Hong Kong and Macao under Chinese Sovereignty

A team of Hong Kong-based geographers led by a noted specialist provides a comparative overview of Hong Kong and Macao under Chinese sovereignty (respectively, since 1997 and 1999). The authors outline the historical development of both cities, identifying their common legacies as colonial enclaves as well as shared economic experience as autonomous Special Administrative Regions (SARs) under the "one country, two systems" formula devised in Beijing. The paper includes up-to-date statistical information (some through March 2008) on per capita GDP, visitors from Mainland China and from abroad (for both cities), direct investment, employment in financial services, trade and logistics, and tourism (for Hong Kong) as well as revenues from gambling casinos in Macao that are reportedly surpassing those of Las Vegas. Journal of Economic Literature, O16, O18, O20, R11. Classification Numbers: 11 figures, 4 tables, 46 references.     

香港与内地的贸易关系（1869-1904）

两次鸦片战争后,中国对外贸易的空间格局发生了很大变化,全国对外贸易枢纽由广州逐渐北移至上海.在中国沿海唯一能与上海争雄的口岸只有香港,这得益于香港优越的地理位置及宽泛的贸易辐射面.本文力图阐明19世纪后期到20世纪初,国内主要通商口岸与香港之间贸易关系的演进,分析其发展变化的具体表现形式.     

Britain,European Economic Community Enlargement,and ‘Decolonisation’ in Hong Kong, 1967–1973

Politicians and businesspeople in Hong Kong paid close attention to British efforts to join the European Economic Community (EEC). The British colony was exempted from most tariffs in Britain, an arrangement that could not survive EEC enlargement. EEC members were unwilling to extend to Hong Kong, a significant exporter of manufactured goods, the same trade preferences offered to other dependent territories. Instead, the unique provision the EEC made for the colony was limited inclusion into their Generalised System of Preferences scheme, which granted tariff concessions to developing countries. Historians of Hong Kong have shown how the colony experienced British imperial withdrawal in a number of ways, despite remaining under British rule until 1997. This article demonstrates that an important element is missing from this account: how global economic shifts led to an erosion of imperial ties. EEC enlargement from 1973 entailed the end of Hong Kong's privileged access to the British market, but for the colony, the importance of imperial economic links had already faded. At the same time, an assessment of Hong Kong's capacity to pursue favourable terms of trade in global markets independently from Britain offers a more tentative conclusion of the extent of the colony's autonomy.     

晚清时期中外贸易的个案分析——以香港转口贸易为例

晚清时期中国对外贸易的空间格局发生了很大变化,全国对外贸易枢纽由广州逐渐北移至上海。在中国沿海唯一能与上海争雄的口岸只有香港,这得益于香港优越的地理位置及宽泛的贸易辐射面。本文力图在把握19世纪后期到20世纪初期中外贸易历史大环境的基础上,复原两广地区、西南地区、闽浙台地区、上海及长江流域、环渤海地区与香港之间贸易关系的演进,分析其发展变化的具体表现形式。     

晚清时期香港与两广的贸易关系

晚清时期香港与两广的贸易关系极为密切.广东大珠江三角洲地区、粤东潮汕地区和粤西南地区,以及广西的北部湾地区、桂西南地区和西江流域依凭13个口岸与香港展开了繁密的贸易往来.不同地区的洋货进口结构略有不同,而土货出口结构则差别极大,反映出区域经济发展的差异.此外,新辟口岸分流效应使原有的贸易路线发生转移,商路的变迁有规律可循.     

The internationalism of stateless nations: The case of Hong Kong

Nationalism is often associated with xenophobia and isolationism in academic literature. The negative image of nationalism has been further strengthened by the electoral success of far-right political figures across the world. However, treating all nationalism as a uniformly negative phenomenon risks over-simplification, as nationalism might manifest differently given different social context and rhetorical resources available. Taking Hong Kong as a case, this paper theorises Hong Kong as a stateless nation and examines the alleged negative association of nationalism. It moves beyond the traditional ‘Hong Kong vis-a-vis China’ framework and explores the relationship between Hong Kong nationalists and non-Chinese international actors. Drawing on data from major Hong Kong political parties' Facebook page, this paper shows that Hong Kong nationalism exhibits a high level of internationalism in both inward and outward dimensions, theorised, respectively, as the willingness to accept foreign influence and to invite international cooperation, and therefore offers a nuanced understanding about the relationship between nationalism, xenophobia and isolationism.     

Cross-border connection between Hong Kong and mainland China under 'two systems' before and beyond 1997

Cross-border flows of people, goods and capital are fundamental forces triggering spatial and economic transformations in any cross-border regional production system. This study focuses on such cross-border links between Hong Kong and mainland China in the context of cross-border regional production systems. The paper examines first the close demographic ties and investment and trading relations between Hong Kong and mainland China before 1997. In terms of total direct and indirect trading, and outward investment, Hong Kong was the largest partner of mainland China and vice versa. The recent development in the cross-border development between Hong Kong and the mainland after 1997 is also analyzed. The political change, the return of Hong Kong to China in 1997, did not alter the demographic-economic linkages significantly as such connections had been well established during the period 1978 to 1997 after China's opening to the outside world. Hong Kong and mainland China are two independent economic entities practicing ‘two systems’ of capitalism and socialism respectively. Contrary to common expectation, the new government in Hong Kong only played a limited role after 1997. However, a bottom-up approach has been working spontaneously and the local people and businessmen in Hong Kong have been the primary force in establishing strong relations with the mainland facilitated by the close demographic-cultural ties both before and after 1997.     

John Francis Davis as governor and diplomat on the China Coast (1844–1848)

This paper explores the role of the nineteenth-century sinologist-cum-diplomat, John Francis Davis, in Sino-British relations after the ratification of the Treaty of Nanjing in 1843. It examines his time as governor of Hong Kong and as Britain's effective minister to China from 1844 until 1848, in which he attempted to have the city of Canton opened to foreign trade. Arguing that Davis's view of Sino-British relations was as cultural in character as it was political, this paper suggests that Davis fundamentally sought to establish strict equality between the two empires. He attempted to use his knowledge of Chinese civilization to build an equal international relationship between two sovereign nations rather than an imperial relationship between a conqueror and the conquered people. While this conviction laid the groundwork for Hong Kong to become a bilingual Anglo-Chinese colony, it fractured diplomacy with Qing officials. Davis's insistence on political equality would amount to an aggressive imposition of European diplomatic norms on his dealings with the Qing representative Qiying. More precisely, the paper explains how the policies of this archetypal British ‘China Hand’ bifurcated in the directions of both progressive cultural policy but also gunboat diplomacy.     

China's New Generation of Leaders and Regional Challenges in East Asia

A pair of Hong Kong and U.S. specialists on China examines the dynamic international environment China's new leadership now faces, focusing on East Asia. They first examine the complex balance the leadership seeks to strike between: (1) China's projection of increasing economic, military, and political power internationally; (2) the primary domestic goals of economic growth and stability; and (3) rising public awareness, demand for information access, and (in some quarters) nationalism among the Chinese people. The authors then proceed, in successive sections of the paper, to assess in greater detail China's international and regional security environment, Sino-American relations, China's relations with its East Asian neighbors, and the complex interconnections between the country's domestic and foreign policy. They conclude that Sino-American relations will continue to be pivotal to Beijing's foreign relations in general and its relations with countries in the East Asian region more specifically.     

Hong Kong and Macao under Chinese Sovereignty: A Framing Discourse

A senior American specialist on China and noted geographer presents a framing commentary and analysis of three preceding papers (Yeung et al., 2008; Shen, 2008; and Tang, 2008) comprising a symposium on Hong Kong and Macao under Chinese sovereignty after Great Britain and Portugal ceased to govern these cities in the late 1990s. The paper commences with an historical overview, noting the years of colonial rule, discussing relations with Mainland China before and after its economic reforms were set in motion, and evaluating the post-handover period in light of the material and arguments in the preceding papers. Included in the paper is also a section on environmental degradation in Hong Kong. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: N950, O18, Q30, R11. 3 figures, 17 references.     

Identity and Place: the testament of designated heritage in Hong Kong

This paper examines the extent to which the identity of Hong Kong as a place, and of the Hong Kong Chinese as people, is expressed by the official heritage locations (the seventy-five Declared Monuments) designated by Hong Kong's Antiquities and Monuments Office. The discussion takes account of other heritage initiatives, in particular two recent monuments that commemorate the 1997 Handover of Hong Kong to China. Conclusions are that designated heritage in Hong Kong, more by chance than by deliberate strategy, reflects significant elements of the identities of the Hong Kong people and of Hong Kong as a place. However, more important to the Hong Kong Chinese person's sense of identity than built heritage are the bonds of kin and associated social events.     

晚清时期香港与北方环渤海地区的贸易关系

晚清时期香港与北方环渤海地区的贸易关系密切,东北地区通过牛庄口岸,山东及朝鲜通过烟台口岸,直隶及广大北方腹地通过天津口岸与香港展开了繁密的贸易往来.不同地区的洋货进口结构略有不同,而土货出口结构则差别较大,反映出区域经济发展的差异.对外贸易的发展刺激了腹地外向型经济的兴起.     

Overseas Chinese Investments in Transition: The Case of Dongguan

An economic geographer based in Hong Kong presents a study of overseas Chinese investment coming from Hong Kong and Taiwan to Dongguan, a rapidly developing manufacturing metropolis in China's Pearl River Delta, attempting to compare the transformation of these two major sources of investment during the past quarter century. Based on systematic field work and interviews at ca. 60 firms through mid-2006, the paper argues that Hong Kong and Taiwan investments have followed different transformation paths with regard to sectoral composition, investment motivations, market orientation, entry modes, and strategies in response to institutional changes. Most of the substantive differences are related to the distinctive comparative advantages of the two source regions and the specific character of their interactions with the host region. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: F21, O16, R11. 4 figures, 4 tables, 60 references.     

Infective Economies: Empire,Panic and the Business of Disease

The Third Plague Pandemic in Asia during the 1890s, and the institutional stresses it produced, exposed inherent vulnerabilities within the global networks that sustained the British Empire. While commercial and informational routes meshed disparate imperial dominions, they also functioned as pathways for disease and conduits of panic, undermining imperial commerce and threatening social order. Focusing in particular on the 1894 outbreak of bubonic plague in Hong Kong, the paper suggests that an analysis of a ‘local’ epidemic episode and its wider reverberations provides a new perspective on the often heated debates during the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries about the meaning and scope of empire in relation to new communication networks. The paper shows how expanding global networks were construed alternatively as sustaining and jeopardising imperial power. The bubonic plague in Hong Kong—a hub of ‘free trade’ in East Asia—and the panicked reactions elicited by the disease's diffusion westwards revealed the economic priorities that informed colonial public health concerns as well as the challenges posed to laissez-faire economic policy and ‘free trade’ by the expanding influence of capital in the ‘New Imperialism’. In so doing, the paper suggests that contemporary preoccupations with ‘globalisation’, ‘biosecurity’ and ‘emerging diseases’ have antecedents that lie beyond the Second World War and the interwar period in a late-nineteenth-century imperial biopolitics.     

Vietnam: Two Decades of Urban Development

Doi moi, adopted as a policy of economic reform in Vietnam in 1986, has ushered in fundamental and sweeping economic and social changes spearheaded by its cities. The paper, by a senior Hong Kong-based geographer, reviews the country's progress over a twodecade period ending in 2006. Discussion of the first decade focuses on deterioration of urban infrastructure and its causes (as well as the onset of reconstruction) based largely on field interviews, reconnaissance, and review of official documents and reports. Coverage of the second decade's more rapid change highlights legal reforms, privatization, foreign direct investment, as well as regional development. The favorable prognosis for urban Vietnam is examined in the context of the country's accession to the WTO and its hosting of the APEC Summit in late 2006. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: O10, O18, O30, P20. 4 figures, 1 table, 26 references.     

从广交会看两岸的经贸关系(1957-1991年)

广交会是大陆开展对台经贸工作的平台之一。创办之初,广交会主要通过在香港的台湾办庄和台商开展工作。20世纪60年代末70年代初,通过海外侨商开展对台经贸工作。改革开放后,大陆积极发展对台贸易,台商间接参与广交会。1987年,台湾开放民众到大陆探亲,为台商直接参与广交会创造了条件。总结广交会台商工作的政策沿革和实践发展的历史经验,对当前推进两岸经贸交流、完成祖国统一大业有借鉴意义。     

Policy and creative strategies: Hong Kong CEPA films in the China market

Abstract

This article examines the creative strategies of Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) films in engagements with the China market under the framework of CEPA introduced in 2004. One of the aims of CEPA for the film sector is to boost co-production between Hong Kong and the mainland. In the past 10 years, CEPA has dramatically changed Hong Kong cinema’s relationship with China in that major film directors have moved to produce CEPA films to tap into the rapidly growing mainland market. This shift has been considered as part of HKSAR’s overall mainlandization and subsequent disappearance of a distinct local identity. This article revisits this view by presenting two case studies to see if indeed Hong Kong CEPA pictures are devoid of Hong Kong elements. The case studies analyze textual elements of two CEPA blockbuster films, The Mermaid (dir. Stephen Chow, 2016) and The Taking of Tiger Mountain 3D (dir. Tsui Hark, 2014). Citing the intertextual allusions to the directors’ old works seen in these two films, the authors argue that the market advantage granted by the CEPA scheme in effect allowed Hong Kong filmmakers to revive and extend signature creative strategies of Hong Kong cinema, despite censorship constraints.     

The (Ineffective) Financial Statecraft of China's Bilateral Swap Agreements

Since 2008, the People's Bank of China has signed bilateral swap agreements (BSAs) with 35 foreign central banks. Collectively, these deals amount to nearly US$ 500 billion in Chinese renminbi (RMB) available to Beijing's foreign partners. What has led China to be so aggressive in its efforts to sign so many swap agreements? What are the political economic implications of the swap programme for the US‐centric global economic order? China's BSAs can be understood as a form of financial statecraft: the use of national financial and monetary capabilities to achieve foreign policy ends. China has deployed BSAs for both defensive and offensive reasons. Defensively, Beijing has sought to use BSAs to promote trade settlement in RMB thereby reducing China's vulnerability to the dollar's structural dominance in trade. Yet, as explained in this article, they have been ineffective in this regard. Offensively, Beijing has used BSAs as a short‐term liquidity backstop outside of the Bretton Woods institutions for partner countries in need. Here, there is greater potential for BSAs to impact the status quo economic order by enhancing Chinese economic influence. However, their potential is dependent on Beijing's willingness to act as a unilateral crisis lender and its ability to further internationalize the RMB.     

Urban Transition and Interstate Relations in a Dynamic Post-Soviet Borderland: The Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China

Two noted American geographers examine transition in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (a de facto Soviet protectorate in the 1930s and early 1940s) within the context of that region's strategic position. The paper, based on field work exploring urbanization in the People's Republic of China, investigates the area's role as a bridgehead and corridor for emerging economic relations between China and the neighboring republics of Central Asia. The focus is on the demographic dimensions of urban growth and the underlying geopolitical and economic factors. Considerable attention also is given to the implications of increased trade and improvements in transportation links with the newly independent Central Asian states. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: F14, F15, O15, O18. 4 figures, 6 tables, 51 references.     

1967年香港反英抗暴斗争后中国对港贸易的恢复

1967年香港的反英抗暴斗争,是中英关系史和香港发展史上一次有重大影响的事件。因此次事件,中国内地暂停经香港的转口业务,港英当局对内地采取贸易歧视政策,美国、日本和中国台湾等乘机加紧对港澳市场的争夺。到1968年,中国商品占香港进口市场份额退居第二位,位列日本之后。在此背景下,中国政府采取强有力措施,迅速恢复和扩大对港澳地区的出口供应。透过历史的考察与分析,可以看出中央政府确保对港澳市场的稳定供应具有战略意义,体现出中央保持港澳地区长期繁荣稳定的方针是一贯的。在反英抗暴斗争中,中央政府坚持有理、有利、有节的斗争方针,在外贸总量同期大幅度下降的情况下,中英贸易没有受到太大的影响。