Austin Baylor
Mrs. Straub
AP Economics
October 6th, 2014
One Country, Two systems.
As many of you know, on October 28th over 10,000 civilians of Hong Kong took to the streets in protest. Police response to these actions were more intense than thought which led to even more people tagging along in the protest. The overall economic state and situation Hong Kong is in may be better explained if you understand the structure behind the tension.
In 1847 Hong Kong was ceded to the UK s a territory after the Opium wars. It wasn’t until 1898 that an agreement was set up between China and Hong Kong to have a 99 year lease for Hong Kong to be a british colony. You think after 99 years that’d be enough time to figure out everything? Nope! So in the 1990’s with the switch approaching the appointed governor of Hong Kong brought forth the ideal for democracy in Hong Kong. China finds this not just humorous, but also incredibly annoying, because China would really like to have Hong Kong’s really large economic cake and also eat it. SO in 1997 Honk Kong (Kinda) becomes part of China.
This is where things get weird because after 150 years of British rule Hong Kong, while ethnically Chinese, has its own dialect, currency, laws, judiciary system, taxes, postal services and culture. Even crossing from China to Hong Kong (which is part of China) you need to get your passport stamped. Even at the Beijing olympics Hong Kong and China had two separate teams. Same country! (Yet Tibet still gets yelled at for wanted to be its own country).
This huge gap between the separate parts of the country led to the one country two systems ideal and Hong Kong was seen as the gap between China and the capitalistic world. However history has shown us the communism and Capitalism do not mix well and what is now happening was kinda to be expected. Since china has to let Hong Kong be Hong Kong and do an uncomfortable thing: be free.
Usually the “Chief Executive” [It’s like a president {not really} but since it’s HOng Kong it’s gotta be full on capitalist] is elected by tycoon owner, but every so often the people get to vote for their leader and this would be the first time ever. HOwever since Hong Kong has no real constitution China takes this as “Hong Kong can vote for any one of the people we say you can vote for”. [I wonder where they got that idea from, most definitely not Putin.] This is not a democracy.
Hong Kong has the third largest stock exchange in the world and the Hong Kong dollar is the 8th most traded currency. It is an economic powerhouse in the world. Probably one of the most delicious economic cakes out there, yet China wants to change its recipe. Because China does what china wants.
These protests also fell during China’s National Day which caused many people to not go to Hong Kong and therefore buy nothing. Hong Kong also exports half of its things to China. 50% is a large number of exports and it’s to its own country. The government of Hong Kong also had to shut down temporarily leaving many without jobs and pay. Even though china is a economic giant is is divided and this protest has stunned the districts and hurt the economy. Especially for people who work for low paying jobs and need every penny to get through the day. However while the years of China riding on Hong Kong are gone, Hong Kong needs China now. China, ironically enough, loves stability and they’ve been giving a good nudge in that direction. This uproar in Hong Kong may not sit well in Beijing. However, it will be bad for China to have Hong Kong run on the system China uses and they know that.
Whether Hong Kong likes it or not it is part of China and it must integrate or fade. Both options will hurt it, unless China can change, but China does not like change. Add onto this the thousands of people not working or doing anything and it hit Hong Kong badly. A lot of loss down time was occured. It will take a few years to see in Communism and Capitalism can exist together, but unless something happens Hong Kong may not see better days, and the world doesn’t want Hong Kong to have that happen.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/protests-could-hurt-hong/1400462.html
While it would be weird for China, a communist nation to control Hong Kong which runs a capitalist system and needs to maintain this system for the current level of profits, Communism and Capitalism already somewhat coexist in China, because China has become increasingly market-oriented in their economy, which is why they have experienced such a resurgence in their economy and profit levels, however their governmental system remains communistic in nature. Therefore since China has become a market system, I think that they could run Hong Kong having a market system while maintaining a dictatorship governmental system.
ReplyDeleteChina's government is already a mix of Capitalism and Communism due to Deng Xiaopings economic reforms in the 70's. These reforms led to China being one of the most powerful economies in the world quickly. Hong Kong could probably be absorbed easily into China.
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