Chapter 452 The Struggle Is Far From Over
At 16:15 on June 30, 1997, Patten lowered the British flag from the guard and lowered the Governor's flag in front of the Government House, rolled it into a bag, and sandwiched it between Under the arm.
The lowering of the Governor's flag means that the Governor of Hong Kong has retired after his service. Traditionally, when the Governor of Hong Kong leaves office, he will circle the carriageway in front of the Government House three times in his car to express his intention to return to the old place in the future. However, Patten's car only circled the road twice before leaving.
According to the scheduled plan, after attending the handover ceremony of Hong Kong's sovereignty in the evening, Patten and his family will accompany British Crown Prince Charles and leave Hong Kong on the royal yacht HMY Britannia.
The Hong Kong government handover ceremony between the Chinese and British governments was held at midnight on June 30. At 23:42, the handover ceremony officially began.
After the Chinese and British honor guards entered the ceremony, trumpeters from both sides blew the trumpets and the leaders entered the venue.
After the guard of honor, Prince Charles spoke. He said this important and special ceremony marked the handover of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China after more than 150 years of British rule. He paid tribute to those who turned the concept of one country, two systems into the Sino-British Joint Declaration, and paid tribute to those who worked hard to negotiate the implementation details of the Joint Declaration.
Charles said Hong Kong shows the world that vitality and stability can be distinctive features of a successful society. He said that Hong Kong will be returned to China from now on. Under the framework of one country, two systems, Hong Kong will continue to have its distinctive characteristics and continue to be an important international partner for many countries in the world. The "Joint Declaration" makes a solemn commitment to the world to ensure that Hong Kong continues its way of life. For her part, the UK will continue to unwaveringly support the Joint Declaration.
Then, the Chinese and British flag bearers entered the scene, and the flag-lowering and flag-raising ceremony, symbolizing the handover of Hong Kong power between the two governments, began. All Chinese and foreign guests attending the ceremony stood up. All eyes were focused on the flagpoles erected on the east and west sides of the rostrum.
The British flag and the Hong Kong flag slowly lowered to the music of the national anthem. With the lowering of the Union Jack, a century and a half of British colonial rule in Hong Kong came to an end.
The zero point was only a few seconds away, and the whole place was solemn.
Zero o'clock on July 1st. Along with the national anthem sounded. The Chinese national flag and the Hong Kong SAR regional flag were slowly raised together.
The whole place was boiling. Many people had tears in their eyes. The thunderous applause lasted for a long time. The cameras and camera lenses kept flashing. Record this solemn historical moment.
Afterwards, Commander No. 1 made a speech saying that after Hong Kong's return to China. The central government is responsible for managing Hong Kong's foreign affairs and defense. The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region enjoys administrative power, legislative power, independent judicial power and final adjudication power in accordance with the Basic Law. Hong Kong residents enjoy various rights and freedoms in accordance with the law.
The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region will gradually develop a democratic system that suits Hong Kong's actual conditions.
Hong Kong will continue to maintain its status as a free port. Continue to play its role as an international financial, trade and shipping center. Continue to develop economic and cultural relations with various countries, regions and relevant international organizations. The legitimate economic interests of all countries and regions in Hong Kong will be protected by law.
He believed it. We have the strong backing of the people of the whole country. The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government and Hong Kong compatriots will surely be able to manage and build Hong Kong well. Maintain Hong Kong's long-term prosperity and stability. Create a better future for Hong Kong.
It's 0:12 in the morning. The handover ceremony of Hong Kong's power comes to an end.
The handover ceremony was attended by representatives from more than 40 countries and regions, heads of 30 international and regional organizations and internationally renowned politicians, representatives of more than a dozen countries’ consular offices in Hong Kong and civil society organizations, regional and international organizations from some countries. Representative of the organization's Hong Kong office.
People from all walks of life in Hong Kong, compatriots in Macao and Taiwan, and ethnic Chinese from more than 30 countries and regions also attended the handover ceremony.
More than 8,000 journalists from more than 700 news media around the world covered this historic scene.
Fan Wubing also noticed that there was an episode that expressed the British's unwillingness and helplessness to leave Hong Kong.
Twenty minutes before the handover ceremony started as agreed in advance, the bands from both sides took turns playing four pieces of music to create an atmosphere for the venue. The first song played by the Chinese side was "Haolihua". Soon after the soothing music started, the tension in the venue began to melt, and the guests began to whisper. Music is a language without borders and plays a wonderful role at this time.
At twenty-three fifty-nine, the British band began to play "God Save the Queen" and the British flag was lowered. Normally, the national anthem takes more than fifty seconds, but as soon as they played Wu Shi, they felt something was wrong. Their tempo was much faster than usual.
As a result, the British player finished playing in just over thirty seconds.
There was a sudden silence at that time. The Chinese side only made preparations to resolutely play on time if the British side delayed. They did not expect that they would play extra.
This is equivalent to leaving more than 20 seconds of blank time for the Chinese military band.
This is the order
For more than twenty seconds, beside Fan Wubing, Shen Ying held his hand tightly and saw that the Prime Minister raised his wrist and looked at his watch carefully, obviously worried about this.
But the conductor of the Chinese military band was not a vegetarian. He completely ignored the blank left by the British. At twenty-three fifty-nine minutes and fifty-eight seconds and a half, he decisively raised his baton.
At 0:00:00, the baton started shooting on time, the "March of the Volunteers" resounded through Victoria Harbor, and the bright five-star red flag and the regional flag of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region rose slowly.
After that, Shen Ying frowned and asked Fan Wubing, "What are the British doing? Is it interesting to do this?"
"We will not be willing to withdraw from the stage of history. This is also a way to express our own inclination." Fan Wubing replied, "But fortunately, our response is also very correct and we are not disturbed by them at all."
Although the British raised the tempo and left more than 20 seconds of blank, they are the only ones who are embarrassed by doing this. They can't even grasp the rhythm. No wonder they left. If the Chinese side did not wait for the time to play the national anthem in advance, there would be a problem. Foreigners will definitely shout in today's newspapers that the Chinese are impatient to wait for the recovery of Hong Kong, and they are going to exercise sovereignty more than 20 seconds in advance. This is an open trampling on the "Joint Declaration" and an infringement on the sovereignty of the United Kingdom.
Although it may not be a big fuss, the verbal lawsuit will definitely be entangled. At least whenever the Hong Kong return ceremony is mentioned, they will put this matter on the table and ridicule it.
What made Fan Wu even more vigilant was that Qin Rushan and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority had given him information indicating that the amount of hot money entering the Hong Kong market was increasing, which could be said to be adding fuel to the fire for the mushroom stock market, which was currently growing slowly.
After attending the Hong Kong handover ceremony, Shen Ying returned to China alone, and Fan Wubing was invited to stay in Hong Kong for a while.
In his sixties, in addition to borrowing a large amount from Fan Wubing, Soros also raised a huge amount of funds and launched a fierce attack on Thai Railways again. The major exchanges were in chaos, the Thai baht plummeted, and traders sold the Thai baht frantically. The Thai government used $30 billion in foreign exchange reserves and $15 billion in international loans to try to turn the tide. But this mere $45 billion in funds was like a drop in the bucket compared to the huge amount of international hot money, and it was of no help.
On July 2, the second day after Hong Kong's return, the Thai government was no longer able to compete with Soros, so it had to announce that it had changed the currency peg system that had been maintained for 13 years and implemented a floating exchange rate system. After hearing this news, the Thai baht plummeted even more.
Soros won the first battle, but he was not satisfied with it. He decided to sweep across Southeast Asia and make another fortune. The Soros hurricane soon swept through Indonesia, the Philippines, Myanmar, Malaysia and other countries. The Indonesian rupiah, Philippine peso, Myanmar kyat and Malaysian ringgit all depreciated sharply, leading to the closure of factories, bankruptcies, rising prices and other horrible scenes. The Soros hurricane that swept Southeast Asia wiped out hundreds of billions of dollars of wealth in one fell swoop, turning decades of economic growth in these countries into ashes.
The Asian financial crisis also quickly spread to Latin America, Eastern Europe and other Asian foreign exchange and securities markets. The foreign exchange and securities markets in Brazil, Poland, Greece, Singapore, Taiwan and other countries and regions were also turbulent, and the value of currencies and securities fell. The governments of these countries had to use the treasury to support their own currencies and securities markets. Many countries have reached the point where they are afraid of "Soros". Soros's attack on the financial market has caused a surge in the debt and trade deficit of many developing countries, which is extremely destructive. Countries have begun to strengthen financial supervision and guard against Soros at all times, which has also made Soros' actions no longer so easy.
After sweeping Southeast Asia, Soros finally moved to Hong Kong.
In mid-July, the Hong Kong dollar was sold off in large quantities by speculative investors. The exchange rate of the Hong Kong dollar was hit and fell all the way to the psychological level of 7.75 Hong Kong dollars per US dollar. The Hong Kong financial market was in chaos, and the front of major banks was crowded with people running for banknotes. The Hong Kong dollar was in a state of emergency for the first time in many years.
Due to the urgent situation, in addition to sending a message for help to the central government, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority also asked Fan Wubing for help, asking him to use the foreign exchange resources at hand to help maintain the stability of the Hong Kong dollar exchange rate.
Because they knew very well that Fan Wubing had a lot of US dollars in his hands, and his investment in Hong Kong stocks alone was as high as tens of billions, not to mention the tens of billions of dollars in funds that had just been withdrawn. With the addition of some other funds, it is estimated that hundreds of billions of dollars can be taken out at any time.
Under the request of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, and with the intervention of the central high-level officials, this matter is naturally unavoidable. Fan Wubing cannot leave Hong Kong in a short time.
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