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The Recent History of

Hong Kong, the Pearl River Delta Region (PRD),

and China

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[Fung 2001]

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HK – PRD • Area: 48,000 sq km.• Population (2000): 30 million• Definition:

- The HK and Macao SARs- Shenzen and Zhuhai SEZs

- The PRD Economic Development Zone: 28 municipalities in the south central area of Guangdong province including Dongguan, Foshan, Zhongshan, Shunde, and Nanhai.[Fung 2001]

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Geography• Confluence of three rivers as they run to South China Sea.

• Delta has more than 1000 miles of waterways.

• In size, the coastal plain of 9,000 sq km is second only to Yangtze river delta.

• It contains some of the most fertile land in Asia.

• Sub-tropical climate, abundant rainfall, ready access to irrigation.

• Leading producer of rice, sugar cane, cotton, fruit, etc.

• More than 5,000 km of navigable waters provide a natural transport system for shipping and trade.

[Fung 2001]

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Early Trading Patterns• Trading with other parts of China and outside

world existed during the Han period.• First long-distance traders to come were Arabs:

imported spices for preserving food.• By the end of Tang period, trade routes to

Southeast Asia and the Middle East were well in place.

• Portuguese founded a settlement in Macao in 1557.

• Trade started with Europe. [Fung 2001]

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• 1699: the British established a trading base in ‘Canton’ (Guangzhou).

• From 1757 to the Opium War, Canton was the only port in China open to foreign trade.

• Vibrant economy.

• Development of a unique artistic and literary culture.

[Fung 2001]

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• Following the end of the first Opium War, the Treaty of Nanking in 1842 ceded Hong Kong to Britain in perpetuity.

• Sir Henry Pottinger, whose name can be found on a street in Central district, was its first governor.

• Following additional conflicts with the Chinese in 1860 Britain gained Kowloon and Stonecutters Island.

• In 1898 Britain acquired the New Territories on a 99-year lease.”

[geocities]

HK and the Colonial Era

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• “Initially, HK was dismissed as a “barren rock”.• But, it has the only deep water harbor between Singapore and

Shanghai, free of river-borne silt. Strategically located at the mouth of PRD.

• Within a few years, HK became a “thriving and populous colony, overspread with substantial houses and adorned by forts, batteries and public buildings.”

• It became a clearinghouse and re-export center for goods traded between southeast Asia and Europe.”

• HK and Canton evolved as functionally independent entities. • The remittances sent home by Cantonese Diaspora provided

significant capital between 1914 and 1930. The Chinese name of HSBC is huifeng, or “abundant remittances.”

[Fung 2001]

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• Hong Kong served as a refuge for exiles from China following the establishment of the Chinese Republic in 1912. Settlement in the territory grew slowly with the population rose from 32,983 in 1851 to 878,947 in 1931.

• After Japan seized Manchuria in 1932, the Sino-Japanese war broke out in 1937. Throughout the late thirties, as Japan advanced into China, hundreds of thousands of Chinese took refuge in Hong Kong. It was estimated that some 100,000 refugees entered in 1937, 500,000 in 1938 and 150,000 in 1939 - bringing Hong Kong's population at the outbreak of World War II to an estimated 1.6 million. It was thought that at the height of the influx, about 500,000 people were sleeping in the streets.

[geocities]

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• World War II again disrupted the social and economic life of Hong Kong. On Christmas Day, 1941, the British army surrendered Hong Kong to the Japanese. U.S. submarines foiled Japanese plans to use Hong Kong as a staging area for assaults further into East Asia. Following Japan's surrender on August 14, 1945 Britain reclaimed the territory.

•After the Japanese surrender, Chinese civilians returned at the rate of almost 100,000 a month. The population, which by August 1945 had been reduced to about 600,000, rose by the end of 1947 to an estimated 1.8 million.

[geocities]

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Then, in the period 1948-49, as the forces of the Chinese Nationalist Government began to face defeat in civil war at the hands of the communists, Hong Kong received an influx unparalleled in its history. Hundreds of thousands of people - mainly from Guangdong province, Shanghai and other commercial centres - entered the territory during 1949 and the spring of 1950, the population had swelled to an estimated 2.2 million. Since then, it has continued to rise and now totals over six million.

[geocities]

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1949-1978• 1949: Communists gained victory of Chiang Kai-shek and

the Kuomintang.• PRC retreated from the world. • 1951: The Korean war prompted a UN-sponsored trade

embargo on China. Cut off, HK could not function as an entrepot.

• HK then reinvented itself from middleman and deal-broker into a center for light industrial manufacturing for the export market.

• Govt. embraced a fiscal policy of “positive non-intervention.” HK became wealthy. Had one of the most successful public housing programs.

[Fung 2001]

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1978: “The Doors Open Again”

• Deng Xiaoping launched a “remarkable period of economic reform” by fusing socialism with private enterprise and free market economy.

• He asked Guangdong to “walk one step ahead” and established several SEZs in the 1980s – three in Guangdong.

[Fung 2001]

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1980-1997

• Foreign investments poured in.

• China’s economy grew at a rate of 9% per year. Per-capita income doubled.

• HK’s role as an entrepot and middleman “ returned with a vengeance.”

[Fung 2001]

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• China has always maintained that the three treaties which brought Hong Kong into existence were signed under pressure, and thus unjust.

• In 1984, the Joint Declaration (Summary | Complete) signed by Britain and China agreed that the sovereignty of

• Hong Kong reverted back to China on July 1, 1997, and became a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People's Republic of China.

• Likewise, Macao returned to China in 1999.

. [geocities]

The Return of HK to China

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The Joint Declaration provides that for 50 years after 1997

- Hong Kong's lifestyle will remain unchanged.

- The territory will enjoy a high degree of autonomy, except in foreign and defense affairs, and

- It need not practice the socialist system and policies adopted on the mainland.”

[geocities]

The UK-China Joint Declaration

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References

[geocities] http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Towers/2464/hist.htm

[Fung 2001] Victor Fung, Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta: Expanding Horizons (Project 2022), Li and Fung Group, Hong Kong, January 2001.]