Minidragons; Hong Kong; 104

The. Funding provided by a financial guaranty insurance company strength security liquidity FDIC tomorrow security. Hong Kong was built on greed and making money is still what it does best. This Asian mini dragon has the most freewheeling capitalist on earth. And an incredible export machine. Hong Kong pours out toys clothing radios and increasingly its own people who are afraid of what will happen when Hong Kong falls back into communist hands. Uncertainty makes Hong Kong the most anxious mini dragon. Will China smother the fires of enterprise and send more people fleeing to America. Or will Hong Kong's energy help change China. Either way the fate of this fabulous trading center will affect our future. South Korea. Singapore. Hong Kong.

Taiwan. Centuries of tradition. And culture. Devastated in war. The new economic powers of. South. Korea. Hong Kong. Taiwan. The star of the mini dragon. Ever would have guessed that a small fishing village on a barren rock the size of Long Island would become the jewel of the Oriental Trading capital of the world. Now listen. With prosperity it is quick. Money and the. Fortunes have been made and lost

overnight. It is living on borrowed time. That may be running out. This is home. It is midnight on the South China Sea. A small junk from mainland China has strayed across the border into Hong Kong's territorial waters. She is boarded and thoroughly searched by the Royal Hong Kong family. This is the way it has been for more than 150 years. A tiny British colony barely half the size of Long Island dictating the law to

China. But in 1997 all this will change when the lease expires and Hong Kong returns to Chinese rule. When China raises the red star over Hong Kong one of the purest forms of capitalism on earth will be left in the hands of the world's largest communist state. What effect will this dramatic change have upon the five million Hong Kong people. That created this wildly successful place. Will they stay. Or will they leave. Male low was 17 when she applied for work as a production assistant at a major Hong Kong film studio. Instead she landed a minor role in a kung fu movie.

Today May Lowe is a rising star who sees 1997 as the deadline for fame and fortune. Regina was born in Hong Kong but educated in Montreal. She has come home to the delicate task of attracting foreign investment. An uncertain future makes her job. Difficult. Gordon is taking his own elevator to the sixty fourth floor of the office tower he built. He is literally rising above one China. The honky tonk neighborhood where he was born and raised.

Gordon Wu sees Hong Kongs reunion with China as a business opportunity that comes once in a lifetime. If he's right he will win me in a very big way. If he's wrong he stands a chance of losing everything. A few years ago Albert Chan was a cop walking a beat. Today he is a senior officer within the Royal Hong Kong police. But in 1997 the police will no longer be royal. And Albert Chan may be out of a job. When Albert Chan assembles his men each morning he wears the uniform of a British commanding officer and the insignia of the Royal Hong Kong police. But if you don't know

the languages Cantonese but the tradition is deeply vies in 19th century Britain. These earnest men with their smart uniforms and bright blue ditty bags share a rather awesome responsibility. In a land founded by outlaws. They are charged with maintaining law and order. If it were not for this fine deep water port Hong Kong would not exist. When China outlawed opium. British traders found a safe haven for their smuggling

operations on the small islands of the Pearl River Delta. In 1842 they established a colony on a Hong Kong Island. For Trade regulations were written by men seeking a free port. Their legacy has made Victoria Harbor the busiest in the world. Each container is the size of a box car and at least five hundred lined the decks of this freighter alone. With more than 100000 ships calling every year the opportunity abounds for Hong Kong traders to follow in the footsteps of their forefathers. In a place where smuggling is a venerated tradition. Albert Chan plays a distinctly unpleasant guessing game. Of all the ships in Victoria Harbor who is inside and who is outside a wavering line of Hong Kong law. The small armada of junks bring Hong Kongs fresh food from China every day.

The short boat ride provides the Chinese cruise with an opportunity to make huge profits by sneaking in the odd empty bolt of silk or refugee. It is an opportunity is seldom overlooked by the Chinese crews and Albert Chan never looks the other way. Julie has existed in Hong Kong for a long time and the law often protects smugglers. If the people that work is not in order we can take action or even be suspect. Yes smugglers and they have obtained via permits powerless and this morning's opening round is not a loss for Albert Chan in the shell game that is Hong Kong's illicit trade. The police are not the enemy. They are quite simply. Remy. Gordon Hughes office is a control tower that coordinates his massive projects around the

Pacific Rim. From this inner sanctum he is planning the construction of Hong Kong's tallest hotel. Designing a new mass transit system for Bangkok. And building his most ambitious project. A 200 mile highway that will link Hong Kong with the growing industrial region of southern China. Home color is in a unique position because we sit. At the doorstep of China. All the journey busy a enormous it was 1.1 million people. Marching to organize one state. There's sort of a system. And China will books. And Hong Kong will. Go. On top of. It. What I wanted to do is get all trains running down here.

I. Even feel a come on down here and I'm coming down here and there all morning movie sketches freehand the Cross City blocks and leaves his engineers to fill in the details online. I guess that goes to the other side of the river. But it's just going to you know I was just going through with the whole thing. You do see that you know include a little role. In the whole structure like you have it. Sure it will work. You know actually. We have three levels here right. Well you have the urban freeway you've got to worry about you've got to have the local you've got to worry about. And then you have to trains coming in this way. That that that would be. You know obviously what bloody engineers for. Gordon.

Road to China is the kind of project normally reserved for governments. It's the equivalent of building a four lane highway from Baltimore to New York. And includes two bridges larger than the Golden Gate. Gordon who has bet everything that Hong Kong will emerge at the center of a vast industrial region spreading across southern China and links together by his superhighway. But 1997 may prove to be the one milestone his road will never reach. My. Oh. My that she is being chauffeured in a limousine. But from a low it's important airy trip to the factory in the company car. And I think you know Judge I. Think. It's. Right. There. Hong Kong is Hollywood on the South China Sea. The place once famous for

making millions of plastic flowers now cranks out more than a hundred movies every year. I'm handsome male always working to assure herself a place on this assembly line that leads to fame and fortune. I never thought of myself as a model. I'm just a high school graduate that actually right now my schedule is very tight and styrene for films. If we don't make these five or six we can maintain our standard of living action. There are no unions and a 20 hour day is not uncommon. They shoot a feature film in two weeks and edit in six. They'll invest a million dollars to make it

and double their money on the opening weekend. Mae Lowe has just completed a small scene for one of her current films by the end of the week. She will have appeared in four others. To her fans she is a glamorous movie queen. But in reality a male always trying to cram her life's work into the few short years before 1997. If. Regina Hua has poor ordinated the visits of many foreign delegations but none more important than today's guests from Switzerland. I guess prior to this with the right book I was more excited than nervous because these are very prominent figures in the Swiss business community and I'm dying to meet them and really to

introduce the finesse of homecoming. Let me start. With. You. Thank you very much. She has invited a few of Hong Kong's inner circle to attend a reception welcoming the dislocation of Swiss business leaders. So. I guess we have to live right. Yes yes we have. It is the first step in a highly choreographed visit designed to reassure them that in spite of 1997 Hong Kong's future is very bright. No small task. Considering that they are hard nosed members of the International Club of high finance. That's. Right. Each of them will form an opinion about Hong Kong. It will be repeated behind closed doors

around the world. We feel confident that you will find in the next few days ample confirmation that Hong Kong is indeed the leading international trading center. That has been perceived to be for some years now and. I think more importantly that it will continue to prosper for many years to come. Regina has launched them on a whirlwind tour designed to convince these mild mannered men in suits that everything in British Hong Kong is going remarkably well. This week to be spectacular. I mean the famous. But if it is supposed to be thank you I think places like Singapore would only have a

rival say. So we must get the customer as quickly as possible. Hong Kong week we speak 8 o'clock and by about lunchtime you'll be able to buy a copy of Asia week at 12:01 o'clock. What Regina wants the Swiss to realize is that the place once described as a barren rock with hardly a house upon it has become one of the world's most successful manufacturing and trading centers. Marketplace we are finding. Something we haven't really thought we could achieve before which is really attracting me. Japanese Taiwanese. The Hong Kong apple I'm home. On and they're coming of course. Starting. On. This part of the world is really on fire.

I'm going to say that it's on fire and let's hope that it continues because it's exciting to be part of it was a. Pretty good idea. That. If the Swiss were to fly home this evening they would return with visions of a capitalist fantasy land dancing in their heads. Whether or not this rosy image will fade remains to be seen. By. The way. Going to the. If Victoria Harbor is the shining symbol of modern Hong Kong and the typhoon shelters of water's edge are a reminder of her darker past. When Albert Chan wears his police uniform here. He's on the wrong side of town. In another time these densely packed marinas were tiny fishing villages.

Today they are floating cities for thousands of people overflowing from the crowded metropolis. The chaos that results from whole city blocks arriving and departing on the tide provides the perfect cover for a multitude of sins. The shipping pier known as Western Prior has been the hub of trade between China and the world for at least 100 years. Michael. With his launch at anchor Albert's unpleasant guessing game becomes almost impossible.

He is unlikely to ask men with books to open their boxes. All of me but I'm about as if I was going to go on I wonder if I don't I don't know if I wanted to go MUCH I. Don't know I got it you know what I would do if I lived out on my side. But I. His presence on the western Prior could hardly be described as welcome. Within this underworld not all the money is tainted. Most of the mainland Chinese crews the call on Hong Kong are prohibited by law from setting foot on her soil. But they still have to eat. In a classic example of Hong Kong's ability to fill every economic niche. A

cumbersome immigration law has become a lucrative source of income for an industry of floating cafes. Thank you. Warning Hong Kong you must fight for a lot of things. Getting to your work or onto a bus requires a struggle for people in the West. Their lives are more secure. In Hong Kong if you don't work hard enough. Most of the people who live in the typhoon shelters will survive 1997. A carton of untaxed cigarettes or an extra pound of tea is the difference between success or failure and that will never change. But as Chinese rule approaches the fate of Albert Chan remains unknown. He might be tolerated because his knowledge is required to manage the world's busiest harbor.

On the other hand. He could wake up one morning without a job because he worked hand in hand with the occupying British force. Get in then we'll meet up with us. That's if you will. OK. While we have no dummies book on gifts and Gordon was planning for China's first super highway is brilliant but his financing proposal to build it is visionary. It's going to get more and more substantial down. This hill and I live in the stuff he says he will raise more than one billion dollars for construction and his company Hopewell holdings will build the road. China contributes the land which is state own and agrees to

split the tolls with Hopewell. When the contract expires China owns a highway it didn't pay for and Gordon Wu has made millions for it and that she was more than that. Before he collects the tolls he needs the money to build a road so he has asked a few American bankers to join in on his yacht for dinner. Over the next few hours he will try to convince these fiscal conservatives that a capitalist expressway to communist China offers a sound investment. For the bank and. All of. Europe. Which want to hear that.

Back. Not afford. Anything. How many stories. 70 70 in Europe and it makes me sick thinking that they have developed all of it. Gordon who was on a fishing expedition trying to land the international financing for his highway. It is not always I wish I was going to go there that I love it and of course wait for that and in the end the problem with when me join the main island. This one had to feel that I'm home I just want to. It's amazing. That's why I'm also.

Not in prison. Oh I wonder what the other time that I talked to said his mind what he what he means all. I try to never talk to know anything. Friends back I would say in today's environment Morgans they're probably the only more that been successfully played on the Hill model. All right. We've got a leveraged buyout. Got a million five hundred million dollars of you know money equity spending. Well. That's. Right. Gordon who is risking everything on the promise that China will continue to modernize and the traffic on his road will be bumper to bumper. All that remains is to convince a skeptical world. That he's right. I'm going to.

Go. With his brother home from Paris. It is a family reunion. There are three generations at the table and each was born in a different country. His mother and father are from Shanghai. Albert his wife and brother were born in Hong Kong and his brother's children are natives of France. Then you have. To make up the. Mind as the conversation turns to life in Paris begging questions arise that have crossed every family table in Hong Kong. More than a thousand people are leaving every week. These photos of Albert's recent visit to Paris are snapshots from his past. But they also provide a glimpse into what may become his future. Yes. Across town two members of a Swiss delegation have

slipped out of their hotel and found their way to the thieves market on Temple Street. The stands go up every night and for five or six hours this ordinary street becomes a life size Chinese puzzle. A box in a box with each one holding more treasures than the last. Thing. That. Was done. To me. One factory the Swiss will never visit makes the wheels with a plastic card. It is both home. And work.

For Mr. and Mrs. Lamb. They came to Hong Kong with a flood of more than a million Chinese refugees escaping the communist revolution in one thousand forty nine. Soon after Chairman Mao came to power China severed all contact with the outside world. The Hong Kong economy shifted from trade to manufacturing. And skilled refugees like the Lambs transformed a bleak future into a global success story. They live in this squatter town rent free along with hundreds of other small industrialists to accommodate the waves of refugees. The government has been replacing these tune shacks with high rise apartments. Within the free wheeling capitalism of Hong Kong. Fifty percent of the population now lives in public housing. Thank.

All my mother. Even more when I hear this left China. I had to cross the river. I was dressed from head to toe and all I had in the world was the shirt on my back. Do you have any idea how I managed to do it all by myself. Do you know what these machines cost. Thing is easy. Making a few hundred dollars on Hong Kong dollars. You know what kind of place Hong Kong is. Where the Lambs 1997 poses no dilemma. They have already risked their lives once to escape the communist. If they feel threatened. They will not hesitate to move again. Touchdown. These high powered Swiss executives are used to negotiating for millions of dollars. Tonight they have bartered with a Hong Kong woman and for the price of a plastic toy. Thank you.

She was not intimidated. And they walk away thinking they got a good deal. That simple fact may be the most important lesson they ever learn about doing business in Hong Kong. Across Victoria Harbor Melo is attending the opening reception for her latest film. It's. Weird. But. People like that. Although they are larger than life. Everyone in this room knows that they are about to be upstaged by a real dancer. Male always reaching for fame with one eye on the camera and the other on the calendar.

1997 has forced her to work harder to succeed in the world's most competitive city. Long after May lows Premier has an Albert Chan has just begun patrolling the Hong Kong border with China. You're hot. And your. Darkness finds the legitimate traders sleeping and the smuggler is hard at work.

It seems as though the waiting has paid off. Albert and his crew have intercepted a junk that is overflowing with cigarettes being smuggled to China. The smugglers purchase these Chinese cigarettes tax free. In Hong Kong. By smuggling them back to China. The People's Republic is robbed of the significant tax that 50 faces will bring. Only.

Once again I. Fished. With him Hong Kong a shipment is perfectly legal. But once the captain crosses the border into China he is a criminal in a country that executes pickpockets. Even though they have been caught committing a crime. Hong Kong law protects the smuggler in Hong Kong waters. I'm going to. Talk about it when it. Was over. All. Right. So. Once again Albert Chan has been defeated by the same law he is asked to enforce. He has succeeded in delaying the junk by a few hours. But he knows that the night the captain will

unload his illegal cargo in China. And by morning he will be back in Hong Kong. It is a game of cat and mouse where the cats make all the rules but the mice. This is the way it has been in Hong Kong for one hundred and fifty years. It's a wildly chaotic place where order is barely maintained by the loyalty of man like Albert chan. And. Sadly his loyalty is rewarded with indifference. Where he and thousands like him hold no British passports. And have nowhere to go. To Mandisa. Today the Swiss delegation will travel less than 30 miles from Hong Kong. To visit a capitalist moved by music inside the People's Republic of China.

It is known as the Shenzen special economic zone. And it is in a way success within the gloomy Chinese economy. Zen is often held up as an example of the openness that economic reform requires. In reality it is the only way that China can compete with Taiwan South Korea or Singapore. Shenzen success is a product of the perfect deal. Hong Kong investors put up the money to build the factories and Hong Kong managers oversee production. China provides the land and legions of eager workers. In fact Hong Kong now employs more people in China than a dozen home. If Shenzen is any indication. Then Hong Kong's reunion with China would create an

economic miracle overshadow in Japan. Or any of the many. But the architects of these bold economic reforms are the same people struggling with the hard liners in Beijing for the control of China's future. This afternoon's luncheon is hosted by oceans an official charged with attracting foreign investment. If selling Hong Kong to the Swiss has been tough selling China may prove impossible. This is the first time by fives for the Hong Kong use although I wasn't even allowed to read my useful. Work. How does this have to do with the. Kind of money nor is it might

come in the first place. Do these do gooders So this is a good thing that I knew you were going to get your question is a political one. I mean in charge of the economical stuff so I can as good as. If I can't reach right he's like you know you. This is a political question and you know you are only responsible with the economy that we're seeing the from the economic one. Do you know. This political. Answer. Tell us what a future corporation and investment. You know this was. So good. Now. You know you know political point of view sometimes you know in

China sometimes stressed. Sometimes. They're not. Now you know what I think. Early on that you were there for many more people listening with the smile. That I do that I listen to me and that he will get better than 50 Thank you very much of. This wish had been brought to you because Hong Kong has an enormous stake in its success. If you Hong Kong ors can create the largest economic boom in China. And maybe Beijing will hear it and begin to see Hong Kong as the key to their own success. But with one hand extended in a gesture of openness. And the other confiscated newspaper.

The Swiss aren't buying. This afternoon. A British official will try to convince them that a new treaty called the Basic Law will guarantee Hong Kong's future for the next 50 years. Last year was not very easy. You will all be aware. In March of 1989 I could have confidently. I got this far and said things were going extremely well and we expected them to continue going well. But then we had the student democracy movement in Peking from April until June last year. Consequently the blow on the 4th of June when that movement was crushed and the subsequent suppression of it has had a very depressing effect on people in Hong Kong to the extent where we have generally described ourselves as suffering from something of a confidence crisis as we are well aware of the fact that the People's Republic of China has some financial problems.

I think they see as their supposed to pay back some 10 billion U.S. dollars and they don't have the funds for that great chunk on my to be in a position in the long run to pay for such tests. The Hong Kong government will have the same kind of autonomy that it presently enjoys from Britain. London does not dictate those things to us London does not tax us. I don't want people. To know. Save face. That's a very important thing. Chinese are you not afraid that you explain this very very well on the racial basis. You're not afraid of some racial elements which could damage Hong Kong. But. You asking some specific sort of Chinese or Russian. I mean they might have. I mean they might tear up something.

I just can't see that there will be not some sort of taxation of Kong which will be financing part of Beijing or whatever that will be a categorical breach or sign of recession. Can we get back to the question of Chinese time. The Swiss may have departed Hong Kong unconvinced but Regina Hua is staying. Her Canadian passport gives her the right to leave but she remains steadfast in her commitment to convince a nervous were a Hun Khan's future is secure.

Regina why is not alone. In early 1989. Gordon who took his Chinese highway to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. By the first of June a financing proposal to fund the road was 90 percent subscribed. Three days later. Lord. Lord. We're supposed to receive that three point eighty six one billion dollars on the 5th of July and

all the city on the 4th of June there was shooting and there were a lot of dead bodies in the NBG. I remember about a week before June 4th. I went to see Willie Purvis and I told Willie that I was rather worried about the developments in Beijing. And Willie said that you know no matter what happens you must be one good in the superhighways you bought in for Hong Kong. I say yes I believe your world brought us the vile way no matter what happens to you. The crackdown at Tiananmen Square may have frightened off the bankers but Gordon whose vision remained unshaken. I think again on Wednesday just one incident I did a march forward has got to go on because it's at the end of the day is a bottom line. All the political talk and all the way from the REPL didn't get you to color television and I

notice that once people watch color TV they never want to go back to black and white. When investors abandon his road Gordon reached into his own pocket. One man is personally bankrolling a 200 mile highway. But like the bridges that link the two countries the road remains unfinished. Four lanes reach out from China but only to come out from Hong Kong to greet them. Gordon whose personal fortune is not unlimited. Today he and his financial advisors inspect the new border station in preparation for their return to the banks for additional construction loans. This is the beginning of the highway network. We can go off for you. We've gone through the customs and immigration. You connect directly with the highway link and I'm good

with that. Hopefully by this Christmas. You should be able to get a first class alone. In a way this is like you want to be able. I've been inside. His plans and. He has the reputation for building massive projects that require billions of dollars. But since the killings in Tiananmen Square thanks or cooled the land it now appears that the only thing Gordon cannot build is confidence in Hong Kong's future. You've destroyed us all day on the floor. There is what it looks like. With. Your well I mean couple billion dollars a year. You know there's a mumble. You know I don't think I'll see to one.

I'll tell you what I'll get to see hundreds. I've seen the chairs you don't fight the rover because you can buy in the 50s today. I think the highway makes a lot of sense. Although some bankers are when the. Government guarantees you'll miss it. I don't know if I'm but this for. Me Doesn't that go to health. Given China's internal struggle and Hong Kong's imminent return will his highway ever see a single car. Or is some chillingly suggest will it simply become a fast track for Chinese tanks. It is not China that is stopping Gordon but the fear of an uncertain

future. And if uncertainty can stop a powerful man who is a billboard for Hong Kong success. Then what will happen to Albert chan. Regina Hua Mei Lowe. And five million other Hong Kong people. One thing is certain if the wind blowing from Beijing to Hong Kong turns any colder than her best and brightest will have already left with the British in 1907. Hong Kong's greatest export may become her own people. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks.

Thanks. Thanks thanks. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Depend on what happens in China his brand of socialism. Economy without changing his political system. Have faced the same dilemma. Free market economies prosperity a democracy. To all you have just seen raises a lot of ifs. If the wind from Beijing blows colder. If uncertainty about the future of these foreign investors to

flee. And if Hong Kong's best and brightest continue to leave. But these are only posing a giant question mark over Hong Kong's future. The guessing game is a study in contrasts. On the one hand the doomsayers predict that China will crack down and reshape Hong Kong in its own image. On the other hand. The pragmatists say China will recognize that both stand to benefit letting Hong Kong continue to flourish as the trade and financial center of the Pacific. On paper at least Hong Kong's new constitution drafted by the Chinese promises to maintain the status quo for 50 years with Hong Kong remaining a free port pursuing a policy of free trade. Despite these assurances many are skeptical about China's promise. Like good gamblers. Those who can afford it are hedging their bets. One son goes to the bank over another to sit in the family business is moved to Singapore to London

often here to sever Cisco. Last year over 60000 people left Hong Kong. That's 50 percent. More than the previous year. But even the most skeptical keep their options open just in case a Chinese Hong Kong works. You remember Gordon the industrialist who was trying to build a road to China. Want to update you. He finally raised eight hundred million dollars to finance his super highway. He managed it by getting the communists and capitalists to work together. His loan is being underwritten by a consortium of Western banks and the state owned bank of China. But there are disturbing signs as well. Signs that China is already preparing to rule Hong Kong. Recently China complained of a Hong Kongs plans to build a new airport. To many in Hong Kong that seemed like an interference. A Chinese official said that the 16 billion dollar project would clean out Hong Kong's Treasury. And that was very much China's business. In the end. The British governor agreed to consult with China on a new

airport. This is just one example of things to come. Hundreds of issues will have to be sorted out between the departing British. And the new landlords. And the long run Hong Kong may be a vital force for changing China. Thousands of Hong Kong factories have sprung up in south in China making it the country's economic leader. More and more Hong Kong is becoming the commercial center of China and the spearhead of his growth. Indeed if all goes well it could look more like Hong Kong has taken over China. If all goes well. Whatever happens America stands to benefit from a search of industrious and highly skilled immigrants from Hong Kong. Already Asians generally a council 40 percent of all immigrants in this country their fastest growing ethnic group. By the turn of the century will have 10 million Asian-Americans. I think this is just the spice. These are the kind of people poor countries.

Are. The

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