Army, the Communists had safely had succeeded in battling the masses of Chinese
the post-war and post- won decisive victories over the more conserva- soldiers to a draw in the Korean War. But again
empire new China. tive old-line Nationalists. – none of this really touched Hong Kong.
They studied western
philosophy and em- Hong Kong missed the convulsions that drove When Mao’s unfortunate and blood-letting Cul-
braced its culture. Chiang right off the mainland and in 1949 he and tural Revolution tore the Chinese ruling com-
his army had to encamp on an armada of ships munist apparatus into battling factions with
They were sorely dis- and sailing the narrow straits to the ancient but great loss of property and economical depriva-
appointed and hurt, however, when at the post- powerless island of Formosa, they then estab- tion, Hong Kong basked in the peace granted it
war treaty of Versailles an inattentive commis- lished the “Republic of China”(Taiwan) with by the Western Democracies economic and po-
sion of great powers gave to their World War Chiang installed as its first president. litical support. Even Taiwan’s attempts to form
I ally Japan (who were hated by the Chinese) closer alliances left Hong Kong cold. It simply
the former German concessions in Shandong For a short period during 1941 – 1945 warfare did not want to rock its boat.
Province. the hated Japanese took over Hong Kong. How-
ever, in the 1945 victory by the Allies, the Brit- Again, the world changed with Nixon’s visit to
ish Lion, supported by the USA, China that led to some warming of relations
Russia and China, then returned between the USA and China. However, Hong
to Hong Kong, and when the Kong and Hong Kong’s fate were not really ad-
Royal Navy steamed into port dressed. The British of course always knew that
on August 30, 1945 Hong Kong’s all the proprietorship they had in Hong Kong
post-war population of 500,000 was a 99 year lease and that this lease would
to 600,000 Chinese stood by end by 1997 – but in the 1960s and 1970s, that
politely. date seemed far away. Of course, in the mean-
time the Hong Kong government kept making
All over the world the British small steps towards giving its Chinese majority
Empire continued to splinter more freedom.
and fall apart into individual na-
tive nationalist non-white gov- Perestroika shifted Russia’s interests to much
ernments and these ex-colonies needed economic development. China, too,
became self-governing countries changed after the dismantling of the Cultural
from India to South Africa. Revolution and concentrated its emphasis on
the catch-up game of economic development
Britain had learned a thing or and prosperity rather than on Communist pu-
two however from the war- rity. A time of good feeling had set in and the
time’s anti-colonial rhetoric of world advanced towards a concert of like-mind-
the Japanese. The opium trade ed globalizations and economic pacts between,
and “white only” rule in Hong for the moment, peaceful players.
Kong was rapidly abolished and
“responsible self govern- A time of good feelings brought to Hong Kong a
ment for Hong Kong under recognition that it had to look towards its own
British sovereignty over it” future and as economies progressed and trad-
became the policy. ing multiplied exponentially. Hong Kong expe-
rienced its own real estate boom, stock market
In Britain Labor and Tory party boom and became one of the world-wide ad-
governments changed but the mired “little Asian tigers”.
Kowloon - the ‘other’ Hong Kong
Crown colony of Hong Kong
endured! Under the changing Hong Kong gov- Although the “little Asian tigers” faced some
Again, Hong Kong was not involved, nor con-
ernors, a Chinese municipal council emerged serious cross-winds in the 1990s, action by the
cerned, when the allies added further insult to
and so did other institutions. But as the cold different central banks and development funds
injury and sent an international brigade of USA,
war divided the world into a propaganda war limited the damages and so was born the Hong
British, French and Japanese forces to land in
between the two Super Powers, Hong Kong re- Kong of today.
Siberia to battle the Russian Bolsheviks. It was
mained a handy model of how “democratic capi-
also later discovered that plans existed for the
talism” would confer upon its world additional Culturally, Hong Kong always had its own base
invasion of Chinese territory if that had become
value and comfort. Hong Kong became a poster built upon a mixture of ancient law, Kung Fu
necessary.
child of freedom (at least some), and took on movies, and its status as the interpreter and ex-
the status of “the Berlin of the East”. change point for diverging systems and diverging
By 1927 the Nationalists split from the Com-
philosophies. None of this, however, deterred
munists and ten years of bloody warfare fol-
Hong Kong was accepted by the Mainland on the Hong Kong powers that be from not wish-
lowed when the “first united front” had split
its northern border. China also liked having the ing to engage in dangerous speculation with too
apart after the 1925 death of Dr. Sun Yat Sen
West interested in the region. And the West, much democratic freedoms, parliamentary gov-
who had held them together.
in turn, liked Hong Kong as a listening post and ernment, or mass movements.
neutral base from which to have conversations
Finally under Mao Ze Dong, the Chinese Com-
and contacts with China. Again, Hong Kong chose its mantra of separate
174
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