The A to Z of the Hong Kong SAR and the Macao SAR by Ming K. Chan & Shiu-hing Lo

Author:Ming K. Chan & Shiu-hing Lo
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
Published: 2010-03-14T16:00:00+00:00

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PATTEN, CHRISTOPHER (1944– ). Christopher Patten was the last British governor of Hong Kong, serving from July 1992 though June 1997. As governor, Patten used democratization reform to buttress the British colonial regime’s legitimacy and historical legacy. The economic boom in the mid-1990s enhanced his local popularity, despite bitter Sino–British confrontation over electoral reforms and noncooperation on bilateral matters in the final phase of Hong Kong’s transition to Chinese sovereignty. Patten, a close ally of British Prime Minister John Major, was a member of the British parliament and as a cabinet minister and Conservative Party chair. During 1999–2004, he was the European Union’s Commissioner for External Affairs and visited Beijing in that capacity, even though Chinese officials once denounced him as a “sinner of a millennium” for his pre-1997 democratic reforms in Hong Kong. He is chancellor of the University of Oxford.

PENNY-STOCK INCIDENT. On 25 July 2002, the Hong Kong stock exchanges proposed that listed companies’ shares quoted at below HK$0.5 should be consolidated, failing which, delisting would follow. The next day, 577 of the 761 stocks recorded a loss, forcing the exchanges to withdraw the delisting proposal the next day. This Penny-Stock Incident prompted an investigation of the role of Financial Services and Treasury Secretary Frederick Ma, the Hong Kong exchanges, the Securities and Futures Commission, and other officials. Ma later apologized to the public for their penny-stock losses. See also STOCK MARKET.

PEOPLE’S LIBERATION ARMY (PLA). According to Basic Law Article 14, the PLA will be stationed in the HKSAR without interfering with local affairs. The PLA HKSAR garrison, under the command of a major general, has maintained a low profile and avoided any public gestures that could be construed as interference. The PLA portrays itself as a defender of the HKSAR, holding activities (like open days at barracks and naval bases) that aim at winning the hearts and minds of Hong Kong residents.

PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA (PRC), ECONOMIC LINKS. Since the PRC’s 1978 open-door policy and market reform, economic links and trade between Hong Kong and the mainland have expanded rapidly. Since 1985 mainland China has been Hong Kong’s largest trading partner (from 9.3 percent in 1978 to 45 percent of Hong Kong’s total trade value in 2005). The mainland was Hong Kong’s largest import source (45 percent of Hong Kong’s 2005 total imports) and the largest export market (45 percent of Hong Kong’s 2005 total exports). The bulk of Hong Kong’s reexport trade serviced the mainland as the largest market for and the largest source of Hong Kong’s reexports. Hong Kong was the mainland’s third-largest trading partner in 2005 (after Japan and the United States), accounting for a 10 percent share of the mainland’s total external trade value (22 percent if mainland reexports are included).

Since the 1980s, Hong Kong has been the largest source of external direct investment in mainland China. By the end of 2005, Hong Kong interests accounted for 46 percent of the nearly half a million externally funded projects registered in the mainland.

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