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.

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.

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.

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.

Reminder: Deadlines

Just a reminder of paper deadlines:
POLI0019 editorials: Friday, 23 November (not 16 November)
POLI0068 papers: Friday, 7 December

Hard copies of papers should be deposited at the Politics and Public Administration Department office, Meng Wah 622, by the close of business on those days.

Next Week: A Business Perspective

A number of our speakers have spoken - sometimes positively, sometimes negatively - about the role and influence of business in Hong Kong. Next week, on 7 November, we have a great opportunity to hear from one of Hong Kong's leading business figures: Ronnie Chan Chi-chung (left, in center, with fellow Enron board members), Chairman of Hang Lung Group, a major real estate development company. One of the most engaging and dynamic businesspeople in Hong Kong, Mr Chan also serves as Vice Chairman of the Asia Society and Chairman of the Asia Society Hong Kong Center. He was formerly a director of Standard Chartered Bank, Motorola and Enron, where he was on the board's audit committee. I have posted a selection of Mr Chan's articles and speeches in a folder in the WebCT course site. If you can, please read some of them before class.

[NOTE: Photo changed and text/links revised on 10 December 2007 in the interest of full disclosure and transparency. For some reason, official biographies of Mr Ronnie Chan fail to mention his previous service on the board of Enron, which is an important aspect of his background.]

Regina Ip on English in Hong Kong Schools

I know that the topic of mother-tongue instruction is of great interest to many of you. You might be interested in this paper on language of instruction that Mrs Ip has posted on the Savantas Policy Institute website.

Update on Readings

I have uploaded a number of readings on to the WebCT site. Please check it out.

Also, I have put on reserve at the PPA Department the following two books produced by Civic Exchange:

Still Holding our Breath: A Review of Air Quality Policy in Hong Kong 1997-2007

Reflections of Leadership: Tung Chee Hwa and Donald Tsang, 1997-2007

Legal Bloggers on Hong Kong

This might be of interest to you, particularly the Law and Government & Law students. Dan Harris, a partner at Harris & Moure, a boutique international law firm in Seattle, and his Mandarin-speaking colleague Steve Dickinson, who is based in Shanghai, run the China Law Blog. A few days ago Mr Harris posted a comment on Hong Kong (which included a link to our class blog!) and his impressions of the SAR. I found his account of how his firm's work in Hong Kong has diminished very interesting:

"There was a time where we fairly frequently helped our clients (mostly non-American clients) form companies in Hong Kong, but that work started dropping off around three years ago. Now when clients talk about wanting to form a Hong Kong company to go into mainland China we tell them doing so will in most cases do little more than increase their costs. Rarely does it make sense to do anything other than to just go into China directly by forming a company there."

Mr Harris includes a number of interesting links in his post. About 30 of his readers have commented on his observations. It makes for an interesting exchange - what the blog format is supposed to encourage. Check it out.

Advice and Information

I wish to make clear that the postings I have made in the past few days are meant to provide information and respond to what I understood to be questions about choosing a topic for the writing assignments, how to prepare for the exam, how the debates will be conducted, and so forth. Besides the granting of additional time for writing the editorial, the slight change in the tutorial schedule for November, and the setting of the debate resolutions, they do not add anything particularly new in terms of course policy or guidelines. There were questions so I have tried to answer them, reiterating many things I said early in the semester. Much of the advice I have given, quite frankly, are points of common sense that I did not think I would need to make, but I do so to help as much as I can.

If you have any questions or complaints, please take them up with me. I am happy to listen and make myself available.

Question of the Week: Does Hong Kong Need to Develop Politically to Truly Be an International City?

Here's a question I put to Emily Lau (not in exactly the same way): As Hong Kong aims to be an international city, does its political development matter? Why should the SAR's Chief Executive and legislators being directly elected make a difference as Hong Kong develops its role in the world? Is it more important for Hong Kong not to create friction with the mainland by moving on political development at a pace unacceptable to Beijing?

What do you think?

POLI0019 Debates

Mr Wong will discuss and organize the debates in tutorial meetings on 31 October, but we thought we should outline here how they will work.

• There will be two rounds: on 21 November and 28 November.

• On 31 October, Mr Wong will divide each section into four teams of three. (The 10-student section will have two teams of three and two teams of two.) He will assign the resolutions to be debated.
  

• On 21 November, in each section, two teams will debate the first resolution. The order of speakers will alternate between teams. The second and third speakers on either team may choose to rebut points made by earlier speakers, but need not do so. The best speakers will be those that follow a clear and logical line of argument and do not read verbatim from a prepared text but work from notes or off the cuff. After each speaker has taken his turn, the remaining members of the tutorial section will react to what they heard and offer constructive criticism (perhaps in the style of the judges on "American Idol"?). At the end of the tutorial, the judges will vote on which side presented the better arguments. In the case of a tie, the tutor will decide if a winner should be declared or the tie should stand. Whether or not you are on the winning side will have no bearing on your assessment for the debate. What will matter is how well prepared your team is and how well you made your arguments.
  

• On 28 November, the roles will switch and the previous week's judges become the debaters, while the debaters turn into judges. The debating teams will take up a second resolution.
  

POLI0068: Calling for Paper Proposals

If any team or individual is ready to make their paper proposal presentations in our next tutorial on Wednesday, 31 October, please let me know and I will put you on the schedule. All you would need to do is submit your proposal to me before class - ideally the day before - so I can post it. You or your team would have about five minutes to explain your topic. We would then take a few minutes to discuss your plans.

I would like as many students or teams as possible to make their presentations in tutorial on 7 November since I don't plan to have a formal tutorial on 14 November. (Instead, you may join me and Dr Unteroberdoerster of the IMF at an informal lunch after the lecture on that day.) If we can't get through everybody on 7 November, we may have to schedule a special tutorial on 14 November or some other mutually agreed date and time. The last resort would be to finish the presentations in tutorial on 28 November, but I would prefer to have the presentations done sooner than that.

POLI0068 Papers

Lest the IBGM students think I've forgotten them, here is a rundown on your research paper assignment, which is due by the end of business on Friday, 7 December. A hard copy should be deposited at the PPA Department office (Meng Wah, Room 622). Please take note of the late paper and plagiarims policies.

As noted in the syllabus, you are working in teams of two unless you prefer to work on your own. If you are working with a partner, the paper should be between 3,000 and 4,000 words. If you are going solo, then the length should be between 1,500 and 2,000 words.

I have asked for teams or individuals to submit a paper proposal (outline format, 12 pt. font, double spaced, one-inch margins). What I would like to do is post these proposals online with links to the course blog. This will, I hope, allow you to exchange ideas among your colleagues and perhaps gain from other people's insights. The proposal should include (1) a thesis statement (a summary of the central argument of your paper) and (2) a general outline (a plan for how you will organize background information, arguments, refutation of counter-arguments, and conclusions to support your thesis), and (3) a bibliography of at least five sources.

Once you are ready with your proposal, just send it to me by e-mail and I can post it. I will then give you or your team five minutes or so to present your proposal in tutorial.

I realize that we need to get moving on the paper proposal presentations. I should have moved forward on this sooner. If anybody is prepared to make their presentation on Wednesday, 31 October, please let me know and I will schedule it. It would be great if two or three of you could do so. I would like as many of you as possible to give your presentation in tutorial on 7 November. It might be possible to do all or nearly all of them. The remainder will have to do so at a special voluntary tutorial perhaps in the afternoon of 14 November (or some other mutually arranged date and time) or in tutorial on 28 November. I would rather not have anybody wait until 28 November as that will be quite close to the due date. The main reason for the presentations is to allow for some constructive exchange of ideas that will help you with your writing.

What makes a good topic? You should select an issue relating to Hong Kong's role in the world. As with the POLI0019 editorials, the key is not to choose anything that is too broad, though with 3,000-plus words to play with, you have much more space than in an opinion piece. The paper should seek to answer a particular question or set of questions. This is a research paper so it should be organized as such, with a clear thesis, a line of argument, key points made in a systematic way, refutation of counter-arguments, and a conclusion that may suggest topics or ideas for further research. The paper should be properly annotated, i.e. sources should be noted, and include a bibliography. Please note the policy on online sources as described in the syllabus.

As always, please aim to write as best you can with correct grammar and spelling. But I am fully aware that not everybody's English is to native standard.

If you would like to discuss your topic or any other aspect of this assignment with me, please don't hesitate to arrange an appointment.

Global Citizenship and Industrial Relations in Asia

These University events to promote global citizenship may be of interest to you. You might also be interested in this lecture on industrial relations in Asia.