The Politicization and Nationalization of Hong Kong during the Asian Financial Crisis
| Date | 01 March 2000 |
| Author | William Wei |
| Published date | 01 March 2000 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070200005500104 |
| Subject Matter | Comment & Opinion |
WILLIAM
WEI
The
politicization
and
nationalization
of
Hong
Kong
during
the
Asian
financial
crisis
SINCE
THE
SUMMER
OF
1997,
THE
WORLD
HAS
BECOME
acutely
aware
of
the
'Asian
financial
flu'
that
has
dislocated
the
economies
and
desta-
bilized
the
politics
of
Asia.
Its
symptoms
have
been
manifest: major
banks
and
corporations
have
defaulted
on
their
loans
and
failed
to
repay
foreign
debts;
nervous
native
and
foreign
investors
have
with-
drawn
vast
amounts
of
capital;
and
property
and
stock
values
have
plummeted,
while
inflation
and
unemployment
have
soared.
According
to
the
World
Bank,
the
worst
hit
countries,
such
as
Thailand,
the Philippines,
Malaysia,
Indonesia,
and
South
Korea,
have
lost
the
equivalent
of
80
per
cent
of
their
gross
domestic
product.
Moreover,
the World
Bank
predicts
that
overall
the
region
will experi-
ence
negative
growth
rates,
ranging
from
-2
to
-15
per
cent.
In
short,
Asia
is
in
a
recession
from
which
it
may
take
as
long
as
five
years to
recover.
At
the
beginning
of
the
crisis,
from
summer through
the
early
autumn
of
1997,
the
conventional
wisdom
was
that Hong
Kong
would
be
protected
by
its
healthy economy.
Since
Hong
Kong's
econ-
Professor
ofHistory
andAcademic
Program
Director,
University
of
Colorado
at
Boulder.
This
article
is
a
revision
and
expansion
of'Hong
Kong Social
and
Economic
Indicators, 'a
paperpre-
sented
at
a panel
on
Hong
Kong
Since
1997.
Part
I-
China's
Hong
Kong:
One
Year
Later,
International
Conference
for
Asian
Scholars,
Amsterdam,
the
Netherlands,
27June
1998.
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
Winter
1999-2000
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