Hong Kong China Hotel
China (includes Tibet, Hong Kong, and Macau)
In February and March, the PRC media and local pro-PRC newspapers ran a series of articles defining patriotism in Hong Kong. The debate started with an article in the PRC-owned China Daily citing former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping's statement that "only patriots should govern Hong Kong" and relating this criterion to the political debate over universal suffrage in Hong Kong. The PRC media later published guidelines for patriotic actions, and a local pro-PRC paper printed the names of those in Hong Kong perceived to be "unpatriotic." In the midst of the debate, Jiang Zemin, former president and then Chairman of the Chinese Central Military Commission accused Hong Kong's independent Apple Daily newspaper and two radio hosts of being "hostile forces," according to the local East Week magazine. ... [Read More]
China (includes Tibet, Hong Kong, and Macau)
Hong Kong sends 36 delegates to China's National People's Congress (NPC). The NPC requires the approval of two-thirds of Hong Kong's NPC delegates to place an amendment to the Basic Law on the NPC's agenda. Hong Kong's NPC delegates also were members of the selection committee that chose six of the Hong Kong legislators in 2000. In December Hong Kong's NPC delegates were elected to a 5-year term by an NPC-appointed committee of 955 residents, up from 424 residents voting in the previous (1997) NPC election. Politicians and human rights activists have criticized the election process as undemocratic and lacking transparency. ... [Read More]
China (includes Tibet, Hong Kong, and Macau)
Some human rights groups alleged that the Government has not protected vigorously enough the interests of Hong Kong residents arrested and imprisoned in mainland China. Hong Kong authorities stated that there is no agreement allowing them access to Hong Kong residents arrested or detained in mainland China, even after conviction. Under an agreement signed in 2000 and in effect since 2001, PRC and SAR public security authorities are required to notify each other of certain categories of detentions of each other's residents. A human rights group alleged that the Government has not sought information concerning Hong Kong residents convicted prior to 2001 and still serving sentences on the mainland. An estimated 500-1,000 Hong Kong residents were imprisoned in mainland China at year's end, including political prisoners such as Xu Zerong, a Hong Kong permanent resident teaching at universities in southern China who was sentenced in 2002 to 13 years in prison for "illegally providing state s ... [Read More]
Hong Kong's Autonomy Benefits China, United States - US Department of State
We have much work to do with Hong Kong in its own right. As the world's busiest port, Hong Kong is a key ally in the fight against terrorism. With the container security initiative, Hong Kong is helping safeguard the global trading system from terrorism. As a key transportation hub, Hong Kong can take further steps to liberalize the air services sector. Through its 65,000 factories in the Pearl River Delta, Hong Kong is adapting to the end of textile quotas. As a major regional financial center, Hong Kong is fighting money laundering on a global and regional basis. In other words, we have a full agenda in U.S.-Hong Kong relations. But Hong Kong's broader role and impact on U.S.-China relations is evident in the territory's hosting of the upcoming Sixth Ministerial in Hong Kong in December, part of Hong Kong's ongoing effort to advance the WTO's Doha Round toward a productive conclusion. ... [Read More]
U.S.-Hong Kong Policy Act Report
Exchanges between Hong Kong’s seven universities and other educational institutions and their U.S. counterparts range from short-term visits by American faculty and summer programs for students to ambitious multi-year exchanges of faculty and staff. The Fulbright program in Hong Kong supports four U.S. lecturers and two to three U.S. students in Hong Kong each year. The Hong Kong government, through the Research Grants Council, funds post-graduate research in the United States for four Hong Kong academics for up to one academic year. The Hong Kong-America Center, which has been in operation since 1993 with support from five local universities and the Department of State, handles the selection of Hong Kong Fulbrighters doing research in the United States. The Department of State supports the University of Hong Kong's American Studies degree program by providing a Fulbright Scholar to the program each year. The Institute of International Education (IIE) office in Hong Kong provides educa ... [Read More]
Department of State Washington File: Text: U.S. Official Urges Hong Kong To Liberalize Aviation Market
Let me be absolutely clear on this point, because I know there are some who say that what is good for Hong Kong's airlines is good for Hong Kong. They are wrong. The fact is that what is good for Hong Kong is good for Hong Kong's airlines. And Open Skies are good for Hong Kong. ... Three years ago, the United States discussed the possibility of an Open Skies agreement with Hong Kong. The agreement our two economies concluded moved us in the right direction, but it didn't -- at Hong Kong's choosing -- fully open the skies between us. The 2002 deal limits the ability of U.S. carriers to serve international markets beyond Hong Kong, and imposes similar limits on Hong Kong's carriers in the U.S. ... [Read More]
Department of State Washington File: Text: SARS Transmission Stopped in Hong Kong, U.N. Health Agency Says
SARS was first carried out of southern China into Hong Kong, and then on to Hanoi, Toronto, and Singapore in late February. Some 16 visitors and guests to the ninth floor of a Hong Kong hotel became infected through contact, in ways that remain mysterious, with a symptomatic medical doctor from Guangdong Province, who stayed in the hotel's room 911. The index case for Hong Kong's first outbreak, in the Prince of Wales Hospital, visited an acquaintance staying on the same floor during the critical days in February. Additional clusters were also subsequently linked to the hotel. ... [Read More]
USDA Offices in Asia
1 Email: AgBeijing@fas.usda.gov Top HONG KONG1 Agricultural Trade Office 1 U.S. Consulate General-Hong Kong ... *** 1 China,1 Hong Kong,1 Indonesia,1 Japan,1 Korea,1 Malaysia,1 Philippines,1 Singapore,1 Taiwan,1 Thailand,1 Vietnam CHINA1ATO, Shanghai 1American Int. l Center/Shanghai Center ... [Read More]
Department of State Washington File: Text: U.S. Lawmaker Examines Hong Kong's Influence on China
We must assume that both sides are rational and seek to ensure a prosperous and secure future for Hong Kong, however great their differences. For that reason, the leadership in Beijing is unlikely to believe that Hong Kong's people will simply abandon their ever more deeply rooted desire for greater democracy or meekly submit to repression. But with its legitimacy and authority increasingly questioned throughout China, Beijing fears the consequences in this larger theater of appearing to back down on further democratic reform and allowing Hong Kong to determine its own future. ... [Read More]
China (03/05)
During the 19th century, Qing control weakened, and prosperity diminished. China suffered massive social strife, economic stagnation, explosive population growth, and Western penetration and influence. The Taiping and Nian rebellions, along with a Russian-supported Muslim separatist movement in Xinjiang, drained Chinese resources and almost toppled the dynasty. Britain's desire to continue its illegal opium trade with China collided with imperial edicts prohibiting the addictive drug, and the First Opium War erupted in 1840. China lost the war; subsequently, Britain and other Western powers, including the United States, forcibly occupied "concessions" and gained special commercial privileges. Hong Kong was ceded to Britain in 1842 under the Treaty of Nanking, and in 1898, when the Opium Wars finally ended, Britain executed a 99-year lease of the New Territories, significantly expanding the size of the Hong Kong colony. ... [Read More]
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