The New Hong Kong

According to ‘Xi Jinping Thought’ on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, in the opening day speech delivered to the 19th Party Congress in October 2017. 

The thought consisted of a 14-point basic policy as follows:

1. Ensuring Communist Party of China leadership over all forms of work in China.
2. The Communist Party of China should take a people-centric approach for the public interest.
3. The continuation of "comprehensive deepening of reforms".
4. Adopting new science-based ideas for "innovative, coordinated, green, open and shared development".
5. Following "socialism with Chinese characteristics" with "people as the masters of the country".
6. Governing China with Rule of Law.
7. "Practice socialist core values", including Marxism, communism and socialism with Chinese characteristics.
8. "Improving people's livelihood and well-being is the primary goal of development".
9. Coexist well with nature with "energy conservation and environmental protection" policies and "contribute to global ecological safety".
10. Strengthen national security.
11. The Communist Party of China should have "absolute leadership over" China's People's Liberation Army.
12. Promoting the one country, two systems system for Hong Kong and Macau with a future of "complete national reunification" and to follow the One-China policy and 1992 Consensus for Taiwan.
13. Establish a common destiny between Chinese people and other people around the world with a "peaceful international environment".
14. Improve party discipline in the Communist Party of China.

Chinese Capitalism has been characterized by some as, a opportunist State, a market economy built on particularistic rather than pluralistic relationships, and a culturally self-sustained society with strong pragmatist tradition.

Thus, the interest of raising the question on the relationship between China and capitalism lies less on defining the type of Chinese society than on understanding better its characteristics and finding its main complications, especially through the lens of social theories on the interrelated structures among State, market and society.

After the British gained control of Hong Kong Island in 1841, they faced a paradox: The more successful their colony became economically, the less viable it was physically. Nothing has changed. Hong Kong is still a victim of its own success. The city ought to have imploded under its own weight long ago, and yet it continues to grow, defying its topographic limitations. Its greatest weakness, an acute lack of space, is also one of its greatest strengths.

In 1860, under the Convention of Peking, the British acquired the Kowloon Peninsula on the mainland to bolster their burgeoning colony.

Little Hong Kong attracted a huge influx of Chinese and European fortune seekers, and soon the population density reached unprecedented levels. When bubonic plague broke out in 1894, it was clear that the colony was unsustainable. The British then entered negotiations with the Chinese and secured a 99-year lease on what became known as the New Territories, 200 islands and a slice of mainland totalling 368 square miles.

For much of the 20th century, the combination of a liberal British colonial administration and an industrious, largely Chinese population helped to make Hong Kong the paradigm of free market economics.

“If you want to see capitalism in action, go to Hong Kong” said Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman.

Hong Kong never had sovereignty, and was never a democracy, Deng Xiaoping threatened China could seize Hong Kong in a day, former British Prime Minister Lady Thatcher revealed. The threat was being used to try to block Governor Chris Patten's moves towards greater democracy in Hong Kong, as it was ruled by the British Empire before returning to China as a 'Special Administrative Region'.

Although Article 5 of the Basic Law stipulates that: “The socialist system and policies shall not be practiced in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and the previous capitalist system and way of life shall remain unchanged for 50 years.”

With Hong Kong being one of the most densely populated areas in the world, with an overall density of some 6,300 people per sq. km., having one of the world's lowest birth rates of 1.11 per woman of child-bearing age, far below the replacement rate of 2.1; it is estimated that 26.8% of the population will be aged 65 or more in 2033, up from 12.1% in 2005.

Hong Kongers have come to realize that by year 2047 the end of the old Hong Kong capitalism is but eminent, and the dawn of a new one with Chinese characteristics is but absolute, as an integral part of the Pearl River Delta of China. Despite some local government officials still giving assurances that there will be no basic changes to Hong Kong’s system 50 years after the handover.

With a somewhat contracted 'International Financial Center' capacity, it is believed that Hong Kong will still cast itself as a model business, trading and services hub for the Mainland and the region as a whole. At the same time, Hong Kong within the Greater Bay Area context will continue to be a leading economic engine in southern China, as well as an increasingly affluent consumer market and a strong regional economy serving the global export market.

According to Deng Xiaoping: "The theoretical system of socialism with Chinese characteristics is a broad term for political theories and policies that are seen by their proponents as representing Marxism–Leninism adapted to Chinese circumstances and specific time periods."

Food for thought!