On the fifth anniversary of its return to China, Hong Kong's Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa (董建華) has produced another fiasco.
Today is the fifth anniversary -- and such a milestone is occasion for a big celebration. Naturally Chinese President Jiang Zemin (江澤民), who loves the limelight, won't miss the festivities. Not only must the ceremonies be grand, but even more importantly, Jiang's security must not be neglected. Therefore, all the invited guests will have to provide the police with their personal data to facilitate background checks. The ludicrousness of the police not trusting these "honored" guests leaves one not knowing whether to laugh or to cry.
On June 19, the police launched a new wave of the "Operation Fire Lily" crackdown, which lasted seven days and focused primarily on the sex industry. To herald Jiang's arrival, they arrested prostitutes in droves. It isn't clear why Jiang's visit necessitated a crackdown on prostitution, but without a doubt, since returning to China, Hong Kong's relations with China have grown more intimate.
Last year, the army of Chinese prostitutes invading the territory swelled in ranks to six times the number who arrived two years ago. They now constitute the majority of all prostitutes in Hong Kong and are jokingly referred to as "northern fungus." Police data show that among the 1,800 women arrested for suspected prostitution in the first quarter of this year, 95 percent were from the mainland.
What are conditions like in Hong Kong on the fifth anniversary of the return to China?
In the first quarter, Hong Kong's economy recorded negative growth of 0.9 percent -- the third consecutive quarter of negative growth. The unemployment rate from March to May of this year was 7.4 percent -- the highest rate recorded since official statistics began to be kept in 1981. Applications for bankruptcy and bankruptcy announcements reached record highs in May, topping April's rates by 9.7 percent and 29.7 percent respectively. Compared with the same period last year, May bankruptcies shot up by 160 percent.
The University of Hong Kong's Public Opinion Program Web site released results of a survey taken early last month that showed that 44 percent of residents were unhappy with the government's performance, a figure that rose by a significant 6 percentage points over the previous month. Those who were satisfied amounted to only 24 percent, having dropped by 3 percentage points in the same period.
As for the data on exports, consumer confidence and so on -- one can only hope they are omens that "the darkest hour comes just before the dawn."
Today is also the beginning of Tung's second term as chief executive. Beijing wanted him to stay on but his record from the first term was too poor. For this reason his "talent and vision" burst forth once again and he carried out reform by implementing the "accountability system for principal officials," which scrapped the efficient system of using civil service personnel in Cabinet-level posts through which the British administered Hong Kong for over a century.
The "accountability system" is supposed to guide Hong Kong toward a bright future in which it will become the "Metropolis of Asia." Never mind that before the return to China, Hong Kong was already the "Pearl of the Orient" in the eyes of Westerners.
In mid-April, Tung announced the measures the "accountability system" would entail and ordered the Legislative Council to approve them before July 1.
Originally, they had decided that on the afternoon of June 22 they would announce the list of new Cabinet secretaries appointed by Tung and directly accountable to him. Later, Tung made a point of rescheduling the timing of the announcement to the morning of that day in order to avoid diverting attention because the World Cup match between England and Brazil was scheduled for the afternoon. But on June 20, the Hong Kong government announced that the announcement would be postponed. Beijing wanted to examine the list.
Article 48 of Hong Kong's Basic Law stipulates that the chief executive "nominate [principal offi-cials] and report [them] to the Central People's Government for appointment." These principal officials include secretaries and deputy secretaries of departments, directors of bureaus, commissioner against corruption, director of audit, police commissioner, director of immigration and customs and excise commissioner.
Under Tung's reforms, the department secretaries become Cabinet secretaries, but as Tung excitedly prepared for his second term as the dictator of Hong Kong, he forgot to hand the list to Beijing. Naturally the Beijing authorities have no intention of forfeiting this power. No matter how much they adore him, they can't set a precedent by exempting him from this duty. Thus when the name list began to be revealed bit by bit, and Beijing officials found themselves still in the dark, they had no choice but to remind Tung that they had to see the list before it was made public. Any changes to the list will certainly prove Beijing's "black hand" has been at work.
Tung has demonstrated with this fiasco that he can't even grasp the Basic Law. What can we expect of him?
Paul Lin is a political commentator based in New York.
Translated by Ethan Harkness
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