China Warns Hong Kong About Doing Business Taiwan
MICHAEL HOLMES, WORLD NEWS: In China, Hong Kong officials are defending the city's businesses after some remarks viewed as threatening by the government in Beijing. CNN's Hong Kong bureau chief Mike Chinoy reports Taiwan is at the center of the controversy.</s>MIKE CHINOY, CNN HONG KONG BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): The business of Hong Kong is business, a meeting place of East and West, China's gateway on the world and, these days, the conduit for billions of dollars of indirect trade between Taiwan and Mainland China. But the election of Chen Shui-Bian, who has long voiced sympathy for Taiwan independence as that island's new president, has rattled Beijing, which considers Taiwan a renegade province. Now, China has taken its continuing campaign of intimidation against President Chen to Hong Kong. Despite a Chinese commitment, enshrined in the handover agreement with Britain, to preserve Hong Kong's autonomy, a senior Chinese official here has threatened local companies with reprisals for doing business with independence-minded Taiwanese. The warning has set off alarm bells here.</s>KEN DAVIES, ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE UNIT: Anything that threatens business is dangerous for the life of everybody in Hong Kong. If confidence goes down, then the economy can go down. So, anything like this that does threaten business decision-making, independent business decision making, is something that has to be stamped on very quickly.</s>CHINOY: That's why Hong Kong chief executive Tung Chee-hwa, who rarely disagrees with Beijing, swiftly announced he'd secured a Chinese pledge not to interfere. Tung's deputy was even more outspoken.</s>ANSON CHAN, HONG KONG CHIEF SECRETARY (through translator): In our view, business decisions are best left to businessmen and should not invite the interference of any official of whatever status.</s>CHINOY: China's latest threat follows a warning in April from another senior Beijing official that Hong Kong journalists should not report the pro-independence views of Taiwan's vice president. In that case, chief executive Tung initially remained silent and then spoke out only grudgingly under strong public pressure.</s>DAVID DODWELL, JARDINE FLEMING: There has been a lot of criticism in the past that in particular C.H. Tung has not come speedily enough to the support of Hong Kong, he has not demonstrated a keenness to stand up for Hong Kong as Hong Kong.</s>CHINOY (on camera): But this episode involves business, not freedom of the press, and in a city dominated by powerful business interests, the Hong Kong authorities have moved swiftly to tell Beijing to back off. Mike Chinoy, CNN, Hong Kong.