would not be a far jump to the government of Hong Kong dictating how stories will be written. The liberty of freedom of the press is some thing that acts as check on every government. It keeps a limited amount of power in the people s hands it lets them know what the government is doing in their name and make the government a little more accountable to the people. While it is a surprise to no one that the Chinese media is state controlled, it was somewhat a shock when they started limiting access to the press in Hong Kong.
While this self-imposed censorship is proscribed to by most businesses, those who do speak their mind are subject to recrimination for speaking out against the Chinese government. For examples, in 1994 when Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, owner of the infamous Apple Daily newspaper called Chinese Premier Li Peng a turtle s egg with a zero IQ, the remark was taken as a grave insult. Following the remarks Chee-ying s reporters were banned from China and his clothing business found itself with a licensing problem through out China.
In this past year there have been no drastic changes. China appears to be cautious not to overact and make a mistake that could blow up in their faces. The Chinese government prefers to work behind the scenes trying to convince the citizens of Hong Kong, it is in their best interests to work with China. This is not an uncommon situation for the residents of Hong Kong. England used the same argument in Hog Kong s colonial period. The optimists in Hong Kong look at the handover as the first chance the
people of Hong Kong have had to participate in self-government. They are hopeful about their economic future and see this as an opportunity to act as a doorway for the world to the closed Chinese market place. The pessimists see the handover as the beginning of the end for Hong Kong. They fear political crackdowns, losing the economic freedoms they have enjoyed under British rule, and some simply worry about losing their identity as a world player and becoming just another Chinese province. It has only been a year and too early to tell if any of these fears or hopes have grounds to stand on. The current economic problems in Hong Kong cannot be blamed on China, they are instead a product of the economic downturn all Asia is suffering from. I believe the most major change will most likely occur with people outside of Hong Kong and China, foreigners will no longer think of Hong Kong as a place independent of China, but instead a mere providence of China. Like most changes involving China, it will happen slowly.
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