Hong Kong's East-West dilemma
Ten years ago, when the-then British colony of Hong Kong was handed back to China, many foretold doom for the Asian economic tiger. But as the years unfolded, the sky did not fall in, and Hong Kong has shown itself to be a very resilient city. The presenter of Radio Australia's Connect Asia program, Sen Lam, was in Hong Kong for the tenth anniversary celebrations, and shares his thoughts.

It's called Xiang Gang in Mandarin, Heong Kong, in Cantonese, but whether you say it in the official Chinese language or the local dialect, it still means fragrant harbour, the name given to the deep sea port which started its modern life over 160 years ago.

And the ten years since Hong Kong's return to Chinese rule have been peppered with dramatic events to rival the best Cantonese soaps so popular on Asian television.

One year after handover, Hong Kong too was hit by the Asian financial crisis and then bird flu and SARS, the respiratory illness which killed nearly 300 people in the territory.

Those events shook Hong Kong's confidence, but not for long. Not bad for a city that 150 years ago was little more than a rocky outcrop which China ceded to the British, following a singularly unsavoury episode in British history - colonial drug-pushing. The result was the Opium War, and Hong Kong being given to the British for 150 years.

The Basic Law, as set down in the Joint Declaration between Britain and China in 1984, had promised Hong Kong universal suffrage. Ten years after the 1997 handover, the people are still calling for the right to directly choose their leader, the chief executive.

And when I met former Chief Secretary Anson Chan in her office at Quarry Bay, the former top civil servant was optimistic that Hong Kong will eventually get the vote. Mrs Chan smiled reassuringly as we shook hands, and settled down to our interview.

Immaculately coiffed, dressed in Reagan red, her power-dressing was finished with a brooch of lustrous pearls.

For me, Anson Chan personifies present-day Hong Kong - a mixture of traditional Confucian conservatism and modern sensibilities, including Western-style democracy. And since leaving office, Mrs Chan has abandoned all pretence of neutrality and openly supports pro-democracy groups on the issue of universal suffrage. And she says it's a matter of time.

But what incentive does Hong Kong offer the mainland?

Already, President Hu Jintao just last week sternly reminded Hong Kong that one-country, two-systems was sacrosanct, and that Beijing will always have the final say. So what will it matter whether or not the people of Hong Kong gets to directly vote their chief executive, and all members of the Legislative Council?

People are now talking of 2012, but even that extended deadline is far from guaranteed.

Hong Kong has already used up one-fifth of the 50 years covered by the Basic Law, and in the blink of an eye it will be time to embrace full integration with the mainland.

Last Sunday's demonstration at Victoria Park was evidence people wanted a greater say in the way Hong Kong is run.

Given that the capitalist system that Beijing promised to protect in Hong Kong for fifty years under the Basic Law has since been embraced wholeheartedly by the mainland, it may be that in years to come universal suffrage for Hong Kong may no longer be an issue as Communist China grants its people greater freedoms.

More improbable things have happened, just like the twists and turns of a Cantonese soap opera.

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