Colours of Money, Shades of Pride: Historicities and Moral Politics in Industrial Conflicts in Hong Kong

2. Hong Kong and the Japan Watch Multinational: The Political Economy of Profit-Generating Machines on a Capitalist Periphery

Hong Kong and the Japan Watch 2! Multinational : The Political Economy of I Profit-Generatin g Machine s on a Capitalist Periphery Hong Kong was formerly a British enclave at the mouth of the Pearl River. The island was occupied by the British in 1841, during the first Opium War (1839-42) between Britain and China. Its secession to Britain was ratified in the Treaty of Nanking (1842). Further territory (Kowloon) was added in 1860, and i n 189 8 the New Territories were added on a 99-year rent-fre e lease, by agreement between Britain and China. The enclav e comprise s jus t 39 8 squar e miles , an d i n 198 6 ha d a population of six million, including a 1.5 percent non-Chinese population. The population is largely concentrated i n two conurbations, on either side of the harbour. I n its general character, Hon g Kong was Chinese, despit e having been ruled by a British administration under British law. Since 1843 , th e developmen t o f Hon g Kon g ha s bee n intimatel y connected with, and influenced by, the great continental society of China, although as a creation of mercantile capitalism in its most naked and brutal form, Hong Kong has always conducted 'business as usual', beginning with opium. By the en d o f the eighteent h century , Britis h merchants , i n order t o overcome the failure t o create a market for goods of Western manufactur e and to reclaim the silver they had paid for Chinese silk and tea, managed to 30฀ Colours of Money, Shades of Pride create a demand for Indian opium among the Chinese population. By 1839 — just prior to the Chinese prohibition of the opium trade and the British occupation of Hong Kong — the amount of opium being pumped into China was increasing exponentially . Ever since its days as the world's major opium market and as a bridgehead of capitalist penetration, Hong Kong's growth has always been in entrepot trade. After th e defea t o f th e Japanes e i n 1945 , an d followin g th e intensification of civil war in China, a flood of refugees entered the colony. Further events in China gave Hong Kong an industrial impetus. A numbe r of Chinese entrepreneur s fled fro m th e major industria l city of Shanghai, and the 194 9 Revolution led to the creation of a nucleus of skilled workers and capitalists for the establishment of factories in Hong Kong. Then China's involvement in the Korean War in 1951, and the subsequent United Nations and U S ba n o n trad e wit h th e People' s Republic , sharpl y reduce d Hon g Kong's entrepot commerce , forcing it s businessmen t o look elsewhere fo r earnings and its labour force to seek alternative means of subsistence. These businessmen too k to manufacturing — both capital-intensive an d labour intensive . The changing structure of postwar international capital interests resulted in shifting political relations and strategies of expropriation. A strange mix in Hon g Kong , resultin g fro m it s uniqu e histor y an d location , mad e it s transformation int o a core offshore manufacturing outpost for internationa l capitalism not only possible but imperative. In a span of twenty years, Hong Kong was transformed fro m a colonial entrepot, dominated by its through trade with China, t o a modern industria l colony and a major nod e m th e international networ k o f commodity markets . In th e lat e 1940s , locally manufactured product s accounted fo r 1 5 percent of Hong Kong's exports. During the Vietnam War they exceeded 80 percent. By the end of the 1970s Hong Kong was, in spite of the small size of its population and the virtua l non-existence of natural resources, among the world's top exporting areas. The valu e of its exports was greater tha n tha t o f India i n th e 1980 s and , after Japan, Hong Kong had the highest average per-capita income in Asia. Hong Kong and the Japan Watch Multinational 3 1 In 198 6 th e econom y an d system s o f manufactur e i n Hon g Kon g exemplified virtually...