-Caveat Lector-
<<HongKong used to be British. And, in the words those two sterling Brits,
Laurel and Hardy, made famous: "Another fine mess." A<>E<>R >>
>From Int'l Herald Tribune
Paris, Thursday, April 29, 1999
Hong Kong Fears Ruling Will Lift Population 25%
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By Philip Segal International Herald Tribune
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HONG KONG - A court ruling earlier this year that overturned immigration
restrictions could result in a 25 percent jump in the population of this
densely packed city within seven years, the government said Wednesday.
The estimate of the influx, which some have speculated could overwhelm Hong
Kong's schools, hospitals and public housing, came in remarks to the
legislature by the secretary for security, Regina Ip, who called it ''a very
heavy, if not unbearable burden, on Hong Kong.''
Her comments were the first time the government had publicly estimated the
number of potential new residents since the region's Court of Final Appeal
threw out a series of China-backed immigration restrictions in January.
The controversy following that decision brought Hong Kong to the brink of
constitutional crisis, as Chinese officials demanded that the ruling be
''rectified.'' It was not, and now Hong Kong's 6.8 million people are in the
position of having to accommodate 692,000 mainland Chinese who are already
here and have the right to remain.
The immigration crisis is a product of the new administration in Hong Kong,
which took over after the former British colony was returned to China in
1997. A new constitution was adopted two years ago, with China's approval,
and it says that anyone with one parent already settled in Hong Kong can
also come here.
The security secretary said that after seven years of continuous residence
in Hong Kong, many of the 692,000 new immigrants as well as other
mainlanders already in the region would be able to bring in another 983,000
new residents. That would bring the total of newcomers to 1,675,000 people,
nearly 25 percent of the current population.
The ruling comes as Hong Kong is beginning to rethink how it funds public
services. Last month, a Harvard University study said the increasingly
prosperous region would soon run into problems funding its hospital system
without major changes.
But sudden influxes of people are not entirely new to Hong Kong. Many of the
residents who now tell pollsters they are fearful of being swamped by
mainlanders were themselves refugees from Communist China.
The great wave of new immigrants flooding into this bastion of laissez-faire
economics at the end of the 1940s forced the government of the day into a
radical rethinking of public policy: After a fire in a squatter camp in 1953
killed hundreds, the government began a massive campaign to build public
housing.
Today, half of the population lives in state-subsidized accommodation.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
A<>E<>R
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