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SPEAKING
FREELY
Just a typical Hong Kong
boy
By Todd Crowell
Speaking Freely is an Asia Times
Online feature that allows guest writers to have
their say. Please click here
if you are interested in
contributing.
One of the most
fascinating stories in post-handover history is
how Beijing came to tolerate such a remnant of
British colonialism as Donald Tsang becoming Hong
Kong's next chief executive. He fills the term of
Tung Chee-hwa, who resigned earlier this year.
Tsang clinched the top job this week after
he received 710 nominating votes from the
800-member electoral college, packed with
pro-Beijing business leaders, that chooses Hong
Kong's chief. Since a minimum of 100 nominating
votes is required to advance to the election,
Tsang essentially was unopposed and declared the
winner.
The question is how Donald Tsang
became so much more acceptable to the Chinese
leadership than former chief secretary Anson Chan.
After all, both were favored and promoted by Chris
Patten, the last British governor. Both were
honored by the queen. Tsang with a knighthood,
Anson as an honorary dame.
At the time of
the handover in 1997, Anson Chan, then the number
two officer in the administration, was
unquestionably the most popular official in Hong
Kong. If the first Chinese chief executive had
been decided by a popular vote, she would have won
hands down.
In fact, a small circle of
mostly pro-Beijing business figures decided the
issue in favor of shipping magnate Tung Chee-hwa.
He kept Anson Chan in office since any immediate
change would have undermined both local and
international confidence in the new Hong Kong
administration.
Patten picked Anson to be
the first Chinese chief secretary shortly after he
became governor in 1992 and embarked on a program
of expanding the number of directly elected seats
in the Legislative Council. It was an action that
earned Beijing's deep animosity, since it had
assumed the matter was settled. Anson was pegged
as Patten's chief lieutenant, or, as Beijing saw
it, his chief running dog.
Anson clearly
enjoyed being a favored lieutenant of Patten and
made no effort to conceal it. Tsang, whom Patten
named to the key post of financial secretary in
1995, was more circumspect. Even when accepting
British honors and accolades, he always seemed to
be slightly embarrassed. Anson, when made an
honorary dame (similar to a knight), professed to
be "overjoyed".
After Anson retired in
2001 and was succeeded by Tsang, Chris Yeung,
political editor of the South China Morning Post
wrote: "Despite bearing the same political baggage
of Mrs Chan, inherited from their close links with
Chris Patten, Mr Tsang has been more successful in
diluting this pro-British image since the
handover."
Several times while she was
chief secretary and later, after she retired,
Anson spoke out publicly against certain actions
by Beijing or its sympathizers in Hong Kong. One
such occasion was in 1999, when some pro-Beijing
figures attacked the government radio station RTHK
for being too critical of the central government.
Tung remained silent.
Such actions won her
the sobriquet "the conscience of Hong Kong", first
bestowed on her in an admiring cover story in
Newsweek shortly before the handover. Thereafter
she would constantly be described in the foreign
press as Hong Kong's conscience, which grated on
the leaders in Beijing.
By contrast, Tsang
kept his differences behind closed doors while
cultivating the public image of being a "typical
Hong Kong boy", born and educated in Hong Kong,
who worked his way to the top of the civil service
on sheer merit and competence. It had the added
advantage of being largely true.
Tsang
probably cemented his rise when in August 1998, in
the depth of the Asian financial crisis, he
abruptly sacrificed free-market principles to
spend billions of public money to defend the Hong
Kong dollar from currency speculators. In a matter
of weeks he would spend the equivalent of nearly
HK$25 billion (US$3.2 billion)buying shares on the
Hong Kong stock market.
The action turned
out to be a smashing success as it scared off the
speculators, saved the dollar and later earned the
public a handsome profit when the government sold
off the shares. It is a sign of Tung Chee-hwa's
political ineptitude that he didn't seize credit
for what was one of the few successes of his
administration.
Tsang comes into office,
then, with considerable advantages. He has much
more public support that Tung ever had. (The
latest polls give him a 78% approval rating.) He
is demonstrably more decisive and competent than
his predecessor, and he probably has better
relations with the democratic camp in the
legislature, as well as with the international
community.
In the seven years since the
handover, Hong Kong has suffered from a major
dysfunction. As chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa had
Beijing's trust and confidence but not that of
Hong Kong's people. Anson Chan was trusted by the
people but thoroughly distrusted by Beijing. Tsang
by all accounts seems to be trusted by both. That
should augur well for Hong Kong.
Todd Crowell wrote Farewell,
My Colony, Last Years of British Hong Kong and
comments on Asian affairs at
www.asiacable.blogspot.com
Speaking Freely is an Asia Times
Online feature that allows guest writers to have
their say. Please click here
if you are interested in
contributing. |
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