AS the date for Hong Kong's reunification with mainland China approaches this July, we're hearing contrasting opinions about the impact of this historic event. Two views of Hong Kong
Sociologist Alvin Y. So told a Honolulu audience last month that, with 3 million people in Southern China already producing goods for Hong Kong-based businesses, the economic integration of the colony with China is a done deal. After reunification, the 'unholy alliance' of capitalism and communism will continue and Hong Kong's global influence will grow.
More recently, in a speech at the University of Hawaii on Thursday, human-rights activist Harry Wu presented a different perspective. In the short run, Wu says, the 'one country two systems' model discounts the menace of a totalitarian communist state. The party will merely use Hong Kong's economic vitality to sustain its grip on power.
However, both pessimist, Wu, and optimist, So, place great hope in young people born and raised in Hong Kong, many of whom are well-educated professionals who have become the defenders of Hong Kong's interests.
So believes they will successfully push for social reform and democratization, two areas neglected under British rule.
Wu, on the other hand, sees 6 million Hong Kongese acting 'like a virus' that will infect the reunified country. In the long run, he hopes, this virus will kill Chinese communism.