Speeches and Articles by Former Consul General Richard A. Boucher

Remarks by U.S. Consul General Richard Boucher
to the Chinese Manufacturers Association of Hong Kong
February 21, 1997

(As Prepared for Delivery)

I appreciate this opportunity to speak to you this evening. I come to you today as a representative of your many American friends and colleagues. Together, we are partners in business and in Hong Kong's future. As we stand at the threshold of Hong Kong's historic return to Chinese sovereignty, we stand with you to help contribute to Hong Kong's future success.

Our involvement with you in Hong Kong can be seen in the many business relationships you have with American firms. The large American community here is a testimony to these bonds: there are currently 36,000 Americans in Hong Kong and 1100 American firms, with over 450 serving as regional headquarters.

Hong Kong is important to us as a crossroads of commerce -- a center of finance, trade and communications. Hong Kong is also an important market and supplier of goods and services. But this unique city plays a wider role. Because of its singular business environment and location, Hong Kong is ideally suited to be the Asian "front office" for many of America's leading firms -- the headquarters for operations in China and throughout Asia.

You as manufacturers appreciate the many advantages of doing business here, and you show the way to the future in your flexibility, quick response, marketing and designs. Much of what the American business community has found attractive about Hong Kong -- its efficiency, its excellent infrastructure, and especially its openness in information and communications -- are also of vital importance to you.

As I have said before, Hong Kong shows the ways of the future. A world-class city, Hong Kong is on the cutting edge in marketing, manufacturing and services. The impact of Hong Kong's manufacturing expertise on the economies of Asia is well-known in places as far-flung as Mauritius and Mongolia. Your influence has been particularly obvious in China. The billions of dollars Hong Kong entrepreneurs such as yourselves have poured into China have helped fuel its economic reform. In the past 15 years, Hong Kong investment in Guangdong has single-handedly transformed its agricultural economy into an industrial power center. Any visitor to the Pearl River Delta will find it filled with thousands of factories owned by Hong Kong interests.

Here in Hong Kong, U.S. firms -- often in partnership with you -- are at the cutting edge in the form of regional businesses with high technology operations. With you, they bring together the finance, the technology, the communications, the transport, the engineering and the marketing expertise that produce everything from the toys at McDonalds to power for the rapidly industrializing Asian powerhouses. Together with you, they find deals and move markets -- almost always up. The free flow of information is increasingly important as the lifeblood of these markets and these deals. Transparency and the rule of law make Hong Kong the favored location for contracts. Hong Kong's open environment, which has fostered such dynamic growth must continue for Hong Kong to continue to play this role.

In view of the passing of Deng Xiaoping on Wednesday, I want to say a few words about his contribution in this regard. His passing marks the end of a great era for China's leadership. The policies of reform and opening up to the world which he put into place have brought about a major, positive evolution of China's relations with the world and with Hong Kong. As the architect of the principle of "One Country, Two Systems", Deng has left an invaluable legacy for Hong Kong. Respect for that principle and for the Joint Declaration and the Basic Law, which are based on it, can certainly help Hong Kong enjoy the productive, stable and prosperous future which he so much desired.

As we look ahead beyond the July 1 establishment of the Special Administrative Region, I see several important priorities for Hong Kong. These include:

• Upholding Hong Kong's free trade stance, especially in international fora like the World Trade Organization and the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation. As an independent member of these organizations, Hong Kong will be able to continue to voice its support for free trade, essential to the health and growth of regional and global commerce.

• Protecting Hong Kong's separate customs status. This means maintaining your own trading and customs controls. It also means protecting the integrity of the "Made in Hong Kong" label through vigilant efforts to counter illegal textile transshipments. Such transshipments damage not only the textile trade, but Hong Kong's good name in general. This is an area in which U.S. Customs and Hong Kong Customs are working closely -- and successfully -- together. Strong intellectual property protection is also key to attaining this goal, and is an area of great importance to us.

• Preserving Hong Kong's reputation as a business center, particularly as a major center for high technology and the entertainment business. Maintaining the free flow of information in and through Hong Kong is vital.

American companies are optimistic about the future of Hong Kong. They also stress that their success in Hong Kong depends upon safeguarding the rule of law, encouraging the free flow of information in all its forms, and guarding against corruption. But, as I think is clear from the role Hong Kong already plays in this region, these are your interests, too. The attitudes and actions of Hong Kong's business community may do more than anything else to ensure that Hong Kong's autonomy is realized.

There are larger issues which are also priorities for Hong Kong at this critical juncture in its history. Preserving the open, free society which underpins its success is critical to a prosperous and stable future. We are not shy about speaking out on these issues because we are so involved in Hong Kong. With an estimated $14 billion invested here, and another $14 billion in exports to Hong Kong, U.S. firms have a very real stake in what happens here.

As we move ahead, I would like to emphasize that we want to see things go well in Hong Kong, for the sake of our interests here, for the sake of our friends here, for the sake of broader U.S.-China relations. We will continue to deal with Hong Kong in all the areas of its responsibility. The commitments China made in the Joint Declaration and Basic Law are good ones and we expect them to be fulfilled. Our concerns, when we speak out, are in fact over whether those high standards, China's standards, are being upheld. Reflecting these concerns, we also regularly stress the importance of Hong Kong remaining free and open in almost every high-level meeting with Chinese officials. As July approaches, Americans will be watching Hong Kong's return with intense interest.

We share the confidence that as long as China's commitments are honored, we can expect to see a prosperous future for Hong Kong. We take China at its word when it says Hong Kong's people will run Hong Kong. You will help direct the path of Hong Kong's future, and we believe we can rely on you to ensure your own way forward.

In closing, I would like to refer to author Jan Morris's description of traveling overnight down the Pearl River from Guangzhou to Hong Kong. Having made this trip many times myself, I readily identify with her description of her first sight of Hong Kong at the end of the journey. In her words, Hong Kong emerges from the morning mist as "a futuristic metropolis like something from another age or another sensibility, stacked around a harbor jammed fantastically with ships -- the busiest, the richest, and the most truly extraordinary of all Chinese cities."

Hong Kong is a truly unique and extraordinary city, what Morris calls the "brazen embodiment of free enterprise" and "communal energy." It is indeed a Chinese city, and a modern city. Together in partnership, U.S. firms and Hong Kong firms can continue to harness this energy as we work with you for the future of Hong Kong.

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