conventional long name	Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China although "Hong Kong Special Administrative Region" and "Hong Kong" are also accepted.|groupnote}}

| native_name = 中華人民共和國香港特別行政區 | common_name = Hong Kong | image_flag = Flag of Hong Kong.svg | alt_flag = A flag with a white 5-petalled flower design on solid red background | image_coat = Hong Kong SAR Regional Emblem.svg | alt_coat = A red circular emblem, with a white 5-petalled flower design in the centre, and surrounded by the words "Hong Kong" and "中華人民共和國香港特別行政區" | symbol_type = Emblem | national_anthem = ''March of the Volunteers'' 《義勇軍進行曲》 | image_map = Hong Kong Skyline Restitch - Dec 2007.jpg | map_caption = View at night from Victoria Peak | alt_map = A panorama overlooking the skyscrapers of Hong Kong at night, with Victoria Harbour in the background | image_map2 = Hong Kong Location.svg | map2_width = 250px | alt_map2 = Hong Kong is situated on a peninsula and series of islands on the south coast of China, to the east of the Pearl River Delta and bordered to the north by Guangdong province | official_languages = Chinese, English It does not explicitly specify the standard for "Chinese". While Mandarin written in Simplified Chinese characters are the standards in mainland China, Cantonese and Traditional Chinese characters are the ''de facto'' standards in Hong Kong. ''See also: Bilingualism in Hong Kong''.|group=note}} | languages_type = Spoken languages | languages = Cantonese, English | demonym = Hong Konger | leader_title1 = Chief Executive | leader_name1 = Donald Tsang | leader_title2 = Chief Justice | leader_name2 = Geoffrey Ma | leader_title3 = President of theLegislative Council | leader_name3 = Jasper Tsang | legislature = Legislative Council | government_type = Quasi-presidential autonomous region with limited suffrage | sovereignty_type = Establishment | established_event1 = Treaty of Nanking | established_date1 = 29 August 1842 | established_event2 = Japanese occupation | established_date2 = 25 December 1941 –15 August 1945 | established_event3 = Handover to China | established_date3 = 1 July 1997 | latd= 22 | latm= 16.7 | latNS = N | longd= 114 |longm= 09.533 |longEW = E | area_magnitude = 1 E9 | area_km2 = 1,104 | area_rank = 179th | area_sq_mi = 426 | percent_water = 4.58 (50 km²; 19 mi²) | population_census = 7,061,200 | population_census_year = 2010 | population_density_km2 = 6480 | population_density_sq_mi = 16576 | population_density_rank = 4th | GDP_PPP = $326 billion | GDP_PPP_rank = | GDP_PPP_year = 2010 | GDP_PPP_per_capita = $45,736 | GDP_PPP_per_capita_rank = | GDP_nominal = $225 billion | GDP_nominal_rank = | GDP_nominal_year = 2010 | GDP_nominal_per_capita = $31,590 | GDP_nominal_per_capita_rank = | Gini = 43.4 | Gini_year = 2007 | HDI = 0.862 | HDI_rank = 21st | HDI_year = 2010 | HDI_category = very high | currency = Hong Kong dollar | currency_code = HKD | time_zone = HKT | utc_offset = +8 | date_format = yyyy年m月d日 (Chinese) dd-mm-yyyy (English) | drives_on = left | cctld = .hk and .香港 | calling_code = +852 | nicknames = HK, The 852 }}

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Hong Kong () is one of two special administrative regions (SARs) of the People's Republic of China (PRC), the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour. With a land mass of and a population of seven million people, Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. Hong Kong's population is 95 percent ethnic Chinese and 5 percent from other groups. Hong Kong's Han Chinese majority originate mainly from the cities of Guangzhou and Taishan in the neighbouring Guangdong province.

Hong Kong became a colony of the British Empire after the First Opium War (1839–42). Originally confined to Hong Kong Island, the colony's boundaries were extended in stages to the Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 and then the New Territories in 1898. It was occupied by Japan during the Pacific War, after which the British resumed control until 1997, when China resumed sovereignty. The region espoused minimum government intervention under the ethos of positive non-interventionism during the colonial era. The time period greatly influenced the current culture of Hong Kong, often described as "East meets West", and the educational system, which used to loosely follow the system in England until reforms implemented in 2009.

Under the principle of "one country, two systems", Hong Kong has a different political system from mainland China. Hong Kong's independent judiciary functions under the common law framework. The Basic Law of Hong Kong, its constitutional document, which stipulates that Hong Kong shall have a "high degree of autonomy" in all matters except foreign relations and military defence, governs its political system. Although it has a burgeoning multi-party system, a small-circle electorate controls half of its legislature. An 800-person Election Committee selects the Chief Executive of Hong Kong, the head of government.

As one of the world's leading international financial centres, Hong Kong has a major capitalist service economy characterised by low taxation and free trade, and the currency, Hong Kong dollar, is the ninth most traded currency in the world. The lack of space caused demand for denser constructions, which developed the city to a centre for modern architecture and the world's most vertical city. The dense space also led to a highly developed transportation network with public transport travelling rate exceeding 90 percent, the highest in the world. Hong Kong has numerous high international rankings in various aspects. For instance, its economic freedom, financial and economic competitiveness, quality of life, corruption perception, Human Development Index, etc., are all ranked highly.

Etymology

The name "Hong Kong" is an approximate phonetic rendering of the pronunciation of the spoken Cantonese or Hakka name "香港", meaning "fragrant harbour". Before 1842, the name referred to a small inlet – now Aberdeen Harbour or Little Hong Kong – between the island of Ap Lei Chau and the south side of Hong Kong Island, which was one of the first points of contact between British sailors and local fishermen.

The reference to fragrance may refer to the harbour waters sweetened by the fresh water estuarine influx of the Pearl River, or to the incense from factories lining the coast to the north of Kowloon, which was stored around Aberdeen Harbour for export before the development of Victoria Harbour. In 1842, the Treaty of Nanking was signed, and the name Hong Kong was first recorded on official documents to encompass the entirety of the island.

History

Pre-colonial

Archaeological studies support a human presence in the Chek Lap Kok area from 35,000 to 39,000 years ago, and in Sai Kung Peninsula from 6,000 years ago. Wong Tei Tung and Three Fathoms Cove are the two earliest sites of human habitation in the Palaeolithic period. It is believed the Three Fathom Cove was a river valley settlement and Wong Tei Tung was a lithic manufacturing site. Excavated Neolithic artefacts suggest cultural differences from the Longshan culture in northern China and settlement by the Che people prior to the migration of the Baiyue. Eight petroglyphs were discovered on surrounding islands, which dated to the Shang Dynasty in China.

In 214 BC, Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, conquered the Baiyue tribes in Jiaozhi (modern Liangguang region) and incorporated the territory into imperial China for the first time. Modern Hong Kong is located in Nanhai commandery (modern Nanhai District) and near the ancient capital city Pun Yue. The area was consolidated under the kingdom of Nanyue, founded by general Zhao Tuo in 204 BC after the Qin Dynasty collapsed. When the kingdom was conquered by Emperor Wu of Han in 111 BC, the land was assigned to the Jiaozhi commandery under the Han Dynasty. Archaeological evidence indicates the population increased and early salt production flourished in this time period. Lei Cheng Uk Han Tomb in the Kowloon Peninsula is believed to have been built during the Han Dynasty.

During the Tang Dynasty period, the Guangdong region flourished as a regional trading center. In 736, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang established a military town in Tuen Mun to defend the coastal area in the region. The first village school, Li Ying College, was established around 1075 in the New Territories under the Northern Song Dynasty. During the Mongol invasion in 1276, the Southern Song Dynasty court moved to Fujian, then to Lantau Island and later to Sung Wong Toi (modern Kowloon City), but the child Emperor Huaizong of Song committed suicide by drowning with his officials after being defeated in the Battle of Yamen. Hau Wong, an official of the emperor is still worshipped in Hong Kong today.

The earliest recorded European visitor was Jorge Álvares, a Portuguese explorer who arrived in 1513. After establishing settlements in the region, Portuguese merchants began trading in southern China. At the same time, they invaded and built up military fortifications in Tuen Mun. Military clashes between China and Portugal led to the expulsion of the Portuguese. In the mid-16th century, the Haijin order banned maritime activities and prevented contact with foreigners; it also restricted local sea activity. In 1661–69, the territory was affected by the Great Clearance ordered by Kangxi Emperor, which required the evacuation of the coastal areas of Guangdong. It is recorded that about 16,000 persons from Xin'an County were driven inland, and 1,648 of those who left are said to have returned when the evacuation was rescinded in 1669. What is now the territory of Hong Kong became largely wasteland during the ban. In 1685, Kangxi became the first emperor to open limited trading with foreigners, which started with the Canton territory. He also imposed strict terms for trades such as requiring foreign traders to live in restricted areas, staying only for the trading seasons, banning firearms, and trading with silver only. The East India Company made the first sea venture to China in 1699, and the region's trade with British merchants developed rapidly soon after. In 1711, the company established its first trading post in Canton. By 1773, the British reached a landmark 1,000 chests of opium in Canton with China consuming 2,000 chests annually by 1799.

British colonial era

In 1839, the refusal by Qing Dynasty authorities to import opium resulted in the First Opium War between China and Britain. Hong Kong Island was occupied by British forces on 20 January 1841 and was initially ceded under the Convention of Chuenpee as part of a ceasefire agreement between Captain Charles Elliot and Governor Qishan, but the agreement was never ratified due to a dispute between high ranking officials in both governments. It was not until 29 August 1842 that the island was formally ceded in perpetuity to the United Kingdom under the Treaty of Nanking. The British established a crown colony with the founding of Victoria City the following year.

In 1860, after China's defeat in the Second Opium War, the Kowloon Peninsula and Stonecutter's Island were ceded in perpetuity to Britain under the Convention of Peking.

In 1894, the deadly Third Pandemic of bubonic plague spread from China to Hong Kong, causing 50,000–100,000 deaths.

In 1898, under the terms of the Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory, Britain obtained a 99-year lease of Lantau Island and the adjacent northern lands, which became known as the New Territories. Hong Kong's territory has remained unchanged to the present.

During the first half of the 20th century, Hong Kong was a free port, serving as an entrepôt of the British Empire. The British introduced an education system based on their own model, while the local Chinese population had little contact with the European community of wealthy ''tai-pans'' settled near Victoria Peak.

In conjunction with its military campaign, the Empire of Japan invaded Hong Kong on 8 December 1941. The Battle of Hong Kong ended with British and Canadian defenders surrendering control of the colony to Japan on 25 December. During the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, civilians suffered widespread food shortages, rationing, and hyper-inflation due to forced exchange of currency for military notes. Through a policy of enforced repatriation of the unemployed to the mainland throughout the period, because of the scarcity of food, the population of Hong Kong had dwindled from 1.6 million in 1941 to 600,000 in 1945, when the United Kingdom resumed control of the colony.

Hong Kong's population recovered quickly as a wave of migrants from China arrived for refuge from the ongoing Chinese Civil War. When the PRC was proclaimed in 1949, more migrants fled to Hong Kong for fear of persecution by the Communist Party. Many corporations in Shanghai and Guangzhou shifted their operations to Hong Kong.

In the 1950s, Hong Kong's rapid industrialisation was driven by textile exports and other expanded manufacturing industries. As the population grew and labour costs remained low, living standards rose steadily. The construction of Shek Kip Mei Estate in 1953 followed a massive slum fire, and marked the beginning of the public housing estate programme designed to cope with the huge influx of immigrants. Trade in Hong Kong accelerated even further when Shenzhen, immediately north of Hong Kong, became a special economic zone of the PRC, and Hong Kong was established as the main source of foreign investment in China. The manufacturing competitiveness gradually declined in Hong Kong due to the development of the manufacturing industry in southern China beginning in the early 1980s. By contrast, the service industry in Hong Kong experienced high rates of growth in the 1980s and 1990s after absorbing workers released from the manufacturing industry.

In 1983, when the United Kingdom reclassified Hong Kong from a British crown colony to a dependent territory, the governments of the United Kingdom and China were already discussing the issue of Hong Kong's sovereignty due to the impending expiry (within two decades) of the lease of the New Territories. In 1984, the Sino-British Joint Declaration – an agreement to transfer sovereignty to the People's Republic of China in 1997 – was signed. It stipulated that Hong Kong would be governed as a special administrative region, retaining its laws and a high degree of autonomy for at least 50 years after the transfer. The Hong Kong Basic Law, which would serve as the constitutional document after the transfer, was ratified in 1990.

Since 1997

On 1 July 1997, the transfer of sovereignty from United Kingdom to the PRC occurred, officially ending 156 years of British colonial rule. Hong Kong became China's first special administrative region, and Tung Chee Hwa took office as the first Chief Executive of Hong Kong. That same year, Hong Kong suffered an economic double blow from the Asian financial crisis and the H5N1 avian influenza. In 2003, Hong Kong was gravely affected by the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). The World Health Organization reported 1,755 infected and 299 deaths in Hong Kong. An estimated 380 million Hong Kong dollars (US$48.9 million) in contracts were lost as a result of the epidemic.

On 10 March 2005, Tung Chee Hwa announced his resignation as Chief Executive due to "health problems". Donald Tsang, the Chief Secretary for Administration at the time, entered the 2005 election unopposed and became the second Chief Executive of Hong Kong on 21 June 2005. In 2007, Tsang won the Chief Executive election and continued his second term in office.

In 2009, Hong Kong hosted the fifth East Asian Games, in which nine national teams competed. It was the first and largest international multi-sport event ever held in the territory. Today, Hong Kong continues to serve as an important global financial centre, but faces uncertainty over its future due to the growing mainland China economy, and its relationship with the PRC government in areas such as democratic reform and universal suffrage.

Governance

In accordance with the Sino-British Joint Declaration, and the underlying principle of one country, two systems, Hong Kong has a "high degree of autonomy as a special administrative region in all areas except defence and foreign affairs." The declaration stipulates that the region maintain its capitalist economic system and guarantees the rights and freedoms of its people for at least 50 years beyond the 1997 handover. The guarantees over the territory's autonomy and the individual rights and freedoms are enshrined in a constitution, the Hong Kong Basic Law, which outlines the system of governance of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, but which is subject to the interpretation of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPCSC).

The primary pillars of government are the Executive Council, the civil service, the Legislative Council, and the Judiciary. The Executive Council is headed by the Chief Executive who is elected by the Election Committee and then appointed by the Central People's Government. The civil service is a politically neutral body that implements policies and provides government services, where public servants are appointed based on meritocracy. The Legislative Council has 60 members, half of which are directly elected by universal suffrage by permanent residents of Hong Kong according to five geographical constituencies. The other half, known as functional constituencies, are directly elected by a smaller electorate, which consists of corporate bodies and persons from various stipulated functional sectors. The entire council is headed by the President of the Legislative Council who serves as the speaker. Judges are appointed by the Chief Executive on the recommendation of an independent commission.

The implementation of the Basic Law, including how and when the universal suffrage promised therein is to be achieved, has been a major issue of political debate since the transfer of sovereignty. In 2002, the government's proposed anti-subversion bill pursuant to Article 23 of the Basic Law, which required the enactment of laws prohibiting acts of treason and subversion against the Chinese government, was met with fierce opposition, and eventually shelved. Debate between pro-Beijing groups, which tend to support the Executive branch, and the Pan-democracy camp characterises Hong Kong's political scene, with the latter supporting a faster pace of democratisation, and the principle of one man, one vote.

In 2004, the government failed to gain pan-democrat support to pass its so-called "district council model" for political reform. In 2009, the government reissued the proposals as the "''Consultation Document on the Methods for Selecting the Chief Executive and for Forming the LegCo in 2012''". The document proposed the enlargement of the Election Committee, Hong Kong's electoral college, from 800 members to 1,200 in 2012 and expansion of the legislature from 60 to 70 seats. The 10 new legislative seats would consist of five geographical constituency seats and five functional constituency seats, to be voted in by elected district council members from among themselves. The proposals were destined for rejection by pan-democrats once again, but a significant breakthrough occurred after the Central People's Government accepted a counter-proposal by the Democratic Party. In particular, the Pan-democracy camp was split when the proposal to directly elect five newly created functional seats was not acceptable to two constituent parties. The Democratic Party sided with the government for the first time since the handover and passed the proposals with a vote of 46–12.

Legal system and judiciary

Hong Kong's legal system is completely independent from the legal system of Mainland China. In contrast to mainland China's civil law system, Hong Kong continues to follow the English Common Law tradition established under British rule. Hong Kong's courts may refer to decisions rendered by courts of other common law jurisdictions as precedents, and judges from other common law jurisdictions are allowed to sit as non-permanent judges of the Court of Final Appeal.

Structurally, the court system consists of the Court of Final Appeal, the High Court, which is made up of the Court of Appeal and the Court of First Instance, and the District Court, which includes the Family Court. Other adjudicative bodies include the Lands Tribunal, the Magistrates' Courts, the Juvenile Court, the Coroner's Court, the Labour Tribunal, the Small Claims Tribunal, and the Obscene Articles Tribunal. Justices of the Court of Final Appeal are appointed by Hong Kong's Chief Executive.

The Department of Justice is responsible for handling legal matters for the government. Its responsibilities include providing legal advice, criminal prosecution, civil representation, legal and policy drafting and reform, and international legal cooperation between different jurisdictions. Apart from prosecuting criminal cases, lawyers of the Department of Justice act on behalf of the government in all civil and administrative lawsuits against the government. As protector of the public interest, the department may apply for judicial reviews and may intervene in any cases involving the greater public interest. The Basic Law protects the Department of Justice from any interference by the government when exercising its control over criminal prosecution.

Human rights

In general, Hong Kong is perceived to enjoy a high level of civil liberties. The Hong Kong government generally respect the human rights of the citizens, although core issues remain. There are concerns over the freedom of assembly which is restricted by the Public Order Ordinance. The police has been occasionally accused of using heavy-handed tactics towards protestors and questions are asked towards the extensive powers of the police. As to the right of privacy, covert surveillance remains the major concern. There is a lack of protection for homosexuals due to the absence of a sexual orientation discrimination law. There are also comments regarding a lack of protection for labour rights.

Internet access in Hong Kong is not under the censorship, surveillance, and control of the Great Firewall of China.

Administrative districts

Hong Kong has a unitary system of government; no local government has existed since the two municipal councils were abolished in 2000. As such there is no formal definition for its cities and towns. Administratively, Hong Kong is subdivided into 18 geographic districts, each represented by a district council which advises the government on local matters such as public facilities, community programmes, cultural activities, and environmental improvements.

There are a total of 534 district council seats, 405 of which are elected; the rest are appointed by the Chief Executive and 27 ''ex officio'' chairmen of rural committees. The Home Affairs Department communicates government policies and plans to the public through the district offices.

Military

When Hong Kong was a British colony and later, a dependent territory, defence was provided by the British military under the command of the Governor of Hong Kong who was ''ex officio'' Commander-in-chief. When the PRC assumed sovereignty in 1997, the British barracks were replaced by a garrison of the People's Liberation Army, comprising ground, naval, and air forces, and under the command of the Chinese Central Military Commission.

The Basic Law protects local civil affairs against interference by the garrison, and members of the garrison are subject to Hong Kong laws. The Hong Kong Government remains responsible for the maintenance of public order; however, it may ask the PRC government for help from the garrison in maintaining public order and in disaster relief. The PRC government is responsible for the costs of maintaining the garrison.

Geography and climate

Hong Kong is located on China's south coast, east of Macau on the opposite side of the Pearl River Delta. It is surrounded by the South China Sea on the east, south, and west, and borders the Guangdong city of Shenzhen to the north over the Shenzhen River. The territory's area consists of Hong Kong Island, the Kowloon Peninsula, the New Territories, and over 200 offshore islands, of which the largest is Lantau Island. Of the total area, is land and is inland water. Hong Kong claims territorial waters to a distance of . Its land area makes Hong Kong the 179th largest inhabited territory in the world.

As much of Hong Kong's terrain is hilly to mountainous with steep slopes, less than 25% of the territory's landmass is developed, and about 40% of the remaining land area is reserved as country parks and nature reserves. Most of the territory's urban development exists on Kowloon peninsula, along the northern edge of Hong Kong Island, and in scattered settlements throughout the New Territories. The highest elevation in the territory is at Tai Mo Shan, above sea level. Hong Kong's long and irregular coast provides it with many bays, rivers and beaches.

Despite Hong Kong's reputation of being intensely urbanised, the territory has tried to promote a green environment, and recent growing public concern has prompted the severe restriction of further land reclamation from Victoria Harbour. Awareness of the environment is growing as Hong Kong suffers from increasing pollution compounded by its geography and tall buildings. Approximately 80% of the city's smog originates from other parts of the Pearl River Delta.

Though it is situated just south of the Tropic of Cancer, Hong Kong has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen ''Cwa''). Summer is hot and humid with occasional showers and thunderstorms, and warm air coming from the southwest. Summer is when typhoons are most likely, sometimes resulting in flooding or landslides. Winters are mild and usually start sunny, becoming cloudier towards February; the occasional cold front brings strong, cooling winds from the north. The most temperate seasons are spring, which can be changeable, and autumn, which is generally sunny and dry. Hong Kong averages 1,948 hours of sunshine per year, while the highest and lowest ever recorded temperatures at the Hong Kong Observatory are and , respectively.

Economy

As one of the world's leading international financial centres, Hong Kong has a major capitalist service economy characterised by low taxation and free trade, and the currency, Hong Kong dollar, is the ninth most traded currency in the world. Hong Kong was once described by Milton Friedman as the world’s greatest experiment in laissez-faire capitalism. It maintains a highly developed capitalist economy, ranked the freest in the world by the Index of Economic Freedom for 15 consecutive years. It is an important centre for international finance and trade, with one of the greatest concentrations of corporate headquarters in the Asia-Pacific region, and is known as one of the Four Asian Tigers for its high growth rates and rapid development from the 1960s to the 1990s. Between 1961 and 1997 Hong Kong's gross domestic product grew 180 times while per-capita GDP increased 87 times over.

The Hong Kong Stock Exchange is the seventh largest in the world, with a market capitalisation of US$2.3 trillion as of December 2009. In that year, Hong Kong raised 22 percent of worldwide initial public offering (IPO) capital, making it the largest centre of IPOs in the world. Hong Kong's currency is the Hong Kong dollar, which has been pegged to the U.S. dollar since 1983.

The Hong Kong Government has traditionally played a mostly passive role in the economy, with little by way of industrial policy and almost no import or export controls. Market forces and the private sector were allowed to determine practical development. Under the official policy of "positive non-interventionism", Hong Kong is often cited as an example of laissez-faire capitalism. Following the Second World War, Hong Kong industrialised rapidly as a manufacturing centre driven by exports, and then underwent a rapid transition to a service-based economy in the 1980s.

Hong Kong matured to become a financial centre in the 1990s, but was greatly affected by the Asian financial crisis in 1998, and again in 2003 by the SARS outbreak. A revival of external and domestic demand has led to a strong recovery, as cost decreases strengthened the competitiveness of Hong Kong exports and a long deflationary period ended. Government intervention, initiated by the later colonial governments and continued since 1997, has steadily increased, with the introduction of export credit guarantees, a compulsory pension scheme, a minimum wage, anti-discrimination laws, and a state mortgage backer.

The territory has little arable land and few natural resources, so it imports most of its food and raw materials. Hong Kong is the world's eleventh largest trading entity, with the total value of imports and exports exceeding its gross domestic product. It is the world's largest re-export centre. Much of Hong Kong's exports consist of re-exports, which are products made outside of the territory, especially in mainland China, and distributed via Hong Kong. Even before the transfer of sovereignty, Hong Kong had established extensive trade and investment ties with the mainland, which now enable it to serve as a point of entry for investment flowing into the mainland. At the end of 2007, there were 3.46 million people employed full-time, with the unemployment rate averaging 4.1% for the fourth straight year of decline. Hong Kong's economy is dominated by the service sector, which accounts for over 90% of its GDP, while industry constitutes 9%. Inflation was at 2.5% in 2007. Hong Kong's largest export markets are mainland China, the United States, and Japan.

As of 2010, Hong Kong is the eighth most expensive city for expatriates, falling from fifth position in the previous year. In 2011, Hong Kong was ranked second in the Ease of Doing Business Index, behind Singapore. General principle No. 5 of the Basic Law of the SAR suggests that the CPC expects that it shall have brought the economic system of the Mainland and Hong Kong into harmony by 2047, by which time the Chinese economy is predicted to have been the largest by any measure of GDP for decades.

Demographics

The territory's population is 7.03 million. In 2009, Hong Kong had a birth rate of 11.7 per 1,000 population and a fertility rate of 1,032 children per 1,000 women. Residents from mainland China do not have the right of abode in Hong Kong, nor are they allowed to enter the territory freely. However, the influx of immigrants from mainland China, approximating 45,000 per year, is a significant contributor to its population growth – a daily quota of 150 Mainland Chinese with family ties in Hong Kong are granted a "one way permit". Life expectancy in Hong Kong is 79.16 years for males and 84.79 years for females as of 2009, making it one of the highest life expectancies in the world.

About 95% of the people of Hong Kong are of Chinese descent, the majority of whom are Taishanese, Chiu Chow, other Cantonese people, and Hakka. Hong Kong's Han majority originate mainly from the Guangzhou and Taishan regions in Guangdong province. The remaining 5% of the population is composed of non-ethnic Chinese. There is a South Asian population of Indians, Pakistanis and Nepalese; some Vietnamese refugees have become permanent residents of Hong Kong. There are also Europeans (mostly British), Americans, Canadians, Japanese, and Koreans working in the city's commercial and financial sector.|group=note}} In 2008, there were an estimate of 252,500 foreign domestic helpers from Indonesia and the Philippines working in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong's ''de facto'' official language is Cantonese, a Chinese language originating from Guangdong province to the north of Hong Kong. English is also an official language, and according to a 1996 by-census is spoken by 3.1 percent of the population as an everyday language and by 34.9 percent of the population as a second language. Signs displaying both Chinese and English are common throughout the territory. Since the 1997 handover, an increase in immigrants from mainland China and greater integration with the mainland economy have brought an increasing number of Mandarin speakers to Hong Kong.

The majority of residents of Hong Kong would claim no religious affiliation, professing a form of agnosticism or atheism. According to the U.S Department of State only 43 percent of the population practices some form of religion. Some figures put it higher, according to a Gallup poll, 64% of Hong Kong do not believe in any religion, and possibly 80% of Hong Kong claim no religion. According to another gallup poll, Hong Kong is the seventh country which considers religion as an important part of their daily lives, with only 22%. In Hong Kong teaching evolution won out in curriculum dispute about whether to teach other explanations, and that creationism and intelligent design will form no part of the senior secondary biology curriculum

Hong Kong enjoys a high degree of religious freedom, guaranteed by the Basic Law. Hong Kong's main religions are Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism, a local religious scholar in contact with major denominations estimates there are approximately 1.5 million Buddhists and Taoists. A Christian community of around 600,000 forms about 8% of the total population; it is nearly equally divided between Catholics and Protestants, although smaller Christian communities exist, including the Latter-Day Saints and Jehovah's Witnesses. The Anglican and Roman Catholic churches each freely appoint their own bishops, unlike in mainland China. There are also Sikh, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu and Bahá'í communities. The practice of Falun Gong is tolerated.

Statistically Hong Kong's income gap is the greatest in Asia Pacific. According to a report by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme in 2008, Hong Kong's Gini coefficient, at 0.53, was the highest in Asia and "relatively high by international standards". However, the government has stressed that income disparity does not equate to worsening of the poverty situation, and that the Gini coefficient is not strictly comparable between regions. The government has named economic restructuring, changes in household sizes, and the increase of high-income jobs as factors that have skewed the Gini coefficient.

Education

Hong Kong's education system used to roughly follow the system in England, although international systems exist. The government maintains a policy of "mother tongue instruction" () in which the medium of instruction is Cantonese, with written Chinese and English. In secondary schools, 'biliterate and trilingual' proficiency is emphasised, and Mandarin-language education has been increasing. The Programme for International Student Assessment ranked Hong Kong's education system as the second best in the world. Hong Kong's public schools are operated by the Education Bureau. The system features a non-compulsory three-year kindergarten, followed by a compulsory six-year primary education, a three-year junior secondary education, a non-compulsory two-year senior secondary education leading to the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examinations and a two-year matriculation course leading to the Hong Kong Advanced Level Examinations. The New Senior Secondary academic structure and curriculum was implemented in September 2009, which provides for all students to receive three years of compulsory junior and three years of compulsory senior secondary education. Under the new curriculum, there is only public examination, namely the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education.

Most comprehensive schools in Hong Kong fall under three categories: the rarer public schools; the more common subsidised schools, including government aids-and-grant schools; and private schools, often run by Christian organisations and having admissions based on academic merit rather than on financial resources. Outside this system are the schools under the Direct Subsidy Scheme and private international schools.

There are nine public universities in Hong Kong, and a number of private higher institutions, offering various bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees, other higher diplomas, and associate degree courses.The University of Hong Kong, the oldest institution of tertiary education in the territory, was described by Quacquarelli Symonds as a "world-class comprehensive research university" and was ranked 24th on the 2009 THES - QS World University Rankings, making it first in Asia. The Hong Kong University of Science & Technology was ranked 35th in the world in 2009 and ranked second in Asia for 2010. The Chinese University of Hong Kong was ranked 46th in the world in 2009 and ranked fourth in Asia for 2010. Based on the 2011 rankings published by career and education network QS, three of the top five Asian universities are in Hong Kong. They are the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, the University of Hong Kong and Chinese University of Hong kong as first, second and fifth rank, respectively.

Healthcare

There are 13 private hospitals and more than 50 public hospitals in Hong Kong. Among the widest range of healthcare services throughout the globe are on offer, and some of the SAR's private hospitals are rightly considered to be among the very best of their type in the world.

There are two medical schools in the SAR, one based at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the other at Hong Kong University. Both have strong links with public sector hospitals.

With respect to postgraduate education, many Hong Kong doctors have traditionally look overseas for further training, and many took British Royal College exams such as the MRCP(UK) and the MRCS(UK). However, Hong Kong has been developing its own postgraduate medical institutions, in particular the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine, and this is gradually taking over the responsibility for all postgraduate medical training in the SAR.

There are also strong public health systems in Hong Kong, and the Centre for Health Protection, founded after the SARS outbreak of 2003, is particularly worthy of mention.

Culture

Hong Kong is frequently described as a place where "East meets West", reflecting the culture's mix of the territory's Chinese roots with influences from its time as a British colony. Hong Kong balances a modernised way of life with traditional Chinese practices. Concepts like ''feng shui'' are taken very seriously, with expensive construction projects often hiring expert consultants, and are often believed to make or break a business. Other objects like Ba gua mirrors are still regularly used to deflect evil spirits, and buildings often lack any floor number that has a 4 in it, due to its similarity to the word for "die" in Cantonese. The fusion of east and west also characterises Hong Kong's cuisine, where dim sum, hot pot, and fast food restaurants coexist with haute cuisine.

Hong Kong is a recognised global centre of trade, and calls itself an "entertainment hub". Its martial arts film genre gained a high level of popularity in the late 1960s and 1970s. Several Hollywood performers, notable actors and martial artists have originated from Hong Kong cinema, notably Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Chow Yun-fat, Michelle Yeoh, Maggie Cheung and Jet Li. A number of Hong Kong film-makers have achieved widespread fame in Hollywood, such as John Woo, Wong Kar-wai, and Stephen Chow.

The Hong Kong government supports cultural institutions such as the Hong Kong Heritage Museum, the Hong Kong Museum of Art, the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. The government's Leisure and Cultural Services Department subsidises and sponsors international performers brought to Hong Kong. Many international cultural activities are organised by the government, consulates, and privately.

Hong Kong has two licensed terrestrial broadcasters – ATV and TVB. There are three local and a number of foreign suppliers of cable and satellite services. The production of Hong Kong's soap dramas, comedy series, and variety shows reach audiences throughout the Chinese-speaking world. Magazine and newspaper publishers in Hong Kong distribute and print in both Chinese and English, with a focus on sensationalism and celebrity gossip. The media in Hong Kong is relatively free from official interference compared to mainland China, although the ''Far Eastern Economic Review'' points to signs of self-censorship by journals whose owners have close ties to or business interests in the People's Republic of China and states that even Western media outlets are not immune to growing Chinese economic power.

Hong Kong offers wide recreational and competitive sport opportunities despite its limited land area. It sends delegates to international competitions such as the Olympic Games and Asian Games, and played host to the equestrian events during the 2008 Summer Olympics. There are major multipurpose venues like Hong Kong Coliseum and MacPherson Stadium. Hong Kong's steep terrain and extensive trail network with expansive views attracts hikers, and its rugged coastline provides many beaches for swimming.

Cityscape

{| |- | | |}

Architecture

According to Emporis, there are 7,650 skyscrapers in Hong Kong, which puts the city at the top of world rankings. It has more buildings higher than 35m (or 100m, or 150m) than any other city. The high density and tall skyline of Hong Kong's urban area is due to a lack of available sprawl space, with the average distance from the harbour front to the steep hills of Hong Kong Island at , much of it reclaimed land. This lack of space causes demand for dense, high-rise offices and housing. Thirty-six of the world's 100 tallest residential buildings are in Hong Kong. More people in Hong Kong live or work above the 14th floor than anywhere else on Earth, making it the world's most vertical city.

As a result of the lack of space and demand for construction, few older buildings remain, and the city is becoming a centre for modern architecture. The International Commerce Centre (ICC), at high, is the tallest building in Hong Kong and the third tallest in the world, by height to roof measurement. The tallest building prior to the ICC is Two International Finance Centre, at high. Other recognisable skyline features include the HSBC Headquarters Building, the triangular-topped Central Plaza with its pyramid-shaped spire, The Center with its night-time multi-coloured neon light show, and I. M. Pei's Bank of China Tower with its sharp, angular façade. According to the Emporis website, the city skyline has the biggest visual impact of all world cities. The oldest remaining historic structures including the Tsim Sha Tsui Clock Tower, the Central Police Station, and the remains of Kowloon Walled City were constructed during the 19th and early 20th centuries.

There are many development plans in place, including the construction of new government buildings, waterfront redevelopment in Central, and a series of projects in West Kowloon. More high-rise development is set to take place on the other side of Victoria Harbour in Kowloon, as the 1998 closure of the nearby Kai Tak Airport lifted strict height restrictions.

Transport

Hong Kong's transportation network is highly developed. Over 90% of daily travels (11 million) are on public transport, the highest such percentage in the world. Payment can be made using the Octopus card, a stored value system introduced by the Mass Transit Railway (MTR), which is widely accepted on railways, buses and ferries, and accepted like cash at other outlets.

The city's main railway company (MTR) was merged with the urban mass transit operator (KCRC) in 2007, creating a comprehensive rail network for the whole territory (also called MTR). This MTR rapid transit system has 152 stations, which serve 3.4 million people a day. Hong Kong Tramways, which has served the territory since 1904, covers the northern parts of Hong Kong Island.

{| |- | |} Hong Kong's bus service is franchised and run by private operators. Five privately owned companies provide franchised bus service across the territory, together operating more than 700 routes. The two largest, Kowloon Motor Bus provides 402 routes in Kowloon and New Territories; Citybus operates 154 routes on Hong Kong Island; both run cross-harbour services. Double-decker buses were introduced to Hong Kong in 1949, and are now almost exclusively used; single-decker buses remain in use for routes with lower demand or roads with lower load capacity. Public light buses serve most parts of Hong Kong, particularly areas where standard bus lines cannot reach or do not reach as frequently, quickly, or directly.

The Star Ferry service, founded in 1888, operates four lines across Victoria Harbour and provides scenic views of Hong Kong's skyline for its 53,000 daily passengers. It acquired iconic status following its use as a setting on ''The World of Suzie Wong''. Travel writer Ryan Levitt considered the main Tsim Sha Tsui to Central crossing one of the most picturesque in the world. Other ferry services are provided by operators serving outlying islands, new towns, Macau, and cities in mainland China. Hong Kong is famous for its junks traversing the harbour, and small kai-to ferries that serve remote coastal settlements. The Port of Hong Kong is a busy deepwater port, specialising in container shipping.

Hong Kong Island's steep, hilly terrain was initially served by sedan chairs. The Peak Tram, the first public transport system in Hong Kong, has provided vertical rail transport between Central and Victoria Peak since 1888. In Central and Western district, there is an extensive system of escalators and moving pavements, including the longest outdoor covered escalator system in the world, the Mid-Levels escalator.

Hong Kong International Airport is a leading air passenger gateway and logistics hub in Asia and one of the world's busiest airports in terms of international passenger and cargo movement, serving more than 47 million passengers and handling 3.74 million tonnes (4.12 million tons) of cargo in 2007. It replaced the overcrowded Kai Tak Airport in Kowloon in 1998, and has been rated as the world's best airport in a number of surveys. Over 85 airlines operate at the two-terminal airport and it is the primary hub of Cathay Pacific, Dragonair, Air Hong Kong, Hong Kong Airlines, and Hong Kong Express.

See also

Public holidays in Hong Kong

List of cities with most skyscrapers

Notes

Footnotes

References

Further reading

}}

External links

; Government

Discover Hong Kong – Official site of the Hong Kong Tourism Board

; Other

Hong Kong at Encyclopædia Britannica

HongKong at ''UCB Libraries GovPubs''

WikiSatellite view of Hong Kong at WikiMapia

Category:1997 establishments Category:Chinese-speaking countries and territories Category:English-speaking countries and territories Category:Former British colonies Category:Independent cities Category:Metropolitan areas of China Category:Pearl River Delta Category:Populated places established in 1842 Category:Port cities and towns in China Category:South China Sea Category:Special administrative regions of the People's Republic of China

ace:Hong Kong af:Hongkong am:ሆንግ ኮንግ ar:هونغ كونغ an:Hong Kong ast:Ḥong Kong az:Honq Konq bn:হংকং zh-min-nan:Hiong-káng be:Горад Ганконг be-x-old:Ганконг bcl:Hong Kong bo:ཧོང་ཀོང་། bs:Hong Kong br:Hong Kong bg:Хонконг ca:Hong Kong ceb:Hong Kong cs:Hongkong cy:Hong Kong da:Hongkong de:Hongkong dv:ހޮންކޮންގު et:Hongkong el:Χονγκ Κονγκ es:Hong Kong eo:Honkongo ext:Hong Kong eu:Hong Kong ee:Hong Kong fa:هنگ کنگ hif:Hong Kong fo:Hongkong fr:Hong Kong fy:Hongkong ga:Hong Cong gd:Hong Cong gl:Hong Kong - 香港 gan:香港 gu:હોંગકોંગ hak:Hiông-kóng ko:홍콩 hi:हांगकांग hr:Hong Kong io:Hong Kong ig:Hong Kong ilo:Hong Kong bpy:হংকং id:Hong Kong ia:Hong Kong os:Гонконг is:Hong Kong it:Hong Kong he:הונג קונג jv:Hong Kong kl:Hongkong kn:ಹಾಂಗ್ ಕಾಂಗ್ pam:Hong Kong ka:ჰონგკონგი kk:Гонконг kw:Hong Kong rw:Hongo Kongo sw:Hong Kong ku:Hong Kong la:Hongcongum lv:Honkonga lb:Hong Kong lt:Honkongas lij:Hong Kong li:Hong Kong ln:Hong Kong lmo:Hong Kong hu:Hongkong mk:Хонг Конг ml:ഹോങ്കോങ് mi:Hongipua mr:हाँग काँग arz:هونج كونج mzn:هونگ کونگ ms:Hong Kong mn:Хонг Конг my:ဟောင်ကောင် nah:Hong Kong nl:Hongkong ja:香港 no:Hongkong nn:Hongkong nov:Hong Kong oc:Hong Kong pa:ਹਾਂਗ ਕਾਂਗ pnb:ہانگ کانگ nds:Hongkong pl:Hongkong pt:Hong Kong ro:Hong Kong rue:Гонґ Конґ ru:Гонконг sah:Хоҥ Коҥ sa:हांग् कांग् नगरम् sco:Hong Kong sq:Hong Kong scn:Hong Kong si:හොංකොං simple:Hong Kong sk:Hongkong sl:Hong Kong szl:Hůngkůng sr:Хонгконг sh:Hong Kong su:Hong Kong fi:Hongkong sv:Hongkong tl:Hongkong ta:ஃகொங்கொங் roa-tara:Hong Kong tt:Гонконг te:హాంగ్‌కాంగ్ th:เขตบริหารพิเศษฮ่องกง tr:Hong Kong tk:Gonkong uk:Гонконг ur:ہانگ کانگ ug:شياڭگاڭ za:Yanghgangj vec:Hong Kong vi:Hồng Kông zh-classical:香港 war:Hong Kong wo:Ooŋ Koŋ wuu:香港 yi:האנג קאנג yo:Họ́ng Kọng zh-yue:香港 diq:Hong Kong bat-smg:Huonkuongs zh:香港

honorific-prefix	The Honourable
name	Emily Lau Wai-hing
office	Member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong
term start	1991
term end	1997
predecessor	''New seat''
successor	''abolished''
constituency	New Territories East
office1	Member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong
term start1	1998
predecessor1	''New seat''
constituency1	New Territories East
ancestry	Nanhai, Guangdong
birth date	January 21, 1952
birth place	Hong Kong
nationality	Hong Kong Chinese
party	Democratic Party
residence	Hong Kong
alma mater	University of Southern California, London School of Economics, University of London.
profession	JournalistLegislative Councillor
website	http://www.emilylau.org.hk/}}

Emily Lau Wai-hing JP (Chinese:劉慧卿; born 21 January 1952, Hong Kong) is one of two vice-chairmen of Democratic Party.

She was the convenor of The Frontier. She has been a full-time member of the Legislative Council (Legco) since 1991, elected from the geographical constituency of New Territories East.

Lau used to be strong against the Beijing Government and pro-Beijing supporters, but her stance is now changed to be moderate and compromised after joining the Democratic Party.

Education

Lau obtained a BA degree in Broadcast Journalism at the University of Southern California in 1976, and later earned her MSc in International Relations at the London School of Economics.

Early career

She began her career as a journalist in 1976. From 1987 to 1990 she was a lecturer in the Department of Journalism and Communication of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and also a lecturer of the Certificate in Journalism in the Department of Extra Mural Studies of the University of Hong Kong. Lau was the chairperson of the Hong Kong Journalists Association from 1989 to 1991.

Political career

Lau was the first woman to be directly elected into the Legislative Council (Legco), in September 1991, and co-founded The Frontier party in 1996. She served as a legislator until 1997, and was re-elected in 1998.

Lau defends an assertive political platform in the democratic camp. An outspoken critic of the human rights situation, the progress of democratisation and a number of other policy areas in the HKSAR, she proved skeptical over the implementation of "One country two systems" principle. The Platform of the Frontier reflects her stances. Beside pushing for tightened human rights protection, more efforts on equal opportunities, and the establishment of a statutory right to access to information, she demanded a redraft of the Basic Law, Hong Kong's constitutional document, and democratisation in China. On the economy she supported legislation on fair trading, oppose importation of foreign labour, and called for a minimum wage.

On international issues, Lau is supportive of self-determination for Taiwan. In 2003, she and another legislator, James To of the Democratic Party, attended a seminar entitled "Hong Kong Under One Country, Two Systems" organised by a pro-Taiwan independence group headed by former ROC President Lee Teng-hui. Lau stated that "Taiwan's future should be determined by the Taiwan people themselves". Her subsequent refusal to explicitly recognise Taiwan as a part of the PRC during an interview again drew criticism from more conservative sectors of the Hong Kong society.

In June 2010, as vice-chairperson of Democratic Party, she voted with her party in favour of the government’s 2012 constitutional reform package, which included the party's late amendment – accepted by the Beijing government – to hold a popular vote for five new District Council functional constituencies.

Controversies and attacks

In 1998, Lau sued the Hong Kong branch of the Xinhua News Agency due to the latter's slow response over her queries for personal information. She lost the case and was ordered by the court to pay a legal fee of HK$1.6 million. Claiming that her lawsuit was in the public interest, she attempted to raise funds from the public to repay the debt. In December 2000, with over $1 million still outstanding, the agency (now the Central People's Government Liaison Office) applied to the court for her bankruptcy.

Lau visited Taipei for a symposium on Hong Kong after the failure of the government to enact legislation on Article 23, pro-PRC media in Hong Kong attacked her personally by publishing half-page articles calling her the "Taiwan independence Legco member". Local communists also attempted to discredit her; they even reported her to the police.

Beside her legal problems, Lau has been the subject of several criminal nuisance cases, including telephone nuisance to her office in January and October 2003, and two cases where food and/or feces were splashed outside her office in Shatin in July and September 2003. A woman and an old man were arrested and fined in connection with some of these cases. Most notably, an arson attack against Lau's office took place on 21 June 2004. Posters outside her office, about an upcoming rally, were burned. Words were left saying "All Chinese traitors must die (所有漢汗（奸）都要死)". Paradoxically, such attacks exemplify how much freedom of speech remain possible in today's Hong Kong.

See also

Politics of Hong Kong

References

External links

Home Page of Emily Lau

Emily Lau's Letter to former Foreign Secretary Robin Cook (In the letter she urged the UK to grant British citizenship for all BN(O)s)

Emily Lau biography in German and interview in English in cosmopolis.ch

{{s-ttl|title=Member of Legislative Council|district=New Territories East constituency|years=1991–1997 |alongside=Andrew Wong}} {{s-ttl|title=Member of Legislative Council|district=New Territories East constituency|years=1998 – present |alongside=Cyd Ho, Andrew Cheng, Andrew Wong,Lau Kong-wah, Nelson Wong, James Tien, Ronny Tong,Leung Kwok-hung, Li Kwok Ying, Gary Chan}}

Category:1952 births Category:Living people Category:Hong Kong journalists Category:Members of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong Category:Alumni of the London School of Economics Category:University of Southern California alumni Category:Charter 08 signatories Category:The Frontier (Hong Kong) politicians Category:Democratic Party (Hong Kong) politicians Category:Hong Kong women in politics

no:Emily Lau zh-yue:劉慧卿 zh:劉慧卿

name	Albert Ho Chun-yan何俊仁
office	Chairman of the Democratic Party
term start	17 December 2006
predecessor	Wing-tat Lee
1blankname	Vice Chairman
1namedata	Emily LauChung-kai Sin
office1	Member of the Legislative Council
constituency1	New Territories West
term start1	17 September 1995()
birth date	December 01, 1951
birth place	Hong Kong
nationality	Chinese
party	Democratic Party
residence	Hong Kong
alma mater	University of Hong Kong
occupation	Lawyer, solicitor}}

Albert Ho Chun-yan (; born 1 December 1951, Hong Kong). He is currently secretary general of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China and chairman of the Democratic Party. He is a solicitor and a member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong.

Ho was elected to the Urban Council in 1995, and has served as a LegCo member since 1998, to represent the New Territories West constituency. In 2004, Ho unsuccessfully challenged Rita Fan in the Legco presidential election.

Attack incident

On 20 August 2006, Ho was assaulted by three unidentified men using baseball bats and a baton in a McDonald's restaurant in Central, Hong Kong, after he had attended a protest against the government's plan to adopt a Goods and Services Tax. He suffered injuries to his head, arm and face, including a broken nose.

Democratic Party chairman Lee Wing Tat claimed that the attack was likely to be related to a lawsuit Albert Ho was then working on and had nothing to do with politics. Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang condemned the attack, declaring that the attackers would be pursued to the "ends of the earth". Secretary for Security Ambrose Lee also condemned it.

This was the first attack on a pro-democracy legislator since that on United Democrat Ng Ming Yam in 1985 and on Democratic Party incumbent chairman Lee Wing Tat in 1994. It was also the first attack on a LegCo member since the Handover. On 12 October 2006, five suspects were arrested by police in Hong Kong and Zhongshan. Cheung Wing-ho, Leung Kwan-ping, Chan Chun-kit and Leung Fu-keung were all been charged with "wounding with intent". A 56 year-old man was also arrested while trying to board a plane. Another suspect, a 77-year-old, was arrested on 3 November 2006, while trying to board a ferry to Macau. However, court proceedings were adjourned until 28 November because of the continuing investigations. The defendants were refused bail, as the magistrate perceived there was a serious flight risk. According to ''Next Magazine'' (Vol 870), these men were closely associated with Stanley Ho.

Views, policy positions and Legco voting

In June 2010, as party leader, he led negotiations with the government, and most notably with the Beijing government, on the 2012 constitutional reform package, persuading them to accept an amendment to have the five new District Council functional constituencies elected by popular vote, and then leading the effort to have his party support the proposal, ensuring its success.

See also

List of graduates of University of Hong Kong

References

{{s-ttl|title=Member of Legislative Council|district=New Territories West Constituency|years=1998 – present |alongside=Lee Cheuk-yan, Tam Yiu-chung, Leung Yiu-chung,Lee Wing-tat, Tang Siu-tong, Albert Chan, Selina Chow,Wong Kwok-hing, Cheung Hok-ming}}

Category:1951 births Category:Alumni of the University of Hong Kong Category:Members of the Regional Council of Hong Kong Category:Hong Kong politicians Category:Leaders of political parties Category:Living people Category:Members of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong Category:Solicitors of Hong Kong Category:Charter 08 signatories Category:Democratic Party (Hong Kong) politicians

zh-yue:何俊仁 zh:何俊仁

Kim Schmitz (born January 21, 1974), also known as Kimble and Kim Dotcom, is a German computer criminal and businessman who has generated much publicity and was convicted of credit card fraud, computer fraud, insider trading, and embezzlement. Schmitz is also one of the leaders of the website Megaupload.

Early career

Schmitz was born in Kiel, Germany.

In 1998 Schmitz was sentenced to a probationary sentence of two years for computer fraud and handling with stolen goods. According to a report by News & Record he had traded with stolen calling card numbers he bought from hackers in the United States.

DataProtect

In 1994 Schmitz founded a computer security company called DataProtect. In 1999 DataProtect and IVM engineering presented the "Megacar", a version of a Mercedes-Benz which combined 16 GSM modules to provide mobile broadband internet access. In 2000 Schmitz sold 80 percent of the shares of DataProtect to "TÜV Rheinland". In 2001 TÜV Data Protect went bankrupt.

Insider trading and embezzlement

In 2001, Schmitz purchased $375,000 worth of shares of the nearly bankrupt company ''LetsBuyIt.com'' and subsequently announced his intention of investing EUR 50 million in the company. Unknown to others, Schmitz did not have the funds available for purchase, although the announcement caused the share value of ''LetsBuyIt.com'' to jump by nearly 300%. Schmitz quickly sold the shares and profited $1.5 million as a result.

Schmitz had also arranged and obtained an unsecured loan of EUR 280,000 from Monkey AG, a company that Schmitz had served as Chairman of the Board. The funds were to be paid to Kimvestor AG. As a result, both Monkey and Kimvestor went bankrupt.

In January 2002, Schmitz was arrested in Bangkok, Thailand, deported to Germany, and sentenced to a probationary sentence of one year and eight months, and a EUR 100,000 fine, the largest insider-trading case in Germany at the time. Schmitz also pleaded guilty to embezzlement in November 2003 and received a two-year probation sentence.

Other activities

Since 2001, Schmitz has had media coverage as a founder of a Hong Kong based investing company called Trendax. The company claimed to use artificial intelligence to maximize investment return and Schmitz tried to find investors for a hedge fund managed by the company. According to media reports Schmitz never had a proper licence to start the fund.

New Zealand media reported that Schmitz bought a NZ$30M mansion just outside Auckland; the previous owners were Richard and Ruth Bradley, the British founders of the Chrisco, and the house was described as the most expensive house in the country. According to a spokesman from Megaupload, he was granted permanent residency in New Zealand.

An investigative piece found Schmitz in Hong Kong business records with the new name "Kim Tim Jim Vestor", allegedly having a Finnish passport, acting as director of several "Mega-" companies, among them Megaupload Ltd. and Megarotic Ltd.

He is currently being sued for copyright infringement as owner of Megaupload.

References

External links

A documentary about Kimble (German)

The Register: Bin Laden hack-meister in defacement, financial debacles

The Register: YIHAT founder Kimble/Schmitz arrested

Kimble arrested for insider trading

The Register: Hoaxster hacker discovers infinite-wealth algorithm

Category:German fraudsters Category:1974 births Category:Living people Category:German computer criminals

de:Kim Schmitz

Human rights in the People's Republic of China are a matter of dispute between the Chinese government and other countries and NGOs. Organizations such as the U.S. State Department, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch have accused the Chinese government of restricting the freedoms of speech, movement, and religion of its citizens. The Chinese government argues for a wider definition of human rights, to include economic and social as well as political rights, all in relation to national culture and the level of development of the country. In this regard, China claims that human rights are being improved. China also repeated many times that its constitution specifies not only citizenship rights but also the "Four Cardinal Principles", in legal respect the "Four Cardinal Principles" are higher than citizenship rights, meaning there was legal base when China arrested people who wanted to overthrow these principles. Chinese people who obey these principles can enjoy all Chinese citizenship rights in principle.

However, numerous human rights organizations maintain a litany of grievances against the Chinese government. Controversial human rights issues in China include policies such as capital punishment, the one-child policy, the social status of Tibetans, and lack of protections regarding freedom of press and religion. One of the foremost areas of concern is a lack of legal rights, for want of an independent judiciary, rule of law, and due process. Another prominent area of concern is lack of labor rights, which is related to the ''hukou'' system, the absence of independent unions, and discrimination against rural workers and ethnic minorities. Yet another area of concern is the lack of religious freedom, highlighted by state clashes with Christian, Tibetan Buddhist, and Falun Gong groups. Some indigenous groups are trying to expand these freedoms; they are Human Rights in China, Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) and China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group (CHRLCG).

Legal system

The Chinese government recognizes that there are problems with the current legal system, such as:

A lack of laws in general, not just ones to protect civil rights.

A lack of due process.

Conflicts of law.

As judges are appointed by the State and the judiciary as a whole does not have its own budget, this has led to corruption and the abuse of administrative power.

Civil liberties

Freedom of speech

Although the 1982 constitution guarantees freedom of speech, the Chinese government often uses the ''subversion of state power'' and the protection of state secret clause to imprison those who are critical of the government. The government is also heavily involved in censoring news through the Propaganda Department of the Communist Party of China, even though no state law explicitly gives it such authority.

The Chinese government promised to issue permits allowing people to protest in 'protest parks' during the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, but a majority of the applications were withdrawn, suspended, or vetoed, and the police detained some of the people who applied. References to certain controversial events and political movements are blocked on the Internet and in many publications . Chinese law forbids the advocacy of independence for any part of its territory, as well as public challenge to CPC domination of the government of China. An unauthorized protest during the Olympics by seven foreign activists at the Chinese Ethnic Culture Park, demanding Tibetan independence and blocking the park's entrance, was cleared and the protesters deported.

Foreign internet search engines including Microsoft Bing!, Yahoo!, ''Google Search China'' have come under criticism for aiding in these practices, including banning the word "democracy" from its chat rooms in China. Yahoo! in particular, stated that it will not protect the privacy and confidentiality of its Chinese customers from the authorities. In 2005 reporter Shi Tao was sentenced to imprisonment for 10 years for releasing an internal Communist Party document to an overseas Chinese democracy site after Yahoo! China provided his personal emails and IP addresses to the Chinese government. Skype president Josh Silverman said it was "common knowledge" that TOM had "established procedures to... block instant messages containing certain words deemed offensive by the Chinese authorities."

Freedom of the press

Critics also argue that the Chinese authorities failed to live up to their promises on press freedom. Freedom House ranked China "Not Free" in its annual press freedom survey. PRC journalist He Qinglian says that PRC media controls rely on confidential guidance from the Communist Party propaganda department, intense monitoring, and punishment for violators rather than on pre-publication censorship. ITV News reporter John Ray was arrested while covering a "Free Tibet" protest. Foreign journalists also reported that their access to certain websites, including those of human rights organisations, was restricted. International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge stated at the end of the 2008 Olympic Games that "The regulations might not be perfect but they are a sea-change compared to the situation before. We hope that they will continue". The Foreign Correspondents Club of China (FCCC) issued a statement that "despite welcome progress in terms of accessibility and the number of press conferences within the Olympic facilities, the FCCC has been alarmed at the use of violence, intimidation and harassment outside. The club has confirmed more than 30 cases of reporting interference since the formal opening of the Olympic media centre on 25 July, and is checking at least 20 other reported incidents".

Freedom of movement

The Communist Party came to power in the late 1940s and instigated a command economy. In 1958, Mao set up a residency permit system defining where people could work, and classified an individual as a "rural" or "urban" worker. A worker seeking to move from the country to an urban area to take up non-agricultural work would have to apply through the relevant bureaucracies. People who worked outside their authorized domain or geographical area would not qualify for grain rations, employer-provided housing, or health care. There were controls over education, employment, marriage and so on. One reason cited for instituting this system was to prevent the possible chaos caused by the predictable large-scale urbanization. As a part of the one country, two systems policy proposed by Deng Xiaoping and accepted by the British and Portuguese governments, the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macao retained separate border control and immigration policies with the rest of the PRC. Chinese citizens had to gain permission from the government before travelling to Hong Kong or Macau, but this requirement was abolished after the handover. Since then, restrictions imposed by the SAR governments have been the limiting factor on travel.

Urban dwellers enjoy a range of social, economic and cultural benefits while peasants, the majority of the Chinese population, are treated as second-class citizens, according to an academic at the University of Alberta. ''The Washington Times'' reported in 2000 that although migrant labourers play an important part in spreading wealth in Chinese villages, they are treated "like second-class citizens by a system so discriminatory that it has been likened to apartheid." Anita Chan also posits that China's household registration and temporary residence permit system has created a situation analogous to the passbook system in South Africa which was designed to regulate the supply of cheap labor. In 2000, the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy has alleged that people of Han descent in Tibet have a far easier time acquiring the necessary permits to live in urban areas than ethnic Tibetans do.

Abolition of this policy was proposed in 11 provinces, mainly along the developed eastern coast. The law has already been changed such that migrant workers no longer face summary arrest, after a widely publicised incident in 2003, when a university-educated migrant died in Guangdong province. The Beijing law lecturer who exposed the incident said it spelt the end of the hukou system: in most smaller cities, the system has been abandoned; it has "almost lost its function" in big cities like Beijing and Shanghai.

Treatment of rural workers

In November 2005 Jiang Wenran, acting director of the China Institute at the University of Alberta, said this system was one of the most strictly enforced 'apartheid' structures in modern world history. He stated "Urban dwellers enjoy a range of social, economic and cultural benefits while peasants, the majority of the Chinese population, are treated as second-class citizens".

The discrimination enforced by the ''hukou system'' became particularly onerous in the 1980s after hundreds of millions of migrant laborers were forced out of state corporations and co-operatives. The system classifies workers as "urban" or "rural", and attempts by workers classified as "rural" to move to urban centers were tightly controlled by the Chinese bureaucracy, which enforced its control by denying access to essential goods and services such as grain rations, housing, and health care, and by regularly closing down migrant workers' private schools. The ''hukou'' system also enforced pass laws similar to those in South Africa, with "rural" workers requiring six passes to work in provinces other than their own, and periodic police raids which rounded up those without permits, placed them in detention centers, and deported them. As in South Africa, the restrictions placed on the mobility of migrant workers were pervasive, and transient workers were forced to live a precarious existence in company dormitories or shanty towns, and suffering abusive consequences. Anita Chan furthers that China's household registration and temporary residence permit system has created a situation analogous to the passbook system in apartheid South Africa, which were designed to regulate the supply of cheap labor.

The Chinese Ministry of Public Security justified these practices on the grounds that they assisted the police in tracking down criminals and maintaining public order, and provided demographic data for government planning and programs.

Religious freedom

During the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), particularly the Destruction of Four Olds campaign, religious affairs of all types were persecuted and discouraged by the Communists with many religious buildings looted and destroyed. Since then, there have been efforts to repair, reconstruct and protect historical and cultural religious sites. The US department of state criticizes in its human rights report 2005 that not enough has been done to repair or restore damaged and destroyed sites.

The 1982 Constitution technically guarantees its citizens the right to believe in any religion. However this freedom differs from the general concept of "freedom of religion" as recognised in the West, and is subject to restrictions.

Members of the Communist Party are officially required to be atheists. While many party members privately violate this rule, being openly religious can limit their economic prospects.

Christianity

The government tries to maintain tight control over all religions, so the only legal Christian groups (Three-Self Patriotic Movement and Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association) are those under the Communist Party control.

The "official Catholic" metropolitan bishop appointed in China in 2007 to replace the deceased Fu Tieshan was not made by the Pope as is customary. The Catholic Church in particular is viewed as a foreign power in a situation somewhat analogous to that in Post-Reformation England, and so the official church in China is state-controlled; accordingly this above-ground Chinese church is considered a schismatic group by the wider Church; there exists also an illegal and underground Catholic community loyal to the Pope and the wider Church.

Tibetan Buddhism

The government now claims the power to ensure that no new 'living Buddha' can be identified: the State Administration for Religious Affairs issued a 14-part regulation to limit the influence of the Dalai Lama. It declared that after 1 September 2007, "[no] living Buddha [may be reincarnated] without government approval, since Qing dynasty, when the live Buddha system was established.". When the Dalai Lama announced in May 1995 that a search inside Tibet had identified the eleventh reincarnation of the Panchen Lama who died in 1989, Beijing initiated its own search under the supervision of a senior Politburo member. The boy chosen by the Dalai Lama, and the abbot who helped with the choice, both vanished. The child is believed to have spent the years since then under house arrest; all calls for visitation or for his release have been ignored. The Chinese-appointed Panchen Lama is branded a fake by loyalists. Examples of the political controls exercised are:

quotas on the number of monks to reduce the spiritual population

forced denunciation of the Dalai Lama as a spiritual leader

unapproved monks' expulsion from monasteries

forced recitation of patriotic scripts supporting China

Restriction of religious study before age 18.

Monks celebrating the reception of the US Congressional Gold Medal by the Dalai Lama have been detained; Drepung, once a large temple for over 10,000 monks, is now home to only 600; Beijing now restricts total membership in any monastery to 700.

Falun Gong

On 20 July 1999, the government banned Falun Gong and all 'heterodox religions', and began a nationwide crackdown of the popular new religious movement following a demonstration by 10,000 practitioners outside the leadership enclave at Zhongnanhai on 25 April. Protests in Beijing were frequent for the first few years following the 1999 edict, though these protests have largely been eradicated. Practitioners have occasionally hacked into state television channels to broadcast pro-Falun Gong materials. Outside of mainland China, practitioners are active in appealing to the governments, media, and people of their respective countries about the situation in China.

According to Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Ian Denis Johnson, the government mobilized every aspect of society, including the media apparatus, police force, army, education system, families and workplaces, against Falun Gong. An extra-constitutional body, the "6–10 Office" was created to do what Forbes describes as "[overseeing] the terror campaign." The campaign was driven by large-scale propaganda through television, newspaper, radio and internet. Human Rights Watch noted that families and workplaces were urged to cooperate with the government, while practitioners themselves were subject to various coercive measures to have them recant their beliefs. Amnesty International raised particular concerns over reports of torture, illegal imprisonment including forced labor, and psychiatric abuses.

In March 2006, Falun Gong and ''The Epoch Times'' said that the Chinese government and its agencies, including the People's Liberation Army, were conducting "widespread and systematic organ harvesting of living practitioners" specifically at the Sujiatun Thrombosis Hospital in Shenyang according to two eye-witness accounts that practitioners detained in the hospital's basement were being tissue-typed, and killed to order. In July 2006, David Kilgour and David Matas, sponsored by Falun Gong to investigate the allegations, published a report which they admitted the evidence was circumstantial, but which taken together supported the allegations that large numbers of Falun Gong practitioners were victims of systematic organ harvesting whilst still alive.

The Chinese government categorically denied any mistreatment of Falun Gong practitioners, and a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman denounced the organ harvesting allegations as "absurd lies concocted by the Falun Gong cult followers". Dissident Harry Wu said the two Epoch Times witnesses were "not reliable and most probably they had fabricated the story"; he rejected the totality of the allegations after sending in investigators. A Congressional Research Service said that there was "insufficient evidence to support this specific allegation," without elaboration. David Ownby, a noted expert on Falun Gong, said "Organ harvesting is happening in China, but I see no evidence proving it is aimed particularly at Falun Gong practitioners." Glen McGregor of the ''Ottawa Citizen'' said "Depending on who you believe, the Kilgour-Matas report is either compelling evidence that proves the claims about Falun Gong... or a collection of conjecture and inductive reasoning that fails to support its own conclusions".

Political freedom

The PRC is known for its intolerance of organized dissent towards the government. Dissident groups are routinely arrested and imprisoned, often for long periods of time and without trial. Incidents of torture, forced confessions and forced labour are widely reported (see #Torture, below). Freedom of assembly and association is extremely limited. The most recent mass movement for political freedom was crushed in the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989, the estimated death toll of which ranges from about 200 to 10,000 depending on sources.

One of the most famous dissidents is Zhang Zhixin, who is known for standing up against the ultra-left. In October 2008, the government denounced the European Parliament's decision to award the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought to Hu Jia, on grounds that it was "gross interference in China's domestic affairs" to give such an award to a "jailed criminal.. in disregard of our repeated representations."

On 8 December 2008, two days before the release of Charter 08, Liu Xiaobo was arrested. He along with three hundred and two other Chinese citizens, signed Charter 08, a manifesto released on the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (10 December 2009), written in the style of the Czechoslovakian Charter 77 calling for greater freedom of expression, human rights, and for free elections.[6] As of May 2009, the Charter has collected over 9,000 signatures from Chinese of various walks of life.

Although the Chinese government does not interfere with Chinese people's privacy as much as it used to, it still deems it necessary to keep tabs on what people say in public. Internet forums are strictly monitored, as is international postal mail (this is sometimes inexplicably "delayed" or simply "disappears") and e-mail.

One-child policy

China's birth control policy, known widely as the one-child policy, was implemented in 1979 by the Chinese government to alleviate the overpopulation problem. Having more than one child is illegal and punishable by fines. Voice of America cites critics who argue that it contributes to forced abortions, human rights violations, female infanticide, abandonment and sex-selective abortions, believed to be relatively commonplace in some areas of the country. This is thought to have been a significant contribution to the gender imbalance in mainland China, where there is a 118 to 100 ratio of male to female children reported. Forced abortions and sterilizations have also been reported.

It is also argued that the one-child policy is not effective enough to justify its costs, and that the dramatic decrease in Chinese fertility started before the program began in 1979 for unrelated factors. The policy seems to have had little impact on rural areas (home to about 80% of the population), where birth rates never dropped below 2.5 children per female. Nevertheless, the Chinese government and others estimate that at least 250 million births have been prevented by the policy.

In 2002, the laws related to the One-child policy were amended to allow ethnic minorities and Chinese living in rural areas to have more than one child. The policy was generally not enforced in those areas of the country even before this. The policy has been relaxed in urban areas to allow people who have single children to have two children.

Capital punishment

China executes more people each year than the rest of the world combined. According to the United Nations Secretary-General, between 1994 and 1999 China was ranked seventh in executions ''per capita'', behind Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Belarus, Sierra Leone, Kyrgyzstan, and Jordan. Amnesty International claims that real figures are much higher than official ones, stating that in China the statistics are considered State secrets.

Figures from 2006 and 2007 are reported to have been 1,010 and 470 executions, respectively. In January 2007, China's state media announced that all death penalty cases will be reviewed by the Supreme People's Court. Since 1983, China's highest court did not review all cases. This marks a return to China's pre-1983 policy. In light of these changes, figures from 2007 display a substantial reduction in executions with only 470 reported executions compared with figures from previous years. Amnesty International analysts argue that this drop is only temporary since the figure includes only confirmed executions and are likely to be much higher. As of 2008, China is still the country with the highest number of executions. 1,718 people have been executed in 2008 out of 2,390 worldwide.

A total of 68 crimes are punishable by death; capital offenses include non-violent, white-collar crimes such as embezzlement and tax fraud. Execution methods include lethal injections and shooting. The People's Armed Police carries out the executions, usually at 10 am.

Torture

Although China outlawed torture in 1996, human rights groups say brutality and degradation are common in Chinese detention centres.

Also, China's definition of illegal torture – that it leaves physical marks – is so narrow that interrogators can employ a wide range of methods that contravene UN standards. Suspects are manacled in contorted positions, deprived of sleep and subjected to psychological torture.

In 2003 the Supreme People’s Procuratorate reported that 'forced confessions' had led to the deaths of 460 people and serious injuries for 117 others.

In 2005 Manfred Nowak visited as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture. After spending two weeks there, he observed that it was "on the decline, but still widespread." He also complained of Chinese officials interfering with his research, including intimidating people he sought to interview.

During the Chongqing gang trials in 2009–2010, details were revealed of extensive and persistent torture of suspects held in police custody. Manifestations include regular beatings, sleep deprivation and being placed in or forced to hold agonising positions.

In May 2010, new regulations were issued that nullified evidence gathered through violence or intimidation. The move came after a public outcry following the revelation that a farmer, convicted for murder based on his confession under torture, was in fact innocent. The case came to light only when his supposed victim turned up alive and the defendant had spent 10 years in prison. International human rights groups gave the change a cautious welcome.

Political abuse of psychiatry

In 2002, Human Rights Watch published the book ''Dangerous Minds: Political Psychiatry in China Today and its Origins in the Mao Era'' written by Robin Munro and based on the documents obtained by him. The British researcher Robin Munro, a sinologist who was writing his dissertation in London after a long sojourn in China, had travelled to China several times to survey libraries in provincial towns and had gathered a large amount of literature which bore the stamp ‘secret’ but at the same time was openly available. This literature included even historical analyses going back to the days of the Cultural Revolution and concerned articles and reports on the number of people who were taken to mental hospitals because they complained of a series of issues. It was found, according to Munro, that the involuntary confinement of religious groups, political dissidents, and whistleblowers had a lengthy history in China. The abuse had begun in the 1950s and 1960s, and had grown extremely throughout the Cultural Revolution. During the period of the Cultural Revolution, from 1966 to 1976, it achieved its apogee, then under the reign of Mao Zedong and the Gang of Four, which established a very repressive and harsh regime. No deviance or opposition in thought or in practice was tolerated.

The documents told of a massive abuse of psychiatry for political purposes during the leadership of Mao Zedong, during which millions of people had been declared mentally sick. In the 1980s, according to the official documents, there was political connotation to fifteen percent of all forensic psychiatric cases. In the early 1990s, the numbers had dropped to five percent, but with beginning of the campaign against Falun Gong, the percentage had again increased quite rapidly.

Chinese official psychiatric literature testifies distinctly that the Communist Party's notion of ‘political dangerousness’ was long since institutionally engrafted in the diagnostic armory of China's psychiatry and included in the main concept of psychiatric dangerousness.

The People’s Republic of China is the only country which appears to abuse psychiatry for political purposes in a systematic way, and despite international criticism, this seems to be continuing. Political abuse of psychiatry in the People’s Republic of China is high on the agenda and has produced recurring disputes in the international psychiatric community. The abuses there appear to be even more widespread than in the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s and involve the incarceration of ‘petitioners’, human rights workers, trade union activists, followers of the Falun Gong movement, and people complaining against injustices by local authorities.

It also seemed that, China had hardly known high security forensic institutions until 1989. However, since then, the Chinese authorities have constructed the entire network of special forensic mental hospitals called ''Ankang'' which in Chinese is for ‘Peace and Health.’ By that time, China had had 20 Ankang institutions with the staff employed by the Ministry of State Security. The psychiatrists who worked there were wearing uniforms under their white coats.

The political abuse of psychiatry in China seems to take place only in the institutions under the authority of the police and the Ministry of State Security but not in those belonging to other governmental sectors. Psychiatric care in China falls into four sectors that hardly connect up with each other. These are Ankang institutions of the Ministry of State Security; those belonging to the police; those that fall under the authority of the Ministry of Social Affairs; those belonging to the Ministry of Health. Both the sectors belonging to the police and the Ministry of State Security are the closed sectors, and, consequently, information hardly ever leaks out. In the hospitals belonging to the Ministry of Health, psychiatrists do not contact with the Ankang institutions and, actually, had no idea of what occurred there, and could, thereby, sincerely state that they were not informed of political abuse of psychiatry in China.

In China, the structure of forensic psychiatry was to a great extent identical to that in the USSR. On its own, it is not so strange, since psychiatrists of the Moscow Serbsky Institute visited Beijing in 1957 to help their Chinese ‘brethren’, the same psychiatrists who promoted the system of political abuse of psychiatry in their own USSR. As a consequence, diagnostics were not much different than in the Soviet Union. The only difference was that the Soviets preferred ‘sluggish schizophrenia’ as a diagnosis, and the Chinese generally cleaved to the diagnosis ‘paranoia’ or ‘paranoid schizophrenia’. However, the results were the same: long hospitalization in a mental hospital, involuntary treatment with neuroleptics, torture, abuse, all aimed at breaking the victim’s will.

The World Psychiatric Association (WPA) attempted to confine the problem by presenting it as Falun Gong issue and, at the same time, make the impression that the members of the movement were likely not mentally sound, that it was a sect which likely brainwashed its members, etc. There was even a diagnosis of ‘qigong syndrome’ which was used reflecting on the exercises practiced by Falung Gong. It was the unfair game aiming to avoid the political abuse of psychiatry from dominating the WPA agenda.

In August 2002, the General Assembly was to take place during the next WPA World Congress in Yokohama. The issue of Chinese political abuse of psychiatry had been placed as one of the final items on the agenda of the General Assembly. When the issue was broached during the General Assembly, the exact nature of compromise came to light. In order to investigate the political abuse of psychiatry, the WPA would send an investigative mission to China. The visit was projected for the spring of 2003 in order to assure that one could present a report during the annual meeting of the British Royal College of Psychiatrists in June/July of that year and the Annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association in May of the same year. After the 2002 World Congress, the WPA Executive Committee’s half-hearted attitude in Yokohama came to light: it was an omen of a longstanding policy of diversion and postponement. The 2003 investigative mission never took place, and when finally a visit to China did take place, this visit was more of scientific exchange. In the meantime, the political abuse of psychiatry persisted unabatedly, nevertheless the WPA did not seem to care.

Ethnic minorities

There are 55 recognized ethnic minorities in China. Article 4 of the Chinese constitution states "All nationalities in the People's Republic of China are equal", and the government argues that it has made efforts to improve ethnic education and increased ethnic representation in local government.

Some policies cause reverse racism, where Han Chinese or even ethnic minorities from other regions are treated as second-class citizens in the ethnic region. In the same line, there are wide-ranging preferential policies (i.e. affirmative actions) in place to promote social and economic developments for ethnic minorities, including preferential employments, political appointments, and business loans. Universities typically have quota reserved for ethnic minorities despite having lower admission test scores. Ethnic minorities are also exempt from the one-child policy which is aimed toward Han Chinese.

Stern punishments towards independence-seeking demonstrators, rioters, or terrorists have led to mistreatment of the Tibetan and Uyghur minorities in Western China. The United States in 2007 refused to help repatriate five Chinese Uyghur Guantanamo Bay detainees because of the "past treatment of the Uigur minority". On the other hand, China has many border regions with large minority populations, including Guangxi with 16 million Zhuang people, and other concentrated Muslim populations such as the Hui people, with some even poorer than the Uyghurs, such as the Dongxiang, Bonan, and the Salar, among whom there have been "no reports of separatism, violence, or even Islamic radicalism". The fellow Muslim Kazakhs, who live with the Uyghurs in the Xinjiang area under similar laws and conditions, have not organized rebellions against the state or aligned themselves with Kazakhstan.

Tibetans

The human rights of Tibetans has been a concern since the founding of the PRC. Tibetans who opposed the diversion of irrigation water by Chinese authorities to the China Gold International Resources mining operations were detained, tortured and murdered. Judicial mutilation against Tibetans by the Dalai Lama's government, and the serfdom controversy have been cited by the PRC as reasons to interfere for the welfare of Tibetans. Conflicting reports about Tibetan human rights have evolved since then. The PRC claims a Tibetan cultural revival since the 1950s, while the Dalai Lama says "whether intentionally or unintentionally, somewhere cultural genocide is taking place".

Following the Chinese economic reform, businesspeople from other parts of China have traveled to Tibet to do business, although most do not stay in region. The New York Times has cited this ethnic diversity in Tibet as a cause of "ethnic tensions". It has also criticized China's promotion of home ownership among nomadic Tibetans. Western politicians often level the charge that the Tibetan languages are at risk of extinction in Tibet. However, academics point out that for the vast majority of Tibetans, who live in rural areas, the Chinese language is merely introduced as a second language in secondary.

Economic and property rights

According to the Der Spiegel magazine, despite the National People's Congress enacting a law in 2007 to protect private property with the exception of land, local Chinese authorities have used brutal means to expropriate property, in a bid to profit from the construction boom.

HIV/AIDS and rights on sexuality

Other human rights issues

Worker's rights and privacy are other contentious human rights issues in China. There have been several reports of core International Labor Organization conventions being denied to workers. One such report was released by the International Labor Rights Fund in October 2006 documenting minimum wage violations, long work hours, and inappropriate actions towards workers by management. Workers cannot form their own unions in the workplace, only being able to join State-sanctioned ones. The extent to which these organizations can fight for the rights of Chinese workers is disputed.

The issue of refugees from North Korea is a recurring one. It is official policy to repatriate them to North Korea, but the policy is not evenly enforced and a considerable number of them stay in the People's Republic (some move on to other countries). Though it is in contravention of international law to deport political refugees, as illegal immigrants their situation is precarious. Their rights are not always protected. Some of them are tricked into marriage or prostitution.

African students in China have complained about their treatment in China, that was largely ignored until 1988-9, when "students rose up in protest against what they called 'Chinese apartheid'". African officials took notice of the issue, and the Organization of African Unity issued an official protest. The organization's chairman, Mali's president Moussa Traoré, went on a fact-finding mission to China. According to a ''Guardian'' 1989 Third World Report titled ''"Chinese apartheid" threatens links with Africa'', these practices could threaten Peking's entire relationship with the continent."

Counterargument by the PRC government

The Government of the People's Republic of China has argued that idea of "Asian values" means that the "welfare" of the collective should always be put ahead of the rights of any individual whenever conflicts between these arise. It argues that there is a responsibility of the government to create a "harmonious society", and that in some cases it is necessary to persuade or force individuals to make sacrifices in their rights for the wider needs of society. It argues that a strong and stable authority is required in order to regulate the potentially conflicting interests of the public and enforce a compromise and that Governments with curtailed authority would fail to take on such a responsibility.

The Chinese government points towards an alleged rapid social deterioration in western societies, claiming that there has been an increase in: geographic, religious and racial segregation, rising crime rates, family breakdown industrial action, vandalism and political extremism within western societies, which they believe to be a direct result of an excess of individual freedom saying that “Too much freedom is dangerous.” China argues that these actions in Western Nations are all violations of human rights. China believes that these should be taken into account when assessing a country's human right records. Furthermore, the government criticizes the United States, which publishes human rights reports annually, by insisting that the United States has also caused human rights abuses such as the invasion of Iraq.

The PRC government also argues that the notion of human rights should include economic standards of living and measures of health and economic prosperity. On cultural grounds they argue that as the economic, cultural and political situations differ substantially between countries, a universal 'one-size-fits-all' definition of human rights should not apply internationally.

Reform

In March 2003, an amendment was made to the Constitution of the People's Republic of China, stating "The State respects and preserves human rights." In addition, China was dropped from a list of top 10 human rights violators in the annual human rights report released by the U.S. State Department in 2008, while the report indicated that there were still widespread problems in China.

Since 1988, the Chinese government began direct village elections to help maintain social and political order whilst facing rapid economic change. Elections now occur in "about 650,000 villages across China, reaching 75% of the nation's 1.3 billion people," according to the Carter Center. In 2008, Shenzhen –which enjoys the highest per capita GDP in China– was selected for experimentation, and over 70% of the government officials on the district level are to be directly elected. However, in keeping with Communist Party philosophy, candidates must be selected from a pre-approved list.

See also

Political repression in the People's Republic of China

Human rights in Hong Kong

Human rights in Macau

Human rights in Tibet

Human rights in Taiwan

Tiananmen Square protests of 1989

Ecological migration

Empowerment and Rights Institute

The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China

Internet censorship in the People's Republic of China

Human Rights in China (organization)

Tangshan Protest

Laogai

Re-education through labor

Charter 08

Black jails

Xinfang

Open Constitution Initiative

Yan Xiaoling - Fan Yanqiong Case

Further reading

Cheng, Lucie, Rossett, Arthur and Woo, Lucie, ''East Asian Law: Universal Norms and Local Cultures'', RoutledgeCurzon, 2003, ISBN 0-415-29735-4

Edwards, Catherine, ''China's Abuses Ignored for Profit'', Insight on the News, Vol. 15, 20 December 1999.

Foot, Rosemary, ''Rights beyond Borders: The Global Community and the Struggle over Human Rights in China'', Oxford University Press, 2000, ISBN 0-198-29776-9

Jones, Carol A.G., ''Capitalism, Globalization and Rule of Law: An Alternative Trajectory of Legal Change in China'', Social and Legal Studies, vol. 3 (1994) pp. 195–220

Klotz, Audie, ''Norms in International Relations: The Struggle against Apartheid'', Cornell University Press, 1995, ISBN 0-801-43106-9

Knight, J. and Song, L., ''The Rural-Urban Divide: Economic Disparities and Interactions in China'', Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-198-29330-5

Martin III, Matthew D., "The Dysfunctional Progeny of Eugenics: Autonomy Gone AWOL", Cardozo Journal of International Law, Vol. 15, No. 2, Fall 2007, pp. 371–421, ISSN 1069-3181

Seymour, James, ''Human Rights in Chinese Foreign Relations'', in , Kim, Samuel S., ''China and the World: Chinese Foreign Policy Faces the New Millennium'' Westview Press, 1984. ISBN 0-813-33414-4

Sitaraman, Srini, Explaining China's Continued Resistance Towards Human Rights Norms: A Historical Legal Analysis, ACDIS ''Occasional Paper'', Program in Arms Control, Disarmament, and International Security, University of Illinois, June 2008.

Svensson, Marina, ''The Chinese Debate on Asian Values and Human Rights: Some Reflections on Relativism, Nationalism and Orientalism'', in Brun, Ole. ''Human Rights and Asian Values: Contesting National Identities and Cultural Representations in Asia'', Ole Bruun, Michael Jacobsen; Curzon, 2000, ISBN 0-700-71212-7

Wang, Fei-Ling, ''Organizing through Division and Exclusion: China's Hukou System'', Stanford University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-804-75039-4

Zweig, David, ''Freeing China's Farmers: Rural Restructuring in the Reform Era'', M. E. Sharpe, 1997, ISBN 1-563-24838-7

''The silent majority; China.'' (Life in a Chinese village), The Economist, April 2005

Notes

References

External links

Review of China by the United Nations Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review, 7 February 2009

MacLeod, Calum, ''China reviews 'apartheid' for 900 m peasants'', 10 Jun 2001, The Independent, London

Human Rights in China by China Internet Information Center, under theadministration of the China State Council Information Office.

Human rights can be manifested differently by XinhuaNet

UN Human Development Report 2003 on China by the United Nations Development Programme

2004 Human Rights Report on China by the United States Department of State

JURIST China – Chinese law, legal research, human rights

Olympic Watch: Human Rights in China and Beijing 2008 – Campaign for human rights improvements in China before the 2008 Olympic Games

Human Rights In China – International NGO based in New York and Hong Kong

Freedom House: Freedom in the World 2011 Country Report: China

Freedom House: Freedom of the Press Survey: China

Freedom House: Freedom on the Net 2011 Country Report: China

Human Rights Watch: China and Tibet

International Federation for Justice in China

International Freedom of Expression eXchange – monitors freedom of expression in China

The China Support Network

Support Democracy in China

Status of Chinese People

China Human Rights

Wei Jingshen Foundation

*

Who shows more respect for human rights? – Editorial published by the ''People's Daily''

Progress in China's Human Rights in 2009 Information Office of the State Council, The People's Republic of China, September 2010, Beijing, accessed 27 September 2010

China, Human Rights and the Role of Washington – video debate by ''Democracy Now!''

Category:Political repression in the People's Republic of China Category:Human rights in the People's Republic of China Category:Political abuses of psychiatry Category:Torture in the People's Republic of China

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