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economist.com Thursday
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[font=verdana,geneva,arial,sans serif][size=-1]I TRAVEL onto Taipei to find out how Taiwanese view the experience of Hong Kongsince 1997. After all, Taiwan's reaction was to some extent the pointof the Hong Kong deal. Chinese leaders hoped that if they implementedfaithfully their agreement with Britain and gave Hong Kong a highdegree of autonomy, that example might win over Taiwan too. Even beforethe Hong Kong deal was reached in 1984 China had made Taiwan asimilar—indeed, more far-reaching—offer of continued autonomy in returnfor surrendered sovereignty. [/size][/font]
[font=verdana,geneva,arial,sans serif][size=-1]Theresumption of Hong Kong was followed by that of Macau, from Portugal,in 1999. Since then Taiwan has been left, in the words of Hu Yaobang, aformer Communist party leader, as “China’s last frontier”. Nor hasChina ever dropped its threat to “reunify” Taiwan by force ifnecessary. [/size][/font]
[font=verdana,geneva,arial,sans serif][size=-1]A day inTaipei leaves three broad impressions. First, like most Asian cities,it looks far more prosperous than it did a decade ago. Unlike mostAsian cities, it is also much more pleasant. [/size][/font]
[font=verdana,geneva,arial,sans serif][size=-1]A metro hashelped ease traffic. The town is greener, leafier, cleaner. There aresome fine new buildings, including Taipei 101, designed to resemble astick of bamboo, or perhaps a pile of flowerpots, 101 storeys high.Taipei 101 styles itself the “first tallest to the structural topbuilding of the 21st century”, a finely-worded claim. The lift up toits high-level observatory is the fastest in the world, and no bonesabout that. The attendant quadrilingually recommends swallowing, butfails to hand out sweets.[/size][/font]
[font=verdana,geneva,arial,sans serif][size=-1]Second,Taipei does not pass each day in the throes of an anxiety attack aboutChina’s intentions. Livelihood issues bring people on to the streetsmore easily than existential questions of national identity. In frontof my hotel 4,000 protesters are turning out in yellow caps and bluewaistcoats carrying banners calling for the protection of workers’rights. They turn out to be employees of a government-controlledutility, Chunghwa Telecom, calling for the resignation of their boss.He took a big pay rise, the protesters say, while trying to push 5,000lesser workers into early retirement. [/size][/font]
[table=228][tr][td][table][tr][td][font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][size=-2][color=#999999]Erik Charlton/Flickr[/color][/size][/font][/td][/tr][/table][/td][/tr][tr][td][img=220,347]http://www.economist.com/images/columns/2007w18/Taipei.jpg[/img][/td][/tr][tr][td][font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][size=-1][b]Taipei 101: going up[/b][/size][/font]
[/td][/tr][/table][font=verdana,geneva,arial,sans serif][size=-1]Third,refreshingly if rather dispiritingly from my selfish journalisticstandpoint, no one seems to give two hoots about Hong Kong. The greatevent of recent times is not what happened in Hong Kong ten years ago,but what happened in Taiwan 20 years ago. The lifting of martial lawhere in 1987 set in a train a process of democratisation as thorough asany in the world. In the course of it the nationalist Kuomintang (KMT),a party with its roots in mainland China, lost power to the DemocraticProgressive Party (DPP), whose origins are in a campaign for formalTaiwan independence.[/size][/font]
[font=verdana,geneva,arial,sans serif][size=-1]Governmentspokesmen have dropped the tiresome circumlocutions, such as “theRepublic of China on Taiwan”, beloved of the KMT. They talk of Taiwanas “an independent sovereign nation”.[/size][/font]
[font=verdana,geneva,arial,sans serif][size=-1]There aresome striking similarities with Hong Kong. Here, as in Hong Kong,political development has been distorted by the relationship withChina: this is how party platforms define themselves. Here, as there,the economy is ever more integrated with the mainland, despitecontinuing restrictions on direct transport links. Here, as there,economic integration has helped build a political constituency forbetter relations with Beijing.[/size][/font]
[font=verdana,geneva,arial,sans serif][size=-1]The KMT’s chairman, Lian Chan, was ingratiating himself in Beijing this week (misrepresenting a headline in [i]The Economist[/i]in the process, saying we had accused the DPP of waging “CulturalRevolution” in Taiwan). Some elements of his party probably feel that“one country, two systems”, on the Hong Kong model, is not too bad adeal for Taiwan. But they cannot say so, since the voters would punishthem. [/size][/font]
[font=verdana,geneva,arial,sans serif][size=-1]And there is the biggest difference at work. Taiwan is a full-fledged democracy. Hong Kong is not. [/size][/font]
[font=verdana,geneva,arial,sans serif][size=-1]Another, moredebatable, distinction is suggested by Antonio Chiang, a wise Taiwanesejournalist. Hong Kong, he says, is a country of refugees, who naturallysee their mother-country as home. Taiwan is a country of immigrantswith deep roots in their adopted soil. This distinction was blurredwhen Taiwan's ruling party spoke for a minority of refugees who fledmainland China in 1949. Now the ruling party seeks to represent aTaiwanese majority whose ancestors left China centuries ago and whohave no reason to go back—except, of course, to visit (in theirmillions) for pleasure, and to make money.[/size][/font]
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[/td][/tr][/table][font=verdana,geneva,arial,sans serif][size=-1]Hong Kong'scourtesy extends itself into outrageously generous hospitality. Duringan interview punctuated by insistent offers of champagne, a localtycoon, whom I have never met before, invites both a colleague and meto dinner. We join him, his wife and some of their friends at one ofHong Kong's best-known and priciest restaurants.[/size][/font]
[font=verdana,geneva,arial,sans serif][size=-1]I havesometimes wondered what the truly rich talk about behind closed doors.I suppose, in my profession, I will never know. If I am behind it, adoor is not truly closed. The journalistic uncertainty principleobtains: the act of observation distorts what is being observed. Evenso, the discussion leaves me a little giddy. Frequent flying, an evilpastime we all have in common, is, in these circles a matter of theallegedly declining quality of pyjamas provided in first class byCathay Pacific; or of the frustrating failure of the People'sLiberation Army to open up enough air-space for private executive-jets.That dinner-party staple—property prices—centres on whether a house isworth $5m more than the one next door because it is 200 square feetbigger, and despite the intrusive proximity of its windows.[/size][/font]
[font=verdana,geneva,arial,sans serif][size=-1]Like almosteverybody else in Hong Kong, however, the rich seem entranced bystories about one of their number, Nina Wang, who died last month. Muchof her final years had been consumed by legal wrangling over whetherthe will in which her husband bequeathed her his fortune was genuine.Her own will now faces another court battle. It appears to leave allher money to a feng shui consultant. His lawyers have produced an oldphotograph of Wang and their (rather younger) client to prove theirlong closeness. But a charitable foundation linked to her propertyfirm, Chinachem, is challenging the will. [/size][/font]
[font=verdana,geneva,arial,sans serif][size=-1]As ithappens, Chinachem used to be my landlord in Hong Kong, in a buildingwith notoriously bad feng shui. Not only was it numbered 42-44 (whichsounds like an awful lot of death in Cantonese), it was also on thesite of a landslide. The event was commemorated by stiff-backed "ghostchairs" planted around the dingy lift lobby. For these reasons, theflat was remarkably good value.[/size][/font]
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