Veiled US threat to China

Albright, who is boycotting the swearing-in ceremony of the China-appointed provisional legislative council (PLC) on July one, defended her action saying, “we believe creation of the PLC was unjustified since it …Is at odds with the popular will.”

In her article on the opinion’ page, Albright said the challenge China’s leadership faced now is to exercise authority in a way that ensures Hong Kong’s continued success.

Pointing out that China had pledged to maintain Hong Kong’s free-market economy and way of life until well into the next century, she said “if that pledge is kept — and this is the crucial question — China will integrate itself more firmly into the international community, and the people of both Hong Kong and the world will benefit.”

“Certainly, Beijing recognises its own stake in preserving Hong Kong’s free-market system (as it) is the largest outside investor in the territory,” Albright said.

However, she said China’s disagreement with Hong Kong’s 1995 British-organised elections and its bill of rights has cast uncertainty’ over the area’s future freedom.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong, which has high stakes in the booming Sino-US trade, has welcomed the US house of representatives’ vote for the renewal of China’s most favoured nation (MFN) trading status for this year.

“We are very pleased with the result. The renewal of China’s MFN status always matters greatly to Hong Kong, but it has never mattered more than this year when Hong Kong will embark on a new chapter in its history in less than a week’s time, Denise Yue, secretary for trade and industry of the Hong Kong government said.

She said the renewal of China’s MFN status goes a long way to ensure the continued economic vibrancy of Hong Kong during the handover period.With the unconditional renewal of China’s MFN status, American companies will continue to find Hong Kong a good place to do business in Asia, Yue said.

While urging the House of Representatives to approve his decision to accord MFN trade status to China for one year, US President Bill Clinton had pointed out that reversing China’s MFN would rebound to the detriment of Hong Kong where American firms had much in stake.

Half of the US-China trade flowed through Hong Kong. So revocation of China’s MFN trading status would halve Hong Kong’s economic growth, double its unemployment with the loss of 85,000 jobs and reduce its trade by 32 billion US dollars.