2005 Commencement Address
Anson Chan, Former Chief Secretary of Hong Kong
June 11, 2005
Chancellor Fox, Dean Cowhey, Faculty Members, Graduates, Parents, Ladies and Gentlemen,
First of all, Dean Cowhey, I would like to thank you for your very kind introduction. I think it was Mark Twain who remarked that a good compliment can last me several months. On the basis of that introduction, Dean Cowhey, I think you have just assured me of immortality. So thank you very much.
There is a Chinese saying that it is better to see a place once than to hear about it a hundred times. So I am extremely grateful to Dean Cowhey for bringing me to scenic La Jolla, even if he has not quite managed to deliver the sun today. And I am of course distinctly honored, and it is a great pleasure, to be addressing the graduates today. I would like to join Chancellor Fox and Dean Cowhey in congratulating you all on this very, very happy occasion. You are all poised on the threshold of great dreams, and great achievements. And you will clearly be the future leaders in your respective countries. I wish you well in your endeavors, but I will have a few more remarks to direct at you later on in my address. Since you have just been through a series of studies that concentrates on the Asia Pacific region, and since in my retirement I do not often have such a large captive audience, I thought what I would do in my address today is to talk about Hong Kong, its current state of health, the role that it is playing in the modernization of China, and why Hong Kong should continue to matter to the United States, to Europe, to the United Kingdom and to every other country on this planet.
It has been eight years since Hong Kong's handover to Chinese sovereignty. These eight years have not been easy for Hong Kong, but not for quite the reasons that the doomsayers predicted before the 1st of July, 1997. Because those of you who are familiar with the several years leading to the handover and the several years after the handover will recall, that everybody was predicting that the political transition would go badly, that China would not honor the promises that they had made to Hong Kong under the joint declaration and the basic law, and that in effect, Hong Kong would go down the tube. Well, I think all of us, and particularly those of us in the government, were pleasantly surprised, and indeed, unexpectedly surprised, at how smoothly the political transition has in fact gone, certainly, in the first five or six years of the handover. We have not had difficulties from China, insofar as a high degree of autonomy, one country, two systems, is concerned. Of course, that is not to say that Hong Kong has not gone through an extremely difficult patch, but that was due to economic reasons and largely to external factors beyond Hong Kong's control.
You will recall that on the very second day of Hong Kong's handover to China, the Thai baht crashed through the roof and that unleashed the Asian financial turmoil and five or six years of stagnation, deflation, record high unemployment, and the pervasive feel-bad factor amongst our community. We have also had to suffer the impact of first, the September 11th terrorist attacks, which had an impact on the global economy, followed by the devastating impact of SARS which took a very heavy toll in terms of human lives. But fortunately the impact of SARS seemed to be short-lived, and I am happy to say that the Hong Kong economy today has definitely turned the corner. We have experienced our highest growth rate for the last four years. We are expecting a much lower unemployment rate, and generally, with the help of China, particularly in terms of concluding a closer economic cooperation partnership agreement with Hong Kong which enables some 1000 products of Hong Kong origin to access the mainland market free of tariff, plus the Beijing authority's willingness to relax restrictions, insofar as people in the mainland visiting Hong Kong for pleasure and for shopping are concerned. We are looking forward to sustained economic growth.
Undoubtedly, the strongest factor for that optimism lies in the fact that we have a unique locality at the mouth of the Po river delta region with a burgeoning mainland economy at our very doorstep, which, in effect, is our entire hinterland. China's economy has grown ten-fold in the last 25 years to reach over 1.4 trillion US dollars. It is now the world's largest recipient of direct foreign investment, with the world's second highest foreign exchange reserves. Growth for the last 25 years has been at the astronomical rate of 9.5% per annum. Economists forecast that the Chinese economy can in fact continue to sustain an annual growth rate of over 9% for the next 20 or 30 years. Hong Kong, being now a part of China once again, stands to benefit considerably from this continuing strong growth of mainland China. What is not known is that although the economy of Hong Kong has been transformed from a fundamentally manufacturing economy to a largely service economy, we continue to play an extremely dynamic role in the present and future growth of mainland China, particularly in the Po river delta region. I would like to just say a few words about what is happening in the Po river delta region. The Po river delta region, or what I would describe as the greater Po river delta region, including both Hong Kong and Macao, has a combined population of nearly 50 million and a combined total GDP of 258 billion US dollars, which is about 20% of China's overall GDP and which places the greater Po river delta region amongst the world's largest 20 economies. Hong Kong's role in this greater Po river delta region lies in the fact that we are a strategic communication and transportation hub, we are able to provide quality management expertise, we have the rule of law, transparency, a well-regulated regime, and we are able to assist foreign investors who wish to access the Chinese market. In turn, Hong Kong is also serving as a strategic platform for increasing numbers of investors in China who wish to access the international market, and we are in a very good position to provide this service because of many years of doing business with the international community, and the fact that we share and have the same values as Western, open, pluralistic societies. We expect that with the continued growth of mainland China, Hong Kong can continue to provide this strategic role to the benefit of both mainland China and Hong Kong.
Hong Kong remains an open pluralistic society. I believe that it is the fact that we are an open pluralistic society, that we have the rule of law, an independent judiciary, a clean civil service, the free flow of information and a fully convertible currency which makes Hong Kong a unique and valued partner in terms of assisting China in its open door policy. I believe also that in the case of political reforms which you and I would like to see happening in mainland China, that if Hong Kong were able to persuade the Beijing authorities that political reform can proceed, that universal suffrage in Hong Kong can in fact be introduced without undermining stability and future prosperity, then over time the mainland may well regard Hong Kong as a useful testing ground in terms of the development of representative government.
So we have a role to play, only if we are aware of our competitive advantage, only if we maintain the unique characteristics that have made Hong Kong what it is today, that is, the world's 11th largest trading entity, with a per capita GDP that is one of the highest in the Asian region. Of course, as part of China, we are a Chinese city. But we are a Chinese city with a difference. There is no other Chinese city within the mainland that enjoys the rule of law, the openness, transparency, the free flow of information, the freedom of the press and the rights and freedoms of the people that we have in Hong Kong. So we look forward to many years of growth on the back of strong growth in mainland China. I realize, of course, that the recent burgeoning growth of the Chinese economy has led to concern, particularly, it has led to recent trade fiction, criticisms about the remimbi, and pressure to revalue the currency. There is also a concern, not only in this country, but perhaps in other countries, as to the role that an increasingly strong and influential China will play in strategic terms, in terms of security in the region and in terms of compliance with international rules. I believe that China's accession to the WTO is a good sign because it indicates that China is prepared to abide by international rules governing international trade and prepared to rely on these rules to settle disputes.
The China-America relationship is a very important one. It is important not just for the two countries involved, but it is also important for Hong Kong, and for stability and prosperity in the entire Asia Pacific region. In recent years, we have seen attempts on the part of both sides, if only for self-interest, to ensure that this bilateral relationship between the US and China can proceed on a more stable basis. That is not to say that, from time to time, there will not be disputes, or that there will not be issues that will lead to friction, but so long as both sides realize that there is huge self-interest involved in maintaining that relationship on an even keel, I think that both sides will make every attempt to sit down and discuss differences and disputes in a pragmatic and realistic manner on the basis of mutual trust and cooperation.
In the years to come, Hong Kong, together with mainland China will have a continuing strong influence on world trade and on a number of strategic issues. There have been questions posed, as to whether Hong Kong today actually remains relevant against the background of the burgeoning Chinese economy. I think that you will not be surprised to hear me say that we continue to matter and that Hong Kong will continue to play a very important role. Let me just give one example. In the immediate aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks, as fate had it, Hong Kong was the incumbent president of the international financial task force on money laundering. In that capacity, Hong Kong played a crucial role in stemming the flow of illicit money, preventing money laundering. For many decades before that also, Hong Kong has been a role model in terms of strategic trade controls, in terms of transportation security, protection of intellectual property rights, etc. Hong Kong is also a member of the WTO in our own right, and in that capacity, in December this year, Hong Kong will be hosting the 6th ministerial WTO conference at which Hong Kong will do its very best to push the Doha round of agreement. We have already chaired the preliminary meeting in Paris, and that meeting has managed to make significant progress on the agricultural front. So we look forward in December to a fruitful round of the WTO, to moving trade onto a proper basis, and to liberalizing trade to the benefit of all.
And now I would like to direct a few remarks at the graduates. I don't have any real pearls of wisdom to offer you as to your choice of careers. Your studies here will have prepared you for leadership positions, whether in the private sector or in the government sector, in diplomacy or in NGOs. It will also have given you an international perspective. Some of you may well be inclined to stick with the tried and tested insofar as career prospects are concerned. Or some of you may feel that you would like to take up a job that enables you to make a great deal of money, preferably very quickly. Well, my advice to you is don't be afraid of veering from the conventional path. Have the courage to start new trails, to go perhaps where few have gone before. After all, in this age of information technology, I have heard it said that half of the world's jobs have not even yet been created. So, the world is your oyster, and you are very spoiled for choices.
I do have one piece of advice for you, and that is, whatever you decide to do, be passionate. Do something that you love doing, make it feel worthwhile and make it matter to you and to the people around you. In your future choice of career, I hope also that you will think about the impact of your work on the people around you, that you will take a lead insofar as global citizenship is concerned. The recent worldwide response to the tsunami victims is a good demonstration of how global responsibility can really make an impact in terms of enabling the countries worst affected by the tsunami to tackle something that, left on their own, they would find impossible to tackle. Above all, be true to yourself and your principles. President Reagan once remarked that the purpose of education is not to give people what they think they want, rather, it is a method, it is hoped, by which more men and women will learn to value the things that they should value. And the things that are of value, from my 40 years of experience in the public sector, are honesty, integrity, a sense of service and duty, compassion for your fellow human beings, for your family and friendship. When your life's journey is at an end, these four very simple words are your epitaph: "You made a difference."
I offer again my warmest congratulations to you all, and wish you well in all your future endeavors. Thank you very much.
