The Recent History
of
Hong Kong,
the Pearl River Delta Region (PRD),
and
China
Pearl River Delta
K.Venuvinod Patri
1
[Fung 2001]
Pearl River Delta
K.Venuvinod Patri
2
HK – PRD
• Area: 48,000 sq km.
• Population (2000): 30 million
• Definition:
- The HK and Macao SARs
- Shenzen and Zhuhai SEZs
- The PRD Economic Development Zone:
28 municipalities in the south central area of
Guangdong province including Dongguan,
Foshan, Zhongshan, Shunde, and Nanhai.
[Fung 2001]
Pearl River Delta
K.Venuvinod Patri
3
Geography
• Confluence of three rivers as they run to South China Sea.
• Delta has more than 1000 miles of waterways.
• In size, the coastal plain of 9,000 sq km is second only to
Yangtze river delta.
• It contains some of the most fertile land in Asia.
• Sub-tropical climate, abundant rainfall, ready access to
irrigation.
• Leading producer of rice, sugar cane, cotton, fruit, etc.
• More than 5,000 km of navigable waters provide a natural
transport system for shipping and trade.
[Fung 2001]
Pearl River Delta
K.Venuvinod Patri
4
Early Trading Patterns
• Trading with other parts of China and outside
world existed during the Han period.
• First long-distance traders to come were Arabs:
imported spices for preserving food.
• By the end of Tang period, trade routes to
Southeast Asia and the Middle East were well in
place.
• Portuguese founded a settlement in Macao in
1557.
• Trade started with Europe.
[Fung 2001]
Pearl River Delta
K.Venuvinod Patri
5
• 1699: the British established a trading base
in ‘Canton’ (Guangzhou).
• From 1757 to the Opium War, Canton was
the only port in China open to foreign trade.
• Vibrant economy.
• Development of a unique artistic and
literary culture.
[Fung 2001]
Pearl River Delta
K.Venuvinod Patri
6
HK and the Colonial Era
• Following the end of the first Opium War, the Treaty of
Nanking in 1842 ceded Hong Kong to Britain in perpetuity.
• Sir Henry Pottinger, whose name can be found on a street
in Central district, was its first governor.
• Following additional conflicts with the Chinese in 1860
Britain gained Kowloon and Stonecutters Island.
• In 1898 Britain acquired the New Territories on a 99-year
lease.”
[geocities]
Pearl River Delta
K.Venuvinod Patri
7
• “Initially, HK was dismissed as a “barren rock”.
• But, it has the only deep water harbor between Singapore and
Shanghai, free of river-borne silt. Strategically located at the
mouth of PRD.
• Within a few years, HK became a “thriving and populous
colony, overspread with substantial houses and adorned by forts,
batteries and public buildings.”
• It became a clearinghouse and re-export center for goods traded
between southeast Asia and Europe.”
• HK and Canton evolved as functionally independent entities.
• The remittances sent home by Cantonese Diaspora provided
significant capital between 1914 and 1930. The Chinese name of
HSBC is huifeng, or “abundant remittances.”
[Fung 2001]
Pearl River Delta
K.Venuvinod Patri
8
• Hong Kong served as a refuge for exiles from China
following the establishment of the Chinese Republic in
1912. Settlement in the territory grew slowly with the
population rose from 32,983 in 1851 to 878,947 in 1931.
• After Japan seized Manchuria in 1932, the Sino-Japanese
war broke out in 1937. Throughout the late thirties, as Japan
advanced into China, hundreds of thousands of Chinese
took refuge in Hong Kong. It was estimated that some
100,000 refugees entered in 1937, 500,000 in 1938 and
150,000 in 1939 - bringing Hong Kong's population at the
outbreak of World War II to an estimated 1.6 million. It was
thought that at the height of the influx, about 500,000
people were sleeping in the streets.
[geocities]
Pearl River Delta
K.Venuvinod Patri
9
• World War II again disrupted the social and economic life
of Hong Kong. On Christmas Day, 1941, the British army
surrendered Hong Kong to the Japanese. U.S. submarines
foiled Japanese plans to use Hong Kong as a staging area for
assaults further into East Asia. Following Japan's surrender
on August 14, 1945 Britain reclaimed the territory.
•After the Japanese surrender, Chinese civilians returned at
the rate of almost 100,000 a month. The population, which
by August 1945 had been reduced to about 600,000, rose by
the end of 1947 to an estimated 1.8 million.
[geocities]
Pearl River Delta
K.Venuvinod Patri
10
Then, in the period 1948-49, as the forces of the
Chinese Nationalist Government began to face defeat
in civil war at the hands of the communists, Hong
Kong received an influx unparalleled in its history.
Hundreds of thousands of people - mainly from
Guangdong province, Shanghai and other commercial
centres - entered the territory during 1949 and the
spring of 1950, the population had swelled to an
estimated 2.2 million. Since then, it has continued to
rise and now totals over six million.
[geocities]
Pearl River Delta
K.Venuvinod Patri
11
1949-1978
• 1949: Communists gained victory of Chiang Kai-shek and
the Kuomintang.
• PRC retreated from the world.
• 1951: The Korean war prompted a UN-sponsored trade
embargo on China. Cut off, HK could not function as an
entrepot.
• HK then reinvented itself from middleman and deal-broker
into a center for light industrial manufacturing for the
export market.
• Govt. embraced a fiscal policy of “positive nonintervention.” HK became wealthy. Had one of the most
successful public housing programs.
[Fung 2001]
Pearl River Delta
K.Venuvinod Patri
12
1978: “The Doors Open Again”
• Deng Xiaoping launched a “remarkable
period of economic reform” by fusing
socialism with private enterprise and free
market economy.
• He asked Guangdong to “walk one step
ahead” and established several SEZs in the
1980s – three in Guangdong.
[Fung 2001]
Pearl River Delta
K.Venuvinod Patri
13
1980-1997
• Foreign investments poured in.
• China’s economy grew at a rate of 9% per
year. Per-capita income doubled.
• HK’s role as an entrepot and middleman “
returned with a vengeance.”
[Fung 2001]
Pearl River Delta
K.Venuvinod Patri
14
The Return of HK to China
• China has always maintained that the three treaties which
brought Hong Kong into existence were signed under
pressure, and thus unjust.
• In 1984, the Joint Declaration (Summary | Complete)
signed by Britain and China agreed that the sovereignty of
• Hong Kong reverted back to China on July 1, 1997, and
became a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the
People's Republic of China.
• Likewise, Macao returned to China in 1999.
. [geocities]
Pearl River Delta
K.Venuvinod Patri
15
The UK-China Joint Declaration
The Joint Declaration provides that for 50 years after
1997
- Hong Kong's lifestyle will remain unchanged.
- The territory will enjoy a high degree of autonomy,
except in foreign and defense affairs, and
- It need not practice the socialist system and
policies adopted on the mainland.”
[geocities]
Pearl River Delta
K.Venuvinod Patri
16
References
[geocities] http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Towers/2464/hist.htm
[Fung 2001] Victor Fung, Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta:
Expanding Horizons (Project 2022), Li and Fung Group, Hong Kong,
January 2001.]
Pearl River Delta
K.Venuvinod Patri
17