14
‹ 1840
1842
1860
1898
1951
1980
1997
2010
2047
Hong Kong's border has changed over time.
defined by an artificial cleft, a straight line that cut across the peninsula as Boundary Street. In 1898, the British negotiated a ninety-nine-year, rent-free lease of the New Territories, taking advantage of China’s weakened position after the First Sino-Japanese War, and the border was established along the natural boundary of the Sham Chun River. At this point, the border was porous, allowing fluid exchange between the two countries. Given that Bao’an County was predominantly agricultural and sparsely populated (268,310 people in 1949), 13 there was no pressing need to control the frontier. The situation was radically altered by the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong in 1939, which began a period of militarisation that continued past the end of World War II. The Communist Revolution of 1949, followed by the fledgling state becoming embroiled in the Korean War, cemented Cold War divisions between East and West, between Communism and Capitalism, and as a result the border crossings were shut down. By 1951, layers of fences had been constructed, armed personnel were stationed on both sides, and the British established a second line of defence in the form of the Frontier Closed Area (FCA), essentially a no-man’s land, stretching and thickening the border along its length. This
13 — L. Jiang, ‘Population and Sustainable Development in China: Population and Household Scenarios for Two Regions’ (PhD dissertation, University of Amsterdam, 1999), 60.
period of heightened control was maintained throughout the Mao era, albeit with intensive influxes of migration, particularly at moments of extreme hardship, such as during the Great Leap Forward. Deng Xiaoping’s opening-up policy of 1978 named Shenzhen as one of five Special Economic Zones (SEZ). The SEZs sought to become ‘Windows on the World’ 14 to allow China, closed to outside investment since 1949, to undertake limited and controlled exchange with the outside world and to generate competitive advantages through deregulated enclaves. Shenzhen provided the outlet for outsourced production and assembly industry, with access to land, labour, and financial incentives for industrial growth, whilst Hong Kong injected capital and business acumen, and provided a conduit for foreign investment. This is synonymous with the global trend of economic structuring towards decentralised production networks with key nodal cities providing control services from financial and legal sectors. 15 This development model linked Hong Kong with the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region in a system that thrived off an unending influx of migrant workers to factories in the Mainland and locational flexibility; businesses
14 — Windows on the World also refers to a theme park in Shenzhen, named after Deng Xiaoping’s proclamation.
15 — See Saskia Sassen, The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991.