The something nice I was going to say was about Beijing’s plan to nominate Hong Kong as a biotechnology “hub” in the region. The praise being that it kind of made sense and when China says it’s going to do something it usually does.
Those paddy fields are now Shenzhen a high-tech megalopolis of 30 million (somewhat more than the whole population of Australia).
And I was thinking of being Shanghai in ‘84 listening to the mayor Zhu Rongji (my fave) describe how they were going to develop the flatlands across the river in Pudong. Sure, I thought. Believe it when I see it. Well, see it:
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| I took this photo from the 8th floor Peace Hotel, Shanghai looking across to Pudong, 12 October 2013. Yikes! 8 years ago to the day! Was there with mate Steve Padgham, for the Shanghai Masters tennis |
And I was thinking of how Beijing said we’ll build super fast railways, 20,000 kilometres in 10 years. Sure. They built 35,000 km in ten years and will do another 35,000 in the next ten.
So when they say Hong Kong will (or “can”) become a biotech hub, the default thinking is: Sure. Of course! That was why I was about to say something nice about Xi Jinping’s China.
But then I remembered: they’ve had their failures. There’s ghost towns all over China, built in a frenzy of infrastructure development with no thought to who would live in them. Many are now being demolished. Leaving behind just dust and debt. There’s the Shanghai Free Trade Zone that’s never taken off, despite high level encouragement.
So simply saying it no longer means it will happen. We now have a grand vision by our dear leader Carrie Lam, the other day in her annual policy address. The grand vision of building a big high-tech town in the border of Shenzhen. 600 sq km of it, even if a lot is “old wine in new bottles” (老酒新 瓶 laojiu xinping), reheated plans cobbled together.
Lucy Kwan — in “Hong Kong policy address, why the gap between elite and public opinion “ — reminds me of a local Cantonese-English saying Hi-tech hi ye, lo-tech low ye, a version of “there’s money in muck, lad”. For every Facebook there are thousands of pet-dot.coms. Make your money in basics.
She also makes the point that most young Hongkongers have zero desire to work in the Greater Bay Area. We can mock them for that, but it’s true.
My mate Tom Yam asks where are the people going to come from, given declining population growth rates over all China including Hong Kong.
