2007-11-10

Anthony Cheung Bing-leung on How to Boost Hong Kong's Competitiveness: "Cultivate originality and promote quality teaching"

In today's South China Morning Post (page A13), Executive Councillor Anthony Cheung Bing-leung has an editorial in which he calls for more attention to education and the "cultivation of the mind" to boost Hong Kong's competitiveness. Mr Cheung is the incoming president of the Hong Kong Institute of Education. Here is a link to the essay, but do note that full access to articles on the SCMP website requires registration and is not free.

POLI0068 Paper Proposal Presentations

In the POLI0068 tutorial on Wednesday, 14 November, we will need to go through all the remaining paper topic proposals. For those of you who have yet to do so, please e-mail your outline to me before class if you can so that I have a chance to go over it.

2007-11-09

Office Hours

Because I will be away from Hong Kong for most of the second half of November, if you wish to see me about your editorials and papers or anything else, please try to do so over the next few days. I will be in my office (622D Meng Wah) tomorrow (Saturday, 10 November) from 10 am-11.30 am and from 3.30 pm-5.30 pm. I will also be there most of Tuesday, 13 November.

Please note that I will be away from Hong Kong from the afternoon of 14 November to the evening of 27 November and again from the morning of 30 November to the morning of 6 December. You may of course contact me by e-mail while I am traveling and I will try to respond as quickly as possible.

David Tang on Censorship in Hong Kong

In the International Herald Tribune today, tycoon David Tang, founder of the China Club and Shanghai Tang, has a piece on censorship in Hong Kong which may be of interest to you.

2007-11-08

Olympic-Size Controversy: Martin Lee Chu-ming on U.S.-China Relations

You've heard about the controversy - now read Martin Lee's opinion piece in 17 October 2007 edition of The Wall Street Journal. He does not call for a boycott, though some of his critics have said he did or that he supports one. He writes:
"It is my hope that the Games could have a catalytic effect on the domestic and foreign policies of the Chinese government, and that the Chinese people will remember the Games long after they are held -- not merely for medals won, but also because they were a turning point for human rights and the rule of law in China. That would be something worth cheering."
What do you think? All comments welcome!

2007-11-07

Next Week: HSBC and the IMF

Next week, we have two guests:

9:30 am - 10:30 am
Teresa Au, Head of Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability, Asia Pacific Region, at HSBC

10:30 am - 11:30 am
Dr Olaf Unteroberdoerster, Resident Representative, International Monetary Fund (IMF)

To fit both speakers in, we will have to start promptly at 9.30 am so please try to come on time. In class today, I did not get to complete my short talk on corporate social responsibility (CSR). I have uploaded my lecture ppt file to the WebCT site, but over the next few days, I will post here some thoughts on CSR to help you prepare for Ms Au's presentation.

I mentioned today that when he comes to class next week Dr Unteroberdoerster will have just completed the "Article IV" review of Hong Kong. I suggest that before the next class you have a look at Article IV of the Articles of Agreement of the International Monetary Fund and the 2006 Article IV consultation report on Hong Kong.

Ronnie Chan's 1999 Article on His Concerns about Hong Kong

During class today, Ronnie Chan referred to an article he wrote in Newsweek International (6 September 1999 issue) after the controversy over Cyberport. At that time, the government signed the project development deal with PCCW, the telecoms company run by Richard Li Tzar-kai, without initiating an open tender for the property. This was viewed by many in the business sector, particularly other real estate developers, as favouritism. You can read Mr Chan's article here.

REPOSTING: Optional Extra Lecture - Review Session and Wrap-Up

I will offer an exam review session for POLI0019 students on Friday afternoon, 7 December, from 2 pm-4 pm in Theatre 5, Meng Wah Complex. I will spend about 30-40 minutes summarizing key points from the lectures and readings and then take questions for as long as there are any. Attendance is voluntary. POLI0068 students who aren't sick of hearing me talk and are interested in coming would be welcome, of course - so long as you have already submitted your papers which will be due that day!

As noted earlier, the POLI0019 exam is on Friday, 14 December, 9.30 am-11.30 am, at the Lindsay Ride Sports Centre.

REPOSTING: POLI0019 Debates Format

Here's information on the format of the POLI0019 tutorial debates.

REPOSTING: POLI0019 Debates Resolutions

Here are the two resolutions that the POLI0019 sections will debate:

1. RESOLVED: Hong Kong's status as a special administrative region of China is an impediment to its truly becoming a global city.

2. RESOLVED: Hong Kong depends too much on China and should focus more on education and cultural development in the SAR to boost its competitiveness and secure its status as a global city.

2007-11-06

POLI0068 IBGM Tutorial on 14 November

As it is already clear to me that we won't be able to get through all the paper proposal presentations tomorrow, I'm afraid I will have to reinstate the tutorial meeting on 14 November to be sure everybody is able to participate. We need to have a good number of presentations done tomorrow. So far - Tuesday, 6 November, 9 pm - I have yet to receive any paper outline. This worries me somewhat, to be honest, as this is just an outline of your proposed topic, not the paper itself. An outline should be doable in less than a couple of hours!....one afternoon tops, I would reckon.

In any case, please note in your diaries that POLI0068 IBGM students will meet for tutorial on 14 November. As previously announced, there will be no tutorials on 14 November for POLI0019 students. They will have tutorials on 21 November, when the first round of the debates will take place.

Hong Kong: Creative City?

The folks at the Bauhinia Foundation Research Centre, a new local think tank (one of their directors sat in on our sessions with Xu Sitao and Regina Ip last week), sent me their latest policy paper "Hong Kong: A Creative Metropolis", which they submitted to the government. I posted it on the WebCT course site (filename: CreativeSubmissionPaper). You can also access the paper and other research by the Centre here. This latest study looks at how to "establish creativity as a major force in transforming Hong Kong's cultural and socio-economic landscape." This might be of interest to students writing papers on related topics or those preparing for the POLI0019 tutorial debates later this month.

POLI0068 Paper Proposals

A reminder to my IBGM friends that we will start having paper proposal presentations at tomorrow's tutorial - just 3-5 minutes to explain the topic that you or you and your partner will be writing on, followed by a brief discussion. Please e-mail me the short outlines (as described in the syllabus and on the class blog posting) before class if you can. I would like to have as many of you as possible make presentations tomorrow so we don't have to take additional time on 14 November.

For Kosovo, What About the Hong Kong Model?

This is an interesting item in today's news: In Serbia, government leaders have proposed that the Hong Kong SAR arrangement might be a model for granting autonomy to Kosovo, a predominantly ethnic Albanian enclave of two million people that is seeking its independence from Belgrade. The Kosovars have rejected the idea.

2007-11-05

The China Model: What If....?

Check out this thought-provoking essay on China's development by Howard French of the New York Times, which appeared in the International Herald Tribune last Friday.

More on This Week's Speaker: Ronnie Chan

Just a reminder that I have posted a selection of Mr Chan's articles and speeches in a folder in the WebCT course site (I cannot link them here because they are pdfs, which are not supported by Google Documents). Please try to read some of them before class if you can. You might also watch a clip of Mr Chan talking about doing business in China during a session at the Committee of 100 annual conference in New York earlier this year.

2007-11-04

Question of the Week: The Role of Business

We heard from Emily Lau that very few business leaders in Hong Kong have openly come out in support of Anson Chan in the current by-election campaign. This indicates that the business sector does not support democratic political development in the SAR. Question: Should business be more supportive of democratic reforms? Are business leaders wrong to think that more rapid political development in Hong Kong would not be in their interest? Is the business sector too dominant in Hong Kong?

What do you think?

BTW, we're currently at about 80 comments, which is about a third of our goal. There is only about a month to go in the semester. Again, don't feel restricted to the questions I have posted here. If you have any original comment you would like to make, please e-mail it to me and I can post it.